BLP 5025

Wynton Kelly - New Faces - New Sounds

Released - 1953

Recording and Session Information

WOR Studios, NYC, July 25, 1951
Wynton Kelly, piano; Oscar Pettiford, bass #1,4; Franklin Skeete, bass #2,3; Lee Abrams, drums.

BN399-1 Blue Moon
BN401-0 I've Found A New Baby
BN402-1 Cherokee
BN403-1 Born To Be Blue

WOR Studios, NYC, August 1, 1951
Wynton Kelly, piano #1,2,4, celeste #3; Franklin Skeete, bass; Lee Abrams, conga drums.

BN408-1 Goodbye
BN410-0 There Will Never Be Another You
BN413-0 Moonlight In Vermont
BN414-1 Crazy, He Calls Me

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Cherokee	Ray Noble	July 25 1951
Crazy, He Calls Me	Sigman-Russell	August 1 1951
Blue Moon	Rodgers-Hart	July 25 1951
Born To Be Blue	Torme-Wells	July 25 1951
Side Two
Moonlight In Vermont	Suessdorf-Blackburn	August 1 1951
There'll Never Be Another You	Gordon-Warren	August 1 1951
I've Found A New Baby	Palmer-Williams	July 25 1951
Good-Bye	Gordon Jenkins	August 1 1951

Liner Notes

Notes by LEONARD FEATHER
(Associate Editor, Down Beat)

THE pianist presented on these sides is one of the youngest and brightest luminaries in the new jazz constellation. Wynton Kelly was barely 21 years old when, while enjoying his greatest jazz recognition as a member of the Dizzy Gillespie combo, he was inducted into the Army in the summer of 1952, thus interrupting a career that will undoubtedly be resumed in high gear upon his return to civilian life.

Kelly. who was brought to the United States from his native Jamaica at the age of four, was playing professionally when he. was only eleven, using a stack of telephone books to give him an elevation proportionate to his inspiration. He was only 15 when he went on a Caribbean tour with Ray Abrams' octet. In the next few years he worked mostly in the rhythm and blues field, with Hal "Cornbread" Singer, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and for three years as accompanist to Dinah Washington. His move into the jazz realm started with Lester Young and continued with Dizzy. Whenever he was in town, even after a tough Saturday night in a jazz bistro. he would show up promptly at the Abyssinian Church in Brooklyn to play organ for the Sunday mass. He prefers to preserve his jazz work for the piano, leaving classical and religious music to the organ.

Wynton has spent most of his young life around the Fulton Street section in Brooklyn. As his performances in this LP indicate, he has devoted considerable time to an intelligent study of his favorite pianists — Art Tatum. Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk.

The eight selections heard here demonstrate not only his remarkable solo talent but also his ability to select unusual tunes for piano interpretation, as a result of along with some more familiar standards. he has selected such tunes as Crazy He Calls Ille, best known as a Billie Holidav vocal; Born To Be Blue, that fine example of Mel Torme's composing talent; Moonlight In Vermont, more familiar as a trumpet or vocal number. and Goodbye, the lovely Gordon Jenkins tune, best known as Benny Goodrnan s perennial theme.

Helping to propel the fine rhythmic beat on these sides are Lee Abrams on drums and Franklin Skeete on bass. Oscar Pettiford replaces Skeete on Blue Moon and Born To Be Blue, taking a fine solo on the latter.

Here is a set of modern jazz performances by an artist who had already established a style and personality still in his teens. and undoubtedly consolidate his reputation when he rejoins the jazz scene.

Cover Design by GIL MELLÉ

1991 CD Reissue Liner Notes

Born in Jamaica on December 2, 1931 , W9nton Kelly grew up in Brooklyn, New York, a fertile breeding ground for many of the major modern musicians in jazz, especially pianists. At age 15, he returned to his Carribean roots, touring there with saxophonist Ray Abrams' octet. Gigs with Hal Singer and Eddie Lockjaw Davis followed. His first major break came with the opportunity to record for Blue Note records, the complete results of which are finally gathered together on this album.

At this time, Wynton was working as accompanist with the great Dinah Washington. This was a position later held by a number of fine Blue Note pianists including Sonny Clark, Kenny Drew and Andrew Hill. But Kelly made his greatest mark in 1952, when he joined Dizzy Gillespie's band. Interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Army, he rejoined Gillespie upon discharge and stayed with him until 1957.

Eight tunes from these sessions were issued in 1952 on four 78's. In September, 1953, Blue Note put 5 of those tunes and 3 previously unissued titles on a 10-inch album Blue Note 5025. In the early seventies, Toshiba EMI issued an album of Sonny Clark and Kelly material (LNJ 70079) which included several titles that had been only on 78 or previously unissued.

This album brings ail of that material together with new disc transfers that improve the sound quality greatly and completes the sessions by including the previously unissued Opus Caprice and Foolin' Myself. Although Foolin' Myself is listed on LNJ-70079, that track was actually an alternate take of Born To Be Blue.

During the late fifties and early sixties, Wynton Kelly recorded a few albums of his own and appeared on a variety of dates led by John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Steve Lacy, Johnny Griffin and many others. In 1959, he joined the Miles Davis band. With Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, a near-perfect rhythm section was born. They stayed with Miles until early 1963. During that stint, in 1960 and 1961, Kelly and Chambers were the rhythm team for four magnificent Hank Mobley dates (Soul Station, Roll Call/ Workout and an unissued album).

Of those masterpieces, Mobley was recently quoted as saying, "Wynton was the sort of person that a lot of people took a little bit for granted until they worked with him. Like I had heard him before I did that first record date with him (Peckin' Time BLP 1574 in 1958), but after that for about the next five record dates I did (actually the four mentioned above), he was the piano player. He had to be the piano player, because he understood every direction that I was coming from and was right there all the time. You know, he could play 365 days a year and always sound the same way — I mean no matter if it's raining outside or a thunderstorm, he'd still have a certain happiness, that touch, that swing. And his touch — so full and heavy. I mean he could play one of those funny old beat-ups pianos and it sounds like a grand the way that note comes out; you hear it ring as if he's playing a horn or something.'

Kelly was certainly taken for granted by all except those who actually played with him. And their enthusiasm is endless. After the Mobley recording and the tenure with Miles Davis, Kelly formed his own trio with Chambers and Cobb, sometimes touring as a quartet with Wes Montgomery.

Throughout his career, he quietly but significantly influenced many major pianists, including Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock. His style was best described in an interview that Orrin Keepnews conducted with Bill Evans. Evans said, "My impression from listening to Wynton was always that he was a schooled pianist, which I gathered later is not altogether true — but his approach was so strong and pure, so clear and so organized. This was more a reflection of how his mind worked than any actual conservatory experience or anything like that. Wynton's playing was in every way thoughtful, and yet everything came out so natural. When I heard him with Dizzy's big band, his whole thing was so joyful and exuberant; nothing about it seemed calculated. And yet, with the clarity of the way he played, you know that he had to put this together in a very carefully planned way — but the result was completely without calculation. There was just the pure spirit shining through his conception."

Wynton Kelly's place in jazz history will be insured, not by the critics and historians, but by his creative peers. This album, complete in content and improved in sound, is the first documentation of his growing artistry.

- MICHAEL CUSCUNA