Jazz Articles about Wynton Kelly

About Wynton Kelly

Album Review

Miles Davis Quintet: Live Europe 1960 Revisited

Read "Live Europe 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 5, 2022

A high proportion of the studio albums recorded by Miles Davis from the mid 1950s until Bitches Brew (Columbia) in 1970 are landmark ones, so frequent and so momentous were the occasions on which Davis adjusted his direction. With a few exceptions, notably My Funny Valentine (Columbia, 1964), this is less true of the live albums until the early 1970s, when Davis' live performances increasingly anticipated changes later heard on studio recordings, especially as regards his choices of repertoire.

Album Review

John Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions

Read "Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 4, 2020

A date for your diary... 18 September 2020. That is when Atlantic / Rhino releases two cracking new editions of John Coltrane's first landmark album, Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). The main event is enhanced audio quality, which has noticeably more presence than any previous reissue. The double CD and vinyl Remastered Edition and digital-only Super Deluxe Edition consist of material which has been newly remastered by John Webber at Air Studios in London. The Remastered Edition includes ...

Reassessing

Piano

by C. Michael Bailey
May 23, 2020

Following his debut as a leader on, Wynton Kelly: New Faces -New Sounds (Blue Note, 1951), pianist Kelly surfaced again some seven years later, this time on Riverside Records, with the simply titled Piano. The length of time between leader recordings is a testament to the pianist's value in a supporting role for artists like Dinah Washington (with whom he recorded almost exclusively between 1952 and 1955) Lester Young, and Dizzy Gillespie. During this same period Kelly contributed to several ...

Reassessing

New Faces - New Sounds

by C. Michael Bailey
May 8, 2020

The jazz name Wynton Kelly is typically associated with other artists' endeavors, such as John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1959), Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) or Wes Montgomery's Smokin' at the Half Note (Verve, 1965), just to mention three landmark recordings. While he always seemed best cast in supporting roles, Kelly did have a highly respectable solo career, and while it was neither as productive, nor considered as critically important as his sideman roles, it is still worthy ...

Album Review

Hank Mobley: Soul Station

Read "Soul Station" reviewed by Greg Simmons

by Greg Simmons
March 16, 2020

Music Matters continues to release exceptionally high quality, all analog reissues of classic Blue Note Records' albums from the golden mid-century age of small-combo jazz. They've recently upped their game with the introduction of a higher-quality raw material formulation they call SRX Vinyl. Hank Mobley was Blue Note Records' most prolific artist, with over thirty albums released under his own name, countless sessions as a sideman, and—according to his own telling in a rare interview shortly before he ...

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Album Review

Wynton Kelly Trio with Wes Montgomery: Smokin' at the Half Note

Read "Smokin' at the Half Note" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell
June 19, 2005

This remastered, expanded edition of the classic 1965 Wes Montgomery-Wynton Kelly Trio session is essentially an economy-priced version of the import The Complete Live at the Half Note. If you have the original Smokin' at the Half Note and are not a Wes completist intent on picking up the six extra tunes (expendable, with the exception of “Impressions"), the audio quality of this version is not sufficiently superior, in my opinion, to justify purchase. Still, it's reassuring to see that ...

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Album Review

Phil Upchurch: Feeling Blue

Read "Feeling Blue" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
June 7, 2004

In 1967 many aspiring musicians picked up the guitar as their instrument of choice, but most were interested in becoming the next Bob Dylan rather than the next Wes Montgomery. It’s understandable, then, that Phil Upchurch’s debut as a leader got lost in the shuffle. At this point he had worked as a sideman with some of the best artists in the rhythm and blues field, like Otis Rush and B.B. King, and would later follow the fusion movement with ...