Sammy Davis Jr. born 8 December 1925

Samuel George Davis, Jr., better known as Sammy Davis, Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. Recognized throughout much of his career as "the world's greatest living entertainer," Sammy Davis, Jr. was a remarkably popular and versatile performer equally adept at acting, singing, dancing and impersonations, in short, a variety artist in the classic tradition. 

Born in Harlem on December 8, 1925, Davis made his stage debut at the age of three performing with Holiday in Dixieland, a black vaudeville troupe featuring his father and helped by his de facto uncle, Will Mastin; dubbed "Silent Sam, the Dancing Midget," he proved phenomenally popular with audiences and the act was soon renamed Will Mastin's Gang Featuring Little Sammy. At the age of seven Davis made his film debut in the legendary musical short Rufus Jones for President, and later received tap-dancing lessons courtesy of the great Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. In 1941, the Mastin Gang opened for Tommy Dorsey at Detroit's Michigan Theater; there Davis first met Dorsey vocalist Frank Sinatra -- the beginning of a lifelong friendship. 

In 1943 Davis joined the U.S. Army, where he endured a constant battle with racism; upon his return from duty, the group was renamed the Will Mastin Trio. Three years later they opened for Mickey Rooney, who encouraged Davis to begin including his many impersonations in the Trio's act; where previously they had exclusively performed music, the addition of comedy brought new life to the group, and by the beginning of the next decade they were headlining venues including New York's Capitol club and Ciro's in Hollywood. 

                                   

In 1952, at the invitation of Sinatra, they also played the newly-integrated Copacabana. In 1954 Davis signed to Decca, topping the charts with his debut LP Starring Sammy Davis Jr; that same year he lost his left eye in a much-publicized auto accident, but upon returning to the stage in early 1955 was greeted with even greater enthusiasm than before on the strength of a series of hit singles including "Something's Gotta Give," "Love Me or Leave Me" and "That Old Black Magic." A year later Davis made his Broadway debut in the musical Mr. Wonderful, starring in the show for over 400 performances and launching a hit with the song "Too Close for Comfort." 

In 1958 Davis resumed his film career after a quarter-century layoff with Anna Lucasta, followed a year later by his acclaimed turn in Porgy and Bess. Also in 1959 he became a charter member of the Rat Pack, a loose confederation of Sinatra associates (also including Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) which began regularly performing together at the Sands casino in Las Vegas. 

In 1960 they made Ocean's Eleven, the first in a series of hip and highly self-referential Rat Pack films; although Davis' inclusion in the group was perceived in many quarters as an egalitarian move, many black audiences felt he was simply a token -- the butt of subtly racist jokes -- and declared him a sell-out. His earlier conversion to Judaism had been met with considerable controversy within the African-American community as well; still, nothing compared to the public outcry over his 1960 marriage to Swedish actress May Britt, which even elicited death threats. Still, Davis remained a major star, appearing in the 1962 Rat Pack film Sergeants 3 and scoring a major hit with "What Kind of Fool Am I?" Two years later he returned to Broadway in the long-running Golden Boy, scoring a Tony nomination for his performance. 

In 1964, the third Rat Pack film, Robin and the Seven Hoods, was released; two years later, in the wake of the publication of his autobiography Yes I Can, Davis was also among a number of musical luminaries, including Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, who co-starred in the jazz drama A Man Called Adam. In 1968 he and Lawford teamed as Salt and Pepper; the picture was a hit, and a sequel, One More Time, appeared in 1970. In between the two Davis delivered one of his most memorable screen performances in Bob Fosse's 1969 musical Sweet Charity; he also appeared in a number of television features, including The Pigeon, The Trackers and Poor Devil. 

In 1972 Davis topped the pop charts with "The Candy Man," from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; from 1975 to 1977, he hosted his own syndicated variety show, Sammy and Company, and in 1978 starred in the film Sammy Stops the World. 

