Wynton Kelly with Paul Chambers [bass] and Philly Joe Jones [drums]

 

Wynton Kelly: 1931-1971 - “A Pure Spirit”

“Wynton’s situation … is worth noting as a startling example of the strange irrelevance of merit to fame in Jazz.”

- Orrin Keepnews, Jazz Producer and Writer

“Nothing about his playing seems calculated .. there was just pure joy shining through his conception.”

Bill Evans, Jazz Pianist

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Amazingly, given his background, Wynton Kelly is an often overlooked figure in modern Jazz circles.

One would think that a pianist who had worked with Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie’s 1950s big band, Dinah Washington, Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery, let alone with his own trio made-up of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, would be more widely known and respected.

But such is not the case for Kelly who is sometimes more acknowledged because he has a first name in common with the phenomenal trumpet player and leader of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – Wynton Marsalis – whose father, Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, named him after Kelly.

The editorial staff thought it might be fun to spend some time developing a JazzProfiles feature about Wynton, Kelly that is, as a way of paying tribute to his memory.

In the liner notes that he wrote for Kelly at Midnight, one of the earliest album’s that Wynton made under his own name [VeeJay VJ-03], Nat Hentoff commented:

“Miles Davis was being asked one afternoon for a verbal analysis of Wynton Kelly's musical worth. Miles character­istically scoffed at using such imprecise tools as words to describe what happens in jazz; but finally he said: ‘Wynton's the light for a cigarette. He lights the fire and he keeps it going. Without him there's no smoking.’

Another judicious tribute came from Cannonball Adderley who had worked with Wynton in the Miles Davis band. ‘He's a fine soloist, who does both the subdued things and the swingers very well. Wynton is also the world's great­est accompanist for a soloist. He plays with the soloist all the time, with the chords you choose. He even anticipates your direction.’

Somewhat earlier, I'd been talking to King Curtis, a Texan now in New York and a specialist in rhythm and blues. ‘Wynton worked with me for a while, and naturally I've heard him with Dinah and with Miles. What struck me was that wherever Wynton worked, he fitted in. He's not limited to one kind of playing. With Dinah, he had the taste and supportive power of a superior accompanist. With me, he had the fire and the straightaway swinging my bands have to have. And with Miles, he can be as subtle as Miles requires.’

As is usually the case, Wynton was being discussed enthusiastically by musicians before there was much atten­tion paid him in the public prints. …”

And in another of Wynton’s VeeJay LP’s, Kelly Great [VeeJay VJ-06], Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, the great alto saxophonist and, as noted previously, Wynton’s bandmate in the Davis group, said this about Kelly:

“When Sid McCoy of VeeJay Records asked Frank Strozier (phenomenal young alto saxophonist) who did he wish to play piano on his VeeJay record date, Frank immediately said Wynton Kelly. So answered Bill Henderson and Paul Chambers. It is next to impossible to evaluate the role played by Wynton Kelly in a band, for he has a ‘take charge’ quality in a rhythm section such as a Phil Rizzuto or Eddie Stanky had on a baseball team.

Many jazz listeners are unaware that such intangible qualities as fire and spirit make the margin between greatness and ‘just good’. Leading jazz musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis (Wynton's current employer), are cognizant of this fact. A short time ago Miles Davis made an album using another pianist, who at that time was a member of his band, but added Wynton for one selection, explaining, ‘Wynton Kelly is the only pianist who could make that tune get off the ground.’

What does Wynton have that is so different?”

Perhaps the difference lies in what Richard Cook and Brian Morton have described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6^th Ed.  as “… his lyrical simplicity or uncomplicated touch… [or] the dynamic bounce to his chording …,” or because, as Cannonball Adderley, asserted: “Wynton combined the strength of pianists Red Garland and Bill Evans, his predecessors with Miles Davis.”

Or maybe this difference lies in the following description of Wynton’s playing by fellow pianist Bill Evans as quoted in Jack Chambers, Milestones:

“When I first him in Dizzy’s big band [in the mid-1950s], his whole thing was so joyful and exuberant, nothing about it seemed calculated. And yet with the clarity of the way he played, you knew that he had put this together in a carefully planned way – but the result was completely without calculation, there was just pure spirit shining through the conception.”

Like Bill, Brian Priestley may have also identified the essence of what made Wynton Kelly so unique as a pianist in the following description of his style in Jazz, The Rough Guide: An Essential Companion to Artists and Albums:

“An important stylist, but largely unrecognized except by fellow pianists, Kelly’s mature style was hinted at in his earliest recordings. He combined boppish lines and blues interpolations with a taut sense of timing quite unlike anyone else except his imitators. The same quality made his equally individual block chording into a particularly dynamic and driving accompanying style that was savored by the many soloists that he backed.”

