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Roger Kellaway, Bobby Darin, Carmen McRae & Me |
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It
is not very often that you have an opportunity to speak with a music icon as
celebrated as Roger Kellaway and it is even less often that you get to talk to
him on his birthday (67th).
I had the opportunity to do both recently and
found the pianist/composer to be one of the more congenial people that I have
spoken to inside or outside of the music industry. Kellaway took time to reflect
about the relationships he has forged, time spent in the late 1960s as the
arranger and pianist for Bobby Darin, the numerous films he has scored and his
forty-one year marriage to Jorjana.
He talks about new
projects and musical adventures he would like to pursue. You can hear the
vitality in his voice whether he is recalling a fond memory or in his responses
to questions that solicit his opinion.
Kellaway revels in what he refers to as a ‘forty-one
year art lesson’ at the hands of his father-in-law, his wife and her uncle and
it is therefore fitting that the cover of his most recent CD
Heroes
it is very Picasso or Degas like, even though he did not have input into the
design. He says that of all his album covers to date, the one for Heroes is the
one he likes the best and that others seem to also enjoy the most.
Why did Kellaway choose this time in his life to
create this particular album? “These days particularly in the last few years and
with the last few CDs I have been looking for a common theme.
Heroes
is dedicated to the first two Oscar Peterson trios. The first one was with
Barney Kessel and the second one with Herb Ellis,” he says.
Kellaway indulged in some heavy-duty research
concerning the Peterson trios and he drew upon his past experience playing with
Herb Ellis and renowned bassist Ray Brown who had also performed with Peterson.
Familiarity with the Peterson repertoire made
song selection for
Heroes easy
Kellaway says the reason for recording songs such as
Benny Golson’s “Killer Joe,” Duke Elington’s “Cotton Tail,” and Kellaway’s
original composition “I’m Smiling Again,” “was to commemorate the person who was
the single most prominent force during my teenage years.
Oscar (Peterson) was a tremendous force in my
(musical) upbringing.”
Noted Jazz historian Gene Lees once asked Kellaway
for his opinion of Oscar Peterson after introducing the two of them and Kellaway
replied, “The world is a swing.” Lees thought that was a great phrase and
somewhat incorporated it into his 1988 biography of Oscar Peterson
The Will To
Swing.
The album
Heroes
is part of a bigger mission that Kellaway has embarked on. “This is what my new
trio is all about.
I am feeling a legacy about swinging because
most of the people that I learned it from are gone. The younger generation seems
to be responding to swing at least in terms of dancing. It certainly is a part
of jazz that needs to should be addressed.
With twenty-six film scores to his credit including
titles such as
A Star Is Born,
Breathless,
The Paper Lion
and
Invasion of the Body Snatchers it was
surprising to learn that Kellaway is not overly eager to return to that medium.
“I have looked at
film music again, but colleagues have told me horrendous stories of working with
people in the industry that essentially don’t know anything about music. There
are projects with (as many as) fourteen producers, so I have decided not to go
in that direction,” he says. Recently however
Kellaway finished writing a score for a documentary his wife Jorjana was
completing. Other than Jorjana’s project, he has however decided against, “Going
back into music per se unless someone comes along that just adores what I do. It
has to be a small independent project with some parameters to it. (It cannot
have) fourteen people with opinions. That isn’t how music is made!”
Reflecting upon his career, Roger Kellaway says that
three vocalists that he has been associated with stand out, Sarah Vaughan,
Carmen McRae and Bobby Darin and concerning Sarah Vaughan he says, “When I did
piano bars in the sixties I used to sing a lot of those swooping phrases of
hers. I always loved her style. You are talking about a time when singers
actually sang the melody (versus) what happens nowadays. You are talking of a
time when songs were made of melodies.
Not only were the songs melodic but the
singers were melody oriented.” Kellaway enthuses
about his relationship with Carmen McRae with whom he created in 1975 and it is
easy to detect in his voice how fondly he recalls working with both Sarah
Vaughan and Carmen McRae. “The other person
whom looms largely in my life is Bobby Darin. I was with him from ’66 to ’68. In
’67 after taking a year of dictation he gave me Dr. Doolittle,” says Kellaway.
He describes Darin as, “an expert on the kind of things and orchestration that
he wanted to hear,” and, “We were the first people to do the music of Doctor
Doolittle.” Other influences
early in Kellaway’s career included, working with Clark Terry from 1962-64. He
played with Bob Brookmeyer (trombonist, pianist, arranger, composer) and he was
a part of quintets led by Al Cohn (saxophonist, composer, arranger) and Zoot
Sims (saxophonist). The music of George Shearing, pianist and composer Billy
Taylor and Horace Silver (pianist and composer) served as a magnet for the young
Kellaway.
Kellaway credits Jazz trumpeter Dick Sudhalter with
introducing him to Dixie Land jazz. Those ties were strengthened when Kellaway
had an opportunity to hone his craft at With the diversity of
music that influenced his early career it does not come as a surprise to
Kellaway that his own music is very eclectic. He says, “If I am writing
something that is very melodic and harmonic I can only go so far before I want
to do something serial and twelve tones.”
Kellaway says, “Every aspect of music has its own
language and message,” and if that is true then we might easily conclude, that
Roger Kellaway is a connoisseur of languages.
There are few individuals who have become as
accomplished in as many different aspects of their craft as has been the case
with Roger Kellaway.
He has performed with Bobby Darin, Elvis, Duke
Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Joni Mitchell, Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini.
He received a Grammy Award for his music on
Memos
From Paradise.
His film score for
A Star Is Born
received an Academy Award nomination.
He was commissioned to write the music for a
ballet presented by choreographer George Balanchine and the New York City
Ballet.
He has recorded and written chamber music, jazz music
and classical charts.
Roger Kellaway
remains optimistic about his future and the future of jazz and he is grateful
for his experiences, as well as the numerous friendships that have come his way
throughout the years.
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Now entering his sixty-eighth year Kellaway is not a
man stuck in the past but quite the contrary. He spoke of the need to ensure
that his music and his career is more firmly entrenched in the digital age.
Inspired by Maria Schneider’s success in the digital age Kellaway says,