However, in the late 1970s and through much of the 1980s Davis's profile diminished, and he was primarily confined to the casino circuit, with a 1988 comeback tour he mounted with Sinatra and Martin largely unsuccessful. 

His appearance in the 1989 film Tap was much acclaimed, but it was to be his last screen performance, as being a lifelong smoker, Davis died of cancer on May 16, 1990.    (Edited mainly from AllMusic) 

 

Joyce Carr born 7 December 1931

Joyce Carr (December 7, 1931 - January 26, 2002) was a soft-voiced interpreter of jazz standards and was a well known performer in the Washington area, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Born Joyce Siperly in Great Falls, Montana, she was a 1953 graduate of the University of Montana. Intending to establish herself in New York, she left Montana with $30 and on the way dropped in to visit a sorority sister in Washington. She stayed on in the District, entering beauty contests and finding quick work singing at such local clubs as Crossroads and the Lotus Restaurant. She won a contest on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" television show in the mid-1950s, which led to more prominent singing engagements. 

From there, it was on to entertaining President Eisenhower at the White House, and a six-year engagement at the King Cole Room in D.C., where she became a top attraction for foreign dignitaries visiting the city. She also sang at the Showboat Lounge and  made numerous television appearances and performed with the Army Band, the Air Force Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. She was a regular on WMAL radiothons with Bill Mayhew. She had numerous fans in the music-critic community, but they were puzzled by her short sets of maybe four songs followed by a 45-minute break. She was often complimented and upbraided simultaneously for lengthy intermissions that deprived the audience of a continuous show. Friends said she simply enjoyed chatting with customers. 

                                  

Edward R. Carr, the late builder and no relation to her, was an early admirer and helped produce her first album, "Make the Man Love Me" (1957), for Seeco Records. The record featured pianist Ellis Larkins, trumpeter Charlie Shavers and bassist Joe Benjamin. Edward Carr also designed for Ms. Carr a performance room at the Lafayette Hotel, the Cafe Lorraine. There, in a medium-size room with high ceilings, she was accompanied by such pianists as Dick Thomas and Mel Clement. Prominent in the room was Alfredo Hernandez's large portrait of her standing bare-shouldered in an elegant dress and holding a rose in her right hand. 

In the early 1960s, she sang at the old Lincoln Inn Restaurant with pianist Bob Vigoda and the Bourbon Street Club with pianist John Eaton, who recalled her "beautiful, effortless voice." During 1962 she recorded two singles for Washington based Joanie Records with the Jack French Trio.  From 1963 to 1968, she was a fixture at the Fireplace restaurant in Georgetown. In the restaurant's Chimney Room, she often was found sitting on a stool or leaning against the curve of the piano, accompanied by Dick Sleigh on tunes such as "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" and "Married I Can Always Get." Her second album, "You Don't Know What Love Is," which she produced for Edgewater Studios in 1967, included the Bob Vigoda Trio, with Jay Leonhart on bass and Bill Gibson on guitar. 

She left the Fireplace restaurant to marry a second time and left the area for several years with Army Col. Robert Mooney.( Her first marriage to Wellington Gillis and subsequently her second both ended in divorce). When she returned in the early 1970s, she became a court reporter.  But at the end of the '70s, after a decade away from performing, she returned to music, singing at Charlie Byrd's club in Georgetown. She also resumed recording in 1981 with Joyce Carr on the Audiophile label, accompanied by Bob Vigoda, Jay Leonhart, Bill Gibson, and Dick Thomas. 

Joyce returned to music sporadically, appearing into the 1980s at nightclubs such as Charlie's Georgetown, owned by Charlie Byrd, but friends and family said that cigarette smoke took a toll on her voice and she withdrew from performing and and eventually died from lung disease at a hospice in Arlington January 26, 2002. 

(Edited from Wahington Post, All Music Guide & Discogs)

Toni Lynn Washington born 6 December 1936

Toni Lynn Washington (born Dorothy Helen Leak, December 6, 1937, Southern Pines, North Carolina) is an American blues singer, who is considered Boston's "queen of the blues,'' where she has a long and storied history on the club scene. 

