By Joel Simpson
Who was Wynton Kelly?
A fundamentally unobtrusive pianist who liked above all to swing,
Wynton Kelly nevertheless became many people's ideal pianist during the
60s. A solid mainstream player grounded in the blues, he could make
anything he played bounce. New Orleans pianist Ellis Marsalis learned so
much from him he named his second son after him. Kelly replaced Bill Evans
with Miles Davis in 1959, which gave his international reputation a boost.
An exceptional accompanist, he made a number of fine trio albums in the 50s
and 60s, and died prematurely at age 39 in 1971.
Life
Wynton Kelly was born in Jamaica of West Indian parents on December
2, 1931. When he was four years old his family moved to Brooklyn, and Kelly
began playing piano that year. He went to the Music and Art High School and
also to Metropolitan Vocational High. He didn't have access to a piano
there, so he took up the bass and studied theory. By the time he was a
teenager he was playing in rhythm and blues bands. One of the first famous
players he played with was Orin "Hot Lips" Page, who encouraged many young
talents. After that he worked with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis for about a year.
During most of the 50s he worked alternatively with singer Dinah Washington
and Dizzy Gillespie.
Then in 1959 Miles Davis discovered him. Bill Evans had just left
the group to form his own, and Miles was looking around for another piano
player. Miles had this to say in his Autobiography about Kelly:
I loved the Wynton played, because he was a combination of Red
Garland and Bill Evans; he could play almost anything. Plus, he could play
behind a soloist like a motherfucker, man. Cannonball and Trane loved him,
and so did I (233).
Kelly played on the very famous Kind of Blue album, along with
Bill Evans, who had agreed to play on it as well. Miles wanted it to have a
modal sound to it as well as gospel flavorings, and Kelly was up to both.
Kelly stayed with Miles until 1963, when he was replaced by Herbie
Hancock. After four years with Miles he needed to get out on his own, to
play something besides Miles's tunes. He left Davis's group along with
bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb to form his own trio, which he
recorded with. It became one of the classic rhythm sections of the 60s,
hired by such players at that time as Art Pepper, Cecil Payne and Clark
Terry.
Kelly died in Toronto April 12, 1971.
Style
Gene Lees summed up his style:
If the Kelly style is not an obtrusive one-not a style that one
hears once and ever afterwards recognizes-it has its curious
distinctiveness. There is in it a highly personal ease and lightness, and
infectious, casually bouncing quality to which one rapidly becomes
attached.
"He never," J. J. Johnson said, "lets his technical facility, which
he has plenty of, dominate. The swing is the thing with Wynton" (Lees, 16).
Bibliography
- Carles, Philippe, Andre Clergeat and Jean-Louis Comolli. Dictionnaire du
jazz. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1988. "Wynton Kelly" by Francois Billard and
Jean-Yves Le Bec, 562-63
- Cook, Richard and Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on LP, CD &
Cassette. New York: Penguin, 1992.
- Davis, Miles and Quincy Troupe. "Miles: The Autobiography." New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1989.
- Kernfield, Barry. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1994. "Wynton Kelly" by Bill Dobbins, 647.
- Lees, Gene. "Focus On: Wynton Kelly: a Sideman First." Down Beat, Jan. 3,
1963, 16.
