Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly worked again with Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.
Kelly attracted the most attention as part of Miles Davis' band from 1959, including an appearance on the trumpeter's Kind of Blue, often mentioned as the best-selling jazz album ever. After leaving Davis in 1963, Kelly played with his own trio, which recorded for several labels and toured the United States and internationally. His career did not develop much further, and he had difficulty finding enough work late in his career. Kelly, who was known to have epilepsy, died in a hotel room in Canada following a seizure, aged 39.
Early life The son of Jamaican immigrants, Kelly was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2, 1931.Pauley, Jared "Kelly, Wynton" . jazz.com Retrieved December 28, 2013.West, Hollie I. (April 14, 1971), "Wynton Kelly, 39, Modern Jazz Pianist", The Washington Post. He began playing the piano at the age of four,Lees, Gene (January 1963) "Focus on Wynton Kelly: A Sideman First". Down Beat. p. 16. but did not receive much formal training in music.Mueller, Michael (September 2013), "Keyboard School: Woodshed: Solo". Down Beat, p. 80. He attended the High School of Music & Art and the Metropolitan Vocational High School in New York, but "[t]hey wouldn't give us piano, so I fooled around with the bass and studied theory."
Kelly started his professional career in 1943, initially as a member of R&B groups. Through this, he improved his playing – the bands' "music had to be accessible, entertaining and easy to dance to"; this influenced his later playing. Around this time he also played organ in local churches.New York Amsterdam News (July 28, 1945), "St. Agnes Guild Will Present United Nations Pageant Here". In his local area, he played with brothers Lee and Ray Abrams, as well as Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Ernie Henry, and Cecil Payne, who went on to have careers in jazz.
Main career
1946–1958 At the age of 15, Kelly toured the Caribbean as part of Ray Abrams' R&B band.Dobbins, Bill; Kernfeld, Barry, "Kelly, Wynton". In Kernfeld, Barry (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd edition). Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 1, 2013. (Subscription required.) Kelly made his recording debut aged 16, playing on saxophonist Hal Singer's 1948 "Cornbread",Dobbin, Len (November 22, 1984), "Load up on Jazz Classics for Music Lovers on List". The Montreal Gazette, p. D13. which became a Billboard R&B chart-topping hit."Top Rhythm & Blues Records". angelfire.com Retrieved January 4, 2013. In the following year, Kelly recorded with vocalist Babs Gonzales;Pepper, Art; Pepper, Laurie (2001), Straight Life. Canongate. . these tracks included his first recorded solos.Green, Benny (May 24, 1964), "Towards Modernism". The Observer, p. 22. Other R&B bands that Kelly played with included those led by Hot Lips Page (1948 or earlier), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (1949), and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (1950).Visser, Joop Wynton Kelly: First Sessions [CD booklet]. Proper Records. Material from sessions on July 25 and August 1, 1951, formed Piano Interpretations, a trio album that was Kelly's recording debut as leader, released by Blue Note Records later that year.Yanow, Scott, "Wynton Kelly: Piano Interpretations". AllMusic. Retrieved December 28, 2013. Critic Scott Yanow indicates that, at this stage of his career, Kelly's main influence was Bud Powell, but that his playing "displayed some of the joy of Teddy Wilson's style along with his own chord voicings".Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2002) All Music Guide to Jazz. p. 704. Backbeat Books. . Kelly became better known after joining vocalist Dinah Washington's band in 1951. After this, he played in bands led by Lester Young in the spring of 1952, and Dizzy Gillespie, recording with the latter later in 1952. In September of that year, just as Kelly was beginning to build a reputation, he was drafted into the army.Gardner, Mark (June 1971), "Wynton Kelly". Coda. Volume 10, p. 37.
After a period at Fort McClellan in Alabama, Kelly was part of a Third Army traveling show. He recruited fellow draftee and future jazz pianist Duke Pearson into the show; together they were able to convince their unit to involve more black musicians, as they were initially the only two out of around two dozen performers. By April 1954, Kelly was "Private First Class Wynton Kelly", musical director of the show."'Caravan' Program Coming to Campbell". (April 17, 1954) Kentucky New Era. He ended his military service with a music performance for an audience of 10,000 in the Chastain Memorial Park Amphitheater in Atlanta.New York Amsterdam News (September 11, 1954), "Jazz Pianist Wynton Kelly Discharged by the Army", p. 20.