Washington took to music at an early age, and was brought up singing with her school and church choirs at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Roxbury, Morth Carolina.  At the age of thirteen, her family moved to Boston in 1950, where she began to sing in clubs.. She got married a Navy Officer after graduating high school.. Once settled in New Orleans, she befriended, worked and opened for such blues and soul legends as Jackie Wilson, Johnny Adams, Big Joe Turner, Sam ansd Dave and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Her performances allowed her to sign with the Kon-Ti label then a subsidiary of Atlantic Records.  Her first single with the label Dear Diary (1966) made its way into the Billboard Hot 100 1966. 

A military transfer brought her young family to a still-segregated Pensacol, Florida where she managed to find a few regional bookings, which would not take her away from her family for too long. She fronted a 35 piece Military band that performed at many high-profile events and eventually led to a few USO tours of the U.S. and Asia in the 60’s.A few moves ans a few groups later, Washington found herself in Hollywood. Almost immediatelty on her arrival, she became the sole female in a Fifth Dimension-esque group called Sound 70. She travelled with this band all over the world and led to television appearances on the Steve Allen and Mike Douglas shows .

Yet during the eight years she was with the band Toni became more discouraged. Constant touring took her away from her young family. It also removed her the Hollywood base that might have given more opportunities for her. After the breakup of Sound 70 and a move to the East Coast and a short stint with a few ex-Raelettes in 1975, she felt there was no real musical future for her, so she moved back to Boston in the early 80’s and got a 9-to-5 office job. The need to entertain was still in her system and she sat in with a number of local artists, including Eula Lawrence, who was moved by her emotive voice. 

Compliments and mutual respect became introductions, which soon yielded more freelance work with local jazz groups whenever the chance arose. During this period Washington performed at virtually every music room in Boston. But the yearning to perform her own songs in her own style was growing greater. She soon gained the opportunity to sing the blues she loved, as front woman of the band Boston Baked Blues. This gave her introduction to blues audiences all over the Northeast.  In 1992, her and keyboard artist Bruce Bears of the Boston Baked Blues formed their own band. 

                                  

Toni Lyn Washington’s career had blossomed and three years later in 1995, she released her debut album for Tone-Cool Records “Blues at Midnight.” “It's My Turn Now” followed in 1997, and in early 2000, Washington returned with “Good Things”. In 2003 she released her fourth album since 1997, “Been So Long on the NorthernBlues label.  Then there was an 18 year wait for her fifth album “I Wanna Dance” this time on the Regina Royale label issued in 2 015. 

Washington has been a regular presence at festivals around the US, Canada and Europe over the past 30-odd years, sharing stages with acts including Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Robert Cray, Roomful of Blues, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Canned Heat. She has appeared at notable New England venues including Scullers Jazz Club and the Bull Run. She’s been nominated seven times for the W.C. Handy National Blues Awards, ais the recipient of Boston Blues Festival Lifetime Achievement Award  and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. 

Fast forward to 2024 when sitting backstage at a local charity event, Boston musician Brian Templeton suggested to Toni that she record a gospel record. Washington said yes, resulting in the release of the album “Faith,” which coincided with her 87th birthday on Dec. 6.2024. Financing the disc was a major challenge (even after a GoFundMe campaign) and all 29 of the musicians and singers on the LP agreed to play for free. 

Asked for some reflections on her success as a singer, Washington downplayed her own spectacular vocal skills while highlighting the talents of the musicians who’ve surrounded her over the decades. “I know what I want when I’m on stage” she told WGBH’s Rath, but I don’t play music, I don’t read music. The only thing I know how to do is sing.” 