More about Kelly’s special qualities as a pianist can be found in the following paraphrase from Peter Pettinger’s biography of pianist Bill Evans – How My Heart Sings:

“Evans held Kelly’s bright and sparkling style in high regard since hearing him in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, responding to Wynton’s particular blend of clarity and exuberance. This reaction was typical of Evans’s appreciation of the work of his fellow pianists; from Oscar Peterson to Cecil Taylor, he was full of admiration for their diverse talents and generous in his praise.”

As detailed in Groovin’ High,  Alyn Shipton’s life of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the unique character of Kelly’s piano style may have been the result of combining years of experience in playing in rhythm and blues bands with a fine Jazz sensibility.

Of his work with his own trio, John A. Tynan had this to say in a Down Beat review:

“It is one of the most cohesive and inventive rhythmic groups in small-band Jazz today.”

Musicians commenting about Wynton’s work on their recordings state: “The presence of Kelly may account for the difference …,” “… the album would not have been excellent without Wynton Kelly’s sterling support,” and “… he is disarmingly pleasant to work with, the very model of a mainstream pianist.”

The Jazz writer and critic, Barbara J. Gardiner closed her insert notes to the 1961 VeeJay 2-CD compilation Wynton Kelly! [VeeJazz-011] with the declaration that “You would expect Wynton Kelly to be comprehensive as well as creative. Hasn’t he always been?”

Although she was referring to the material on these CDs “… tried and proven, mixed in with a bit of the fresh …,” this could also serve as an apt way of describing Wynton’s approach to Jazz piano: wide-ranging and inventive.

One is never far away from the Jazz tradition when listening to Wynton Kelly, but what he plays is himself; he has incorporated his influences into his own musical “personality” and recognizably so. Four [4] bars and you know its him.

Wynton is not a pianist who overwhelms the listener with startling technique or originality of conception.

But what he does offer is playing that is full of joy, funk and a feeling for time that fills the heart with happiness, sets the feet tapping and get the fingers popping the beat.

Wynton Kelly is the pianistic personification of swing, or if you prefer: “smokin’,” “cookin’” or “boppin’.” 

When Wynton plays Jazz piano, you feel it.

Nothing cerebral here in any deep or complicated sense, just – “Clap hands, here comes, Wynton.”

Hear it for yourself in the following tribute to Wynton that features him along with Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones. The tune is Rudolph Stevenson’s On Stage” from Kelly at Midnight [VeeJay-03] and it displays vintage performances by all three members of one of the greatest rhythm sections in modern Jazz history.

Moonglow/Theme from the move Picnic

Morris Stoloff was a musical composer who worked as a musical director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962. He ranks among some of the most-nominated individuals in the history of the Academy Awards. He won 3 Oscars for best scores, for Cover Girl, The Jolson Story, and Song Without End, and was nominated 14 other times. Stoloff was one of the first to combine music from a motion picture and release as a soundtrack album. These songs were featured in the movie Picnic starring William Holden and Kim Novak. Moonglow has long been a favorite of jazz musicians, many of whom have rendered classic interpretations. This selection spent several weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts in 1956 and was also #9 for that year.

Jim Hall and Charlie Haden "Turnaround" by Ornette Coleman

 

Clare, Gary and Warne

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Gary Foster, the distinguished alto saxophonist, flutist and all-round good guy, sent along this photo of he and tenor saxophonist, Warne Marsh.

As usual, the point of his generosity was not to emphasize himself, but rather, to add to my collection of photographs of drummer Larry Bunker, whom you can see behind Gary and Warne, along with bassist, Chuck Domanico.

The photograph was taken in November, 1968 at the Pilgrimage Theater, located in the Hollywood Hills, during a performance by the all too short-lived big band led by pianist-keyboardist and composer-arranger, Clare Fischer.

Clare, Gary and Warne are all adept interpreters of a style of Jazz closely associated with the late pianist, Lennie Tristano [1919-1978]. Lennie favored an approach to Jazz that emphasized long, flowing and linear improvisations with a very harmonic orientation.

Lennie was always looking for ways to improvise Jazz that expressed emotion more directly and were not hung up in skill.

In his hands, tunes such as All of Me, Out of Nowhere and What is This Things Called Love were just points-of-departure; vehicles for developing and expressing what the late, esteemed Jazz author Barry Ulanov once termed “ harmonic-motivic propulsion.”

There’s much, much more to be said about Lennie’s approach to Jazz and one has to be careful about oversimplifications regarding such a complex subject.

