Wynton Kelly

Abby Lincoln singing When a Woman Loves a Man.

That's him with Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly piano, Paul Chambers bass, and Max Roach on drums.

Of course, many of you may think of Billie Holiday with the song, but that was, uh, Abby Lincoln with her version of When a Woman Loves a Man.

Novelty song that J- uh, Johnny Mercer wrote in the '30s that Helen Ward made big with Benny Goodman.

And we gave you a tune from the classic 1960 album, Giant Steps.

John Coltrane on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly piano, Paul Chambers bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums.

And John Coltrane, one of the greatest tenor sax of men in the history of jazz.

I think he was the best.

All of that stuff comes together, and you do that with a whole bunch of musicians.

So for example, I, I have stacks of transcriptions of Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, uh, Wynton Kelly, um, uh, and, and others that, that I learned, and I learned how to play those and sound as close as I could to those players.

So that's how you build your craft, right? Um, in classical music, you do a similar thing.

You study the, the music of other composers, and you try to write in that style.

It was that stuff, so.

Then I heard Wes with Wynton Kelly, and I was like, "That's serious piano playing." Just the feeling of the music, the drums, the bass.

The whole thing was just like, "What is going on here? What is this? How is this music put together?" You know.

Who would you say New York City at that time, was there anyone who, like, took you under, under their wing?

Speaking of Wes Montgomery, this is from an album called Smokin' at the Half Note, a classic album.

with the Wynton Kelly Trio and West Montgomery.

It was recorded back in 1965.

We're going to hear another John Coltrane classic.

This is Impressions, and it features West Montgomery on guitar, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

That's Miles Davis' rhythm section.

But here, he'll be playing Impressions by John Coltrane.

Before that, we heard from Christian McBride, great bass player, from his album Live at the Tonic.

And then you're like, well, but check it out.

Marquise was listening to Wynton, and Wynton was listening to Freddie, and Freddie was listening to Fats Navarro, and Fats Navarro was listening...

You can go all the way back.

Yeah.

And he kind of, his answer was so interesting.

I just wanted to share it as context for your answer because he basically rejected the premise right away.

He says, I understand what you mean by genre, but he said, you know, when I think Herbie Hancock, I think just as much Bella Bartok as I think Wynton Kelly.

So he said to me, he said, Listen, he said, now with AI, yes, we can make a lot of tasks happen quicker.

And the only documented Coltrane recording of the tune comes from a February 3rd, 1959 session.

Recorded in Chicago with Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, Coltrane on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

That record was initially released as Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago and was later reissued as Cannonball and Coltrane.

The album features, again, that extraordinary lineup.

The piano's different.

It's Wynton Kelly on piano, 'cause Wynton Kelly took over from after Bill Evans left, right?

Okay.

So, but that rhythm section, Miles's rhythm section of Wynton, Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, same drummer, are on this famous West Montgomery, the guitarist West Montgomery's album, Ha- Smokin' at the Half Note.