(Edited from delafont, Music Museum of New England, AllMusic & Wikipedia) 

 

Jill Day born 5 December 1930

Jill Day (5 December 1930- 16 November 1990, Kingston-Upon-Thames, England) was a successful pop singer and actress in Britain in the 1950s and early 60s.She was called “the Golden Girl of Song” and sometimes “the sapphire blonde with the diamond-bright personality”. 

She was born Yvonne Page in Brighton, Sussex, England, eldest of three children of a Brighton bookmaker, William Page, and his wife, Phyllis James. Her parents wanted her to go to secretarial college, but Yvonne set her heart on a singing career. In April 1945, she auditioned for Harry Roy, and toured for five months in variety as the vocalist in his band, using the name Jill Page. After understudying in two West End shows, Follow the Girls and Piccadilly Hayride, she returned to Brighton in 1948 to join the revue, Limelight, in which she was seen by bandleader Syd Dean, who was so impressed by her voice and personality that he invited her to become the vocalist with his orchestra at the Regent Ballroom, Brighton, in 1949. 

In November of that year, still as Jill Page, she made her recording debut with Dean’s band on the Columbia label with the song “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday” She also made her mark on the radio in the series, May We Come In?. In 1950, Jill became the toast of Paris at the Club Champs Elysees, singing with Bernard Hilda’s orchestra. Back in Britain in June 1951, she returned to the stage to tour as Pansy Pinns in The Belle of New York, now using the name, Jill Day, chosen for her by the bandleader Geraldo, on whose radio series, Tip Top Tunes, she became a regular guest. In 1952, when Eve Boswell left as Geraldo’s vocalist, Jill replaced her. 

                                   

In 1953, she made her film debut in the comedy, Always A Bride, and in March 1954, she was voted into third place behind Lita Roza and Cleo Laine in the Melody Maker poll of Britain’s most popular female vocalists. Leaving Geraldo, she went solo in 1954, launching her first hit for Parlophone, “Little Johnny Rainbow”, in October of that year, which was one of ten songs she recorded in the next eight months. On television she was in constant demand, appearing in I’ll Be Seeing You, Puzzle Corner, Starlight, Off The Record, and with the legendary Jessie Matthews in Dreamer’s Highway. Jill was well known for her long slim dresses with stiff petticoat under the below-the-knee hem which she wore in numerous television appearances. 

In the boom year of 1955, Jill starred in the West End revue, The Talk of the Town, with Jimmy Edwards and Tony Hancock, looked stunning in the title-roll of the Rank Organization’s colour film, All for Mary, and expertly dubbed the singing voice of Brigitte Bardot, in another film, Doctor at Sea. She ended the year playing Prince Charming in BBC Television’s Pantomania with Eric Sykes and Sylvia Peters. 1956 brought her most popular recording “Happiness Street”, which seemed to personify her infectious charm and vitality. She appeared with Dave King in the first of three Blackpool summer seasons. The others were Rocking with Laughter, with Ken Dodd and in 1957 The Big Show of 1959 with Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris. 

Jill reached the peak of her career in 1957 with her own BBC television series, The Jill Day Show, which she also wrote, and the lead in the West End comedy, The Lovebirds, at the Adelphi Theatre, in which her performance won critical acclaim. She competed in the heats of the contest to represent the United Kingdom in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest, eventually losing out to Patricia Bredin. She also married the great alto-saxophonist Douglas Robinson on May 14th that year.

Five smash-hit seasons of West End cabaret followed at the Society Restaurant, top-of-the-bill stage tours, and further television triumphs, including Beat Up the Town, Hit the Headlines, Hi Summer!, the title roll in Cinderella, and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In 1961, she joined Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams in the radio series, Beyond Our Ken. But Jill's singing style faded out of failure with the coming of the 1960s and she struggled to maintain her profile, although in 1965 she released one of her most popular singles, reviving two classic standards “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” and “I’m Old Fashioned”. 