For the purposes of this blog feature, what can be said with some degree of certainty is that Warne Marsh had a long association with Lennie and made recordings with Tristano in the 1950s on which his tenor sax playing is featured along with Lee Konitz, the legendary alto saxophonist.

Lennie’s approach to Jazz was often dismissed in some critical circles for being too cerebral, too cool [read “cold”] and lacking in emotional intensity.

To my ears, I have always thought that Warne found kindred Tristano-school spirits in Gary Foster and Clare Fischer when he moved to Hollywood from New York.

Not surprisingly, then, given their mutual orientation, Clare, Gary and Warne became friends, made a number of recordings together, and performed as a group in local Jazz clubs such as Donte's in North Hollywood and the Ice House in Pasadena, CA.

Other Los Angeles based musicians including pianist Alan Broadbent and tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb also joined in on the fun of creating Jazz that in many ways served as a tribute to Lennie’s legacy.

For about three years at the close of the 1960’s, Clare translated Lennie’s approach into a roaring big band that featured some of the monster musicians who frequented the West Coast Jazz scene and Los Angeles recordings studios at that time.

The following video features Clare’s big band arrangement of Tristano’s Lennie’s Pennies. The tune is based on “Pennies From Heaven” but altered to be in minor. Be sure and checkout what a formidable big band rhythm section Bunker and Domanico form on this track.

Stan Levey's Sextet - Featuring Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Dexter Gordon, Lou Levy and Leroy Vinnegar.

 

"Checkmate" - John T. Williams and The Shelly Manne Quintet

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“.. what Shelly has done here is to take each piece out of its original setting and put it into a setting all his own. Herein lies, I think, the most remarkable aspect of this album. Shelly has given each piece a mood and a quality quite different from al! the rest and while doing so has retained what was my original thought concerning each piece. This is an exceptional accomplishment, particularly for a jazz group of this size, and a practice which should, I think, be a more important part of contemporary jazz. The variety of colors and moods that Shelly and the group have achieved here is truly amazing.”

- John T. Williams, composer, arranger, piano player

According to Lalo Schifrin (Dirty Harry, Bullitt), jazz was a natural fit for these hard-hitting screen stories. “Filmmaking is not an individual art form,” he said. “It’s a collective, almost like a jazz jam session. It’s a gestalt. The director is the brain; the cameraman in the eyes; the film editor is the DNA; the producer is the lungs; and the composer is the ears.”

With the advent of Hank Mancini’s score for the Peter Gunn television series in 1958, Jazz went from total obscurity to almost becoming commonplace in such settings.

It was almost derigeur. Have cop or private eye show - M-Squad, Johnny Staccato, Mike Hammer, Richard Diamond - equals Jazz score.

At about the same time, Crime Jazz music was also increasingly finding its way into the movies with Anatomy of a Murder, Shadows, Odds Against Tomorrow, and Bullitt, among many others, all sporting Jazz themes and scores

Crime jazz captured the mood not only of our post-war cities, but of a character as distinctly American as the cowboy – that soulful, solitary seeker of justice, the private eye.

Checkmate was an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue Studios. Guest stars included Charles Laughton, Peter Lorre, Lee Marvin, Mickey Rooney and many other prominent performers.

The series chronicled the adventures of a private detective agency set in San Francisco. Created by Eric Ambler, the program involves the cases of the detective agency called Checkmate, Inc. Don Corey and Jed Sills run the agency, which specializes in preventing crimes before they happen, from Corey's stylish apartment, supposedly at 3330 Union St. Sebastian Cabot portrays a Ph.D. college professor whom they employ as an adviser.

But for my ears, what made the series particularly enjoyable was the Jazz score written by an up-and-coming Jazz pianist - John Williams.

Long before he composed the music for Jaws, the Star Wars series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and dozens of other major motion pictures. John Towner Williams was Johnny Williams, jazz pianist. He began writing for films and television in the early 1950s and in much of his earlier work, the jazz influence was still strong. Shelly Manne worked with Williams on Hollywood sound stages and was taken with his music for the TV series Checkmate.

Manne adapted seven of Williams's themes from the show for his band. Shelly Manne & His Men. Because Williams was tuned in to trends in jazz, some of the pieces reflected modal approaches recently taken by forward thinkers like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. "The King Swings," as an example, is nearly identical in form to Coltrane's "Impressions." Accordingly, Manne and his quintet, one of the best small groups of the 1960s, plumb Williams's unusual television music for all of its considerable improvisational possibilities.

Here’s more about Shelly Manne and His Men Play Checkmate [Contemporary S-7599; OJCCD 1083-2] from Lester Koenig, who produced the recording and composer John Williams.

