Multi-reed musician from Los Angeles, California, who started out on the clarinet and then gravitated to the alto saxophone. He took formal lessons at the Gray Conservatory and was playing professionally at fifteen years of age.
Some of the musicians he performed with were Ray Anthony, Bill Berry, Barney Bigard, C.L. Burke, Benny Carter, Bob Crosby, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Roy Milton, Kid Ory, Marshal Royal, Lucky Thompson, and Billy Vaughan.
He eventually switched to the tenor saxophone and proved that he could rock, as well as swing, on recordings such as Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away”, Thurston Harris’s “Do What You Did”, and Johnny Otis’s “Bye Bye Baby”.
He was a member of The Johnny Otis Show and appeared on their self-titled, 1958 album. When Phil Spector needed saxophonists to help create the “Wall of Sound”, he regularly used Steve Douglas, Jackie Kelso, and Nino Tempo.
Jackie put together an exhaustive discography, much too long to list in its entirety, but here are some highlights: Aja by Steely Dan, All Good Things – Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions, The Axelrod Chronicles, The Best of Sam Cooke, The Blackbyrds, Christopher Cross, Dan Cassidy, A Decade of Steely Dan, Here Comes Shuggie Otis, Lifetime Friend by Little Richard, Nigel Olsson, Quincy Jones Talkin’ Verve, Quincy’s Got a Brand New Bag, and Something/Anything? by Todd Rundgren.
In 1984, he took some time off to travel—a lot of time—and re-emerged eleven years later in concert with The Count Basie Orchestra, which he would join full-time in 1998. For some reason, he also went back to his birth surname, Kelson.
Jackie was a versatile musician who navigated the genres with seeming effortlessness, from big band, to jazz, to R&B, to rock, to swing. It is little wonder he was one of the go-to guys in the recording industry for the better part of seven decades.
He passed away in Beverly Hills, California, in 2012 when he was 90 years old.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Kelso
- http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/jackie_kelso.htm
- http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jackie-kelso-mn0000781466/biography
- http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jackie+Kelso