Tragedy struck in 1967 when her son Buster died from leukemia at the age of only seven. Some believed she never entirely recovered from this blow. Her last recordings were released in 1970. After that she preferred to stay at home with her family at their magnificent house in Kinston-Upon-Thames, concentrating on her business interests which included an Earl’s Court gymnasium, a theatrical agency and a child’s clothing company. In 1990, during a routine medical test, cancer was discovered, and she died suddenly on November 15 that same year at the New Victoria Hospital, Kingston, at the age of only 59.   

(Edited mainly from Michael Thornton’s liner notes)

Eddie Heywood born 4 December 1915

Edward Heywood Jr. (December 4, 1915 – January 3, 1989) was an American jazz pianist and composer particularly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Eddie is probably most remembered now for originating the much-loved song, “Canadian Sunset.” But Heywood’s story encompasses so much more, including not only his early experiences in the big band era but also having to overcome bouts of paralysis in his later years. 

Heywood was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. His father, Eddie Heywood Sr., was also a jazz musician from the 1920s and provided him with training from the age of 12 as an accompanist playing in the pit band in a vaudeville theater in Atlanta, occasionally accompanying singers such as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Heywood moved, first to New Orleans and then to Kansas City, when vaudeville began to be replaced by sound pictures. Heywood played with jazz musicians such as Wayman Carver in 1932, Clarence Love from 1934 to 1937 and Benny Carter from 1939 to 1940. 

He became the house pianist at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village, where he led a trio and accompanied singers, among them the Revuers, a group that included Judy Holliday, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. After starting his band, Heywood would occasionally do back-up for Billie Holiday in 1941. In 1943, at the urging of John Hammond, the jazz authority whose interest had nurtured the careers of Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman, Mr. Heywood took several classic solos on a Coleman Hawkins quartet date (including "The Man I Love") and put together the first sextet, including Doc Cheatham and Vic Dickenson. Eddie and his sextet played at the Cafe Society Downtown, being billed as the "Biggest Little Band in the Land". 

                                   

The type of music they played, and their billing, placed them in direct competition with John Kirby. The group played in a crisp, stylized manner that was an adaptation of Mr. Heywood's playing as a solo pianist. He had been playing ''Begin the Beguine'' in this fashion as a piano soloist and he arranged it for his sextet in the same way. It was an immediate success and it set a pattern for the group's playing that appealed equally to jazz fans and followers of pop music. After their version of "Begin the Beguine" became a hit in 1944, the group had three successful years. "Begin the Beguine" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. 

It was between 1947 to 1950, Heywood was stricken with a partial paralysis of his hands and could not play at all. However, it did not stop him when he made a comeback later in the decade. In the 1950s, Heywood composed and recorded "Land of Dreams" and "Soft Summer Breeze" (1956) (which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard chart) and is probably best known for his 1956 recording of his composition "Canadian Sunset," with Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra for RCA Victor, which peaked at number 2. In 1960 he was awarded  a "Star" at 1709 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

After a second partial paralysis from 1966 to 1969, Heywood made another comeback and continued his career into the 1980s. By this time he was working in the field of light music rather than jazz. In his later years Eddie suffered from Parkinson's disease, later complicated with Alzheimer's disease, and had been in frail health since the mid 80's.  He died at his home in Miami Beach, Florida, 3 January 1989, aged 73.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The New York Times) 

 

Cool John Ferguson born 3 December 1953

John W. Ferguson (December 3,* 1953 – August 12, 2025), known professionally as Cool John Ferguson, was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He released five albums under his own name and played on around 20 others. He was the Director of Creative Development for the Music Maker Relief Foundation, and played his guitar "upside down". Taj Mahal stated that Ferguson ranked "among the five greatest guitarists in the world. He is a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. He is with the ranks of Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, and Django Reinhardt." 

Ferguson was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States on December 3, 1953. His father, John Wesley Ferguson, was head deacon at the Beaufort New Church of Christ, whilst his mother, Martha Jenkins Ferguson, hailed from Saint Helena Island. The connection to Gullah culture remained strong in Ferguson's life. He had learned to play the guitar by the age of three, but "had to be sat in someone's lap while they sat in a chair." He was naturally left handed, and learned to play on a right handed guitar held upside down. 

