Wynton Kelly
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Wynton Kelly (December 2, 1931 in Jamaica–April 12, 1971 in Toronto, Canada) was an American jazz pianist.
Kelly started his professional career as a teenager, initially as a member of R&B groups. After working with Lee Abrams, Cecil Payne, Dinah Washington and Dizzy Gillespie[1], he was a member of Miles Davis's Quintet from 1959 to 1963. He appears on Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue, replacing Bill Evans on the track Freddie Freeloader. He likewise appears on a single track from John Coltrane's Giant Steps, replacing Tommy Flanagan on "Naima".
Wynton Kelly was one of the most prolific sideman pianists of his era, performing on scores of jazz albums, and led albums under his own name for the Riverside and Vee-Jay labels. After leaving Davis's group, along with Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, he formed a trio which worked regularly during the 1960s. He also recorded a number of albums as a sideman to the tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley with Cobb and Chambers.