A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER:

“Checkmate is one of the most successful TV shows of the current season [1961 on CBS].  The three heroes of Checkmate—Sebastian Cabot, Doug McClure, and Anthony George — aim to stop crime before it happens, accompanied by the exposed thrills, chills, and danger — and by Johnny Williams's excellent score which strikes precisely the right balance between mayhem and music.'

Shelly Manne, a friend and associate of Williams, held the percussion chair in the studio orchestra which recorded the Checkmate score. He realized that most of Williams's themes would lend themselves admirably to a jazz treatment by his own group. "What attracted me to the music," says Shelly, "was the mood the pieces create—you might call it a 'modal' mood. This is particularly true of The Isolated Pawn,' The King Swings,' 'En Passant.' By modal I mean there aren't a lot of changes and because of it you can create more exciting rhythmic interest. With only a few changes as in 'Milestones' or Coltrane's 'My Favorite Things,' the rhythm can create tension and mounting excitement through use of ostinato effects [a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm]. Oddly enough, the 'monotony' is what helps create the intensity!"

Shelly also likes Williams's melodic lines. "They are good jazz lines. He didn't conceive of Checkmate as a jazz score, but because Johnny is also a jazz musician, he knows how to write lines which lay just right for jazz blowing."

In the months before this recording, Manne & His Men played the Checkmate music for receptive audiences at the Manne-Hole, Shelly's jazz club in Hollywood. In this way the seven themes took their places on an equal footing with the standards, jazz originals, and jazz classics which comprise the group's extended repertoire.

The characteristic element which distinguishes these performances from Williams's own first-rate big band version of the score album is the extended improvisation by the soloists. The quality of improvisation is an elusive thing. It is primarily a personal and emotional expression. To play well, a musician has to believe in what he is doing. In the case of Checkmate, Manne and his colleagues had become thoroughly enthusiastic about the Williams music, and looked forward to the recording session with much more than ordinary anticipation.”

—LESTER KOENIG December 13, 1961

A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER:

“Probably the greatest satisfaction a composer can get is when an artist decides to play and record his work, particularly when the artist is of the caliber of Shelly Manne with his present group. The pieces contained in this album were selected by Shelly from a larger group of things that I had written for the TV show, Checkmate. Each was written for a different segment of the show and was associated with the particular personality for whom it was written. I hold the conviction, not by any means alone, that it is a composer's job not only to create the melodic and harmonic details of his music but also the timbre, that is, the final sound or color.

My gratitude to Shelly, therefore, may seem contradictory, for what Shelly has done here is to take each piece out of its original setting and put it into a setting all his own. Herein lies, I think, the most remarkable aspect of this album. Shelly has given each piece a mood and a quality quite different from al! the rest and while doing so has retained what was my original thought concerning each piece. This is an exceptional accomplishment, particularly for a jazz group of this size, and a practice which should, I think, be a more important part of contemporary jazz. The variety of colors and moods that Shelly and the group have achieved here is truly amazing.

In addition to acknowledging wonderful performances by each member of the group, I think special attention should be called to the invaluable contribution made here by Russ Freeman. Russ is truly one of the most important pianists in jazz today. He has a perception and sensitivity unequaled by all but a very few.

My sincere thanks to Shelly and Contemporary Records for this presentation of the music from Checkmate.

—JOHNNY WILLIAMS December 14, 1961

Johnny Williams, a talented pianist, as well as composer and orchestrator, was exposed lo both jazz and classical music from his childhood. His father was a well-known drummer of the Swing Era [featured with Raymond Scott’s sextet] and Johnny, who was born in Flushing. New York in 1932. started studying piano at the age of eight. He came to California with his family in 1948 and at North Hollywood High School led his first band with vocalist Barbara Ruick. a fellow student. later to become Mrs. Williams. Since 1955 Williams has been actively al work in Hollywood, composing and conducting for TV [M-Squad, Wagon Train, etc.] and writing backgrounds for many singers. He is also active as a pianist with jazz albums of his own.

Jon De Lucia - The Brubeck Octet Project Strikes Again

For those Jazz fans with ready access to NYC

Our octet album release show is this Sunday at Birdland Jazz Club. One set at 5:30pm.

I hope you can join us! We’ll be performing the never recorded music of the original Dave Brubeck Octet, and the band is amazing:

Brandon Lee

Danny Fox

Daniel LaCour Duke

Becca Patterson

Andrew Hadro

Keith Balla

and the great Scott Robinson!

We’ll also release our first single to streaming services that day.

See you there!

Cover illustration by the great Arnold Roth. Design by Rocket Fuel Art & Design