Two years later he was playing gospel music as a professional, and became a featured entertainer with his siblings billed as 'Little John and the Ferguson Sisters' on The Lowcountry Sing on Channel 5, a Charleston, South Carolina-based radio station. He expanded his musical knowledge in the early 1960s, by surreptitiously listening to WAPE, "the Big Ape", out of Jacksonville, Florida. At Beaufort High School, Ferguson played the trumpet in a marching band and learned to read music. By 1972, he had joined the Earl Davis Trio. This jazz based beginning led to a five-year stint with Stephen Best and the Soul Crusaders who played across South Carolina. He also played on the tent revival circuit, and recorded with LaFace Records. 

                  Here’s “Black Mud Boogie” from above album.

                                   

To supplement his income from music, Ferguson worked in landscaping and construction as a young man. He relocated to near Durham, North Carolina for a spell, and Ferguson noted that "the local people were, you know, checking me out and saying 'you've got a cool walk,' 'you've got a cool talk.' So they summarized it to Cool John." In addition to supplying studio backing work for various musicians, including Little Pink Anderson and Frank Edwards, Ferguson started to appear under his own name. At various times, Ferguson played the guitar backing for Taj Mahal, B. B. King, Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne, Beverly Watkins and the Stylistics. 

He toured widely, performing at the Byron Bay Bluesfest, Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, Lucerne Blues Festival, Switzerland's Blues to Bop Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, Columbia Blues Festival, and at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He kept a connection to his roots by having a regular Saturday night engagement at the All People's Grill, a roadhouse situated north of Durham, North Carolina. 

At the Penn Center on Saint Helena Island, Ferguson was recruited to join a fledgling Music Maker Relief Foundation. Ferguson worked as Music Maker's Director of Creative Development from the 1990s. In 2003, Ferguson performed at the AmeriServ Johnstown Folkfest. In the early 2000s, he released his albums Guitar Heaven; the seasonal effort, Cool Yule; plus Cool John Ferguson; all issued by Music Maker. In 2007, Ferguson relocated to Atlanta with his wife, where he started his own record label, Cool John Recordings. Ferguson's own With These Hands was the first release for the new label. The album contained 15 original tracks, ten of them incorporating vocals, encompassing blues, R&B, funk, rock and occasional Latin rhythms. 

Ferguson was noted by Living Blues magazine for two years running as 'Most Outstanding Guitarist.' His work with Music Maker saw him responsible for scores of albums being recorded by lesser known blues, folk and country artists, many of them at the veteran stage of their careers. He played in a fundraiser for the Foundation in Washington, D.C., with Ironing Board Sam, and was featured in a photographic essay called "Music Makers", which was picked up by Garden & Gun magazine. Ferguson appeared in the documentary film, Toot Blues (2008), about the formation and early days of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. 

To mark the occasion of fellow Beaufort native, Joe Frazier's death in 2011, Ferguson played an electric version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park. In addition, Ferguson regularly played in two churches in Atlanta each Sunday. Later years brought a return to music ministry and a step back from touring. His life’s work, bridging church and juke joint, tradition, and improvisation, endures in the recordings he made and the artists he lifted. Often dressed in his trademark flat-brimmed stetson hat, Ferguson continued to play his Fender Stratocaster upside down until his death in Beaufort, South Carolina, on August 12, 2025, at the age of 71. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & World Music Central) (* some sources give December 2^nd as birthdate) 

Wynton Kelly born 2 December 1931

 

Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was a Jamaican American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. 

Wynton Kelly was  a greatly underrated talent, who was both an elegant piano soloist with a rhythmically infectious solo style in which he combined boppish lines with a great feeling for the blues as well as a particularly accomplished accompanist, gifted with perfect pitch and a highly individual block chording style. Kelly’s work was always highly melodic, especially in his ballad performances, while an irresistible sense of swing informed his mid and up-tempo performances. 

Though he was born on the island of Jamaica, Wynton grew up in Brooklyn. His academic training appears to have been brief, but he was a fast musical developer who made his professional debut in 1943, at the age of eleven or twelve. His initial musical environment was the burgeoning Rhythm and Blues scene of the mid to late 1940s. Wynton played his first important gig with the R&B combo of tenor saxophonist Ray Abrams in 1947. He spent time in hard hitting R&B combos led by Hot Lips Page, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, in addition to the gentler environment of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. In April 1949, Wynton played piano backing vocalist Babs Gonzales in a band that also included J.J. Johnson, Roy Haynes and a young Sonny Rollins. 

                                   

Kelly’s first big break in the jazz world came in 1951, when he became Dinah Washington’s accompanist. In July 1951 Kelly also made his recording debut as a leader on the Blue Note label at the age of 19. After his initial stint with Dinah Washington Kelly gigged with the combos of Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie and recorded with Gillespie’s quintet in 1952. Wynton fulfilled his army service between 1952 and the summer or 1954 and then rejoined Washington and the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band (1957). By this time Kelly had become one of the most in demand pianists on record. He distinguished himself on record with such talent as J.J. Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin and especially Hank Mobley whom Kelly inspired to some of his best work on classic Blue Note albums like Soul Station, Work Out, and Roll Call. 

Wynton proved himself as a superb accompanist on the Billie Holiday Clef sessions of June 1956 and showed his mettle both as an accompanist and soloist on the star-studded Norman Granz session with Coleman Hawkins, Paul Gonsalves, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz in 1957 that produced the fine Sittin’ In album on the Verve label. In 1957 Kelly left Gillespie and formed his own trio. He finally recorded his second album as a leader for the Riverside label in January 1958, six years after his Blue Note debut. 

In early 1959 Miles Davis invited Wynton to joint his sextet as a replacement for Bill Evans. Kind of Blue, recorded in March 1959, on which he shares the piano stool with Evans, Kelly excels on the track “Freddie Freeloader” a medium temp side that is closest to the more theory-free jazz of the mid-fifties. Wynton proved a worthy successor to Red Garland and Bill Evans in the Miles Davis combo, together with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb, an old colleague from Dinah Washington’s rhythm section, he established a formidable rapport. Kelly likewise appears on a single track from John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, replacing Tommy Flanagan on “Naima”. 

l-r: Kelly, Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers

During his stay with Davis, Kelly recorded his fine Kelly Blue for Riverside and three albums for Vee Jay. By the end of 1962 Kelly, Chambers and Cobb formed the Wynton Kelly Trio, which soon made its mark. The Kelly Trio remained a regular unit for a number of years and reached the height of their popularity after they joined up with guitarist Wes Montgomery, resulting in three albums, a live set in New York’s Half Note, a September 1965 studio album for Verve, and a live set at the Half Note for the Xanadu Label. Kelly’s trio, now with Cecil McBee and Ron McClure kept working during until 1969. 

Kelly was a heavy drinker; saxophonist Jimmy Heath described him as "an alcoholic" who "could control his drinking and not let his playing be affected by it”. Towards the end of his career, Kelly had problems finding work, but played with Ray Nance, and as a soloist in New York. Kelly's final recording session appears to have been in the autumn of 1970, accompanying saxophonist Dexter Gordon. 

Kelly died in Toronto, Canada, following an epileptic seizure, on April 12, 1971. He had traveled there from New York to play in a club with drummer George Reed and vocalist Herb Marshall. Kelly suffered from epilepsy most of his life and had to monitor his condition carefully. He was reported to have had almost no money at the time of his death. A memorial concert was held on June 28 in New York and featured numerous well-known musicians of the period. 

(Edited from jazzgiants.net & Wikipedia)