Kelly was released from the military after two years, following which he worked on and off with Washington and Gillespie again. Kelly was also part of Charles Mingus' group for a tour of Washington, D.C., California, and Vancouver in late 1956 to early 1957.Priestley, Brian (1982), Mingus: A Critical Biography. pp. 72–77. Quartet Books. . He left Mingus to rejoin Gillespie, who led a big band that toured Canada and the southern United States.Gillespie, Dizzy (2009) To Be, Or Not... to Bop. pp. 434–435. University of Minnesota Press. . Commenting on Kelly's ability to move from a small group to a big band setting, saxophonist Benny Golson, also from Gillespie's band, said: "He kept his identity; yet he was able to add something to the band, not only melodically (which he was known for) but rhythmically. He would set up patterns – never interfering with the arrangement, but he was able to get into the cracks and he would always be adding something, giving it impetus, more energy." In 1956, Kelly recorded with vocalist Billie Holiday, including for the original version of her song "Lady Sings the Blues",Bratcher, Melanie E. (2007), Words and Songs of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone, p. 118. Routledge. . as well as for the Blue Note debuts of saxophonists Johnny GriffinNastos, Michael G. "Johnny Griffin: Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved January 5, 2014. and Sonny Rollins.Cook, Stephen, "Sonny Rollins: Sonny Rollins, Vol. 1: Review". AllMusic. Retrieved January 5, 2014. After leaving Gillespie again, Kelly formed his own trio.
Kelly was much in demand as a sideman for recordings and appeared on albums by most of the major jazz leaders in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In April 1957, for instance, he appeared as a guest in an enlarged version of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for an album later released as Theory of Art;Gourse, Leslie (2002), Art Blakey: Jazz Messenger. pp. 64–65. Music Sales Group. . this band included trumpeter Lee Morgan, with whom Kelly had recorded a few weeks earlier. The recording sessions continued four days later, with Kelly joining Blakey, Morgan and others on Griffin's A Blowin' Session; this was followed by three studio days for Gillespie, and another for trumpeter Clark Terry, before the end of the month."Wynton Kelly Discography". jazzdisco.org. Retrieved January 5, 2014. Later that year, Kelly made a rare appearance playing bass, for one track of vocalist Abbey Lincoln's That's Him!, after the regular bassist, Paul Chambers, became drunk and fell asleep in the studio.Enstice, Wayne; Stockhouse, Janis (2004), Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians, p. 203. Indiana University Press. .Yanow, Scott, "Abbey Lincoln: That's Him: Review". AllMusic. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
Early in 1958, Kelly recorded his second album as a leader, the quartet Piano, more than six years after his first. In the same year, he played for recordings led by, among others, vocalist Betty Carter, and made the first of several appearances on albums led by Cannonball Adderley, Blue Mitchell (beginning with Big 6 in 1958), and Hank Mobley. Kelly also played organ on one track of Pepper Adams and Jimmy Knepper's The Pepper-Knepper Quintet, an unusual departure from his usual instrument.Yanow, Scott, "Pepper Adams / Jimmy Knepper: The Pepper-Knepper Quintet: Review". AllMusic. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
1959–1971 In January 1959, Kelly joined the musician with whom he became most associated – Miles Davis.Yanow, Scott, "Wynton Kelly: Artist Biography. AllMusic. Retrieved December 28, 2013. Adderley, the alto saxophonist in the band, related how Kelly came to replace Red Garland on piano: Davis had admired Kelly's playing as part of Gillespie's band, and Garland was invariably late to arrive for their club performances: "One night, Wynton was there when we started and Miles asked him to sit in. When Red came, Wynton was playing. Miles told Red, 'Wynton's got the gig.' Just like that." Kelly stayed with the trumpeter until March 1963, appearing on the studio albums Kind of Blue and Someday My Prince Will Come, as well as on numerous concert recordings. On Kind of Blue (1959), often mentioned as the best-selling jazz album ever,Light, Alan (January 27, 2010), "All-Time 100 Albums: Kind of Blue". Time.Kurtz, Alan, "The Dozens: The Golden Anniversary of Porgy and Bess" . jazz.com Retrieved January 5, 2014. Kelly played on the track "Freddie Freeloader". Even though Kelly was Davis' regular pianist at the time, the trumpeter had planned the album with Bill Evans in mind, so this is the only piece on which Kelly appears. Kelly toured 22 cities in Europe as part of Davis' quintet in the spring of 1960.Myers, Marc (January 8, 2009), "Interview: Jimmy Cobb (Part 4)" . JazzWax. Retrieved January 1, 2014.Hershorn, Tad (2011), Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice, p. 288. University of California Press. . Fellow pianist McCoy Tyner commented on Kelly's playing with Davis: "His harmonic colorations were very beautiful. But I think above all it was his ability to swing. John [Coltrane] used to mention that. Miles used to get off the bandstand and just look at Wynton with admiration, because he really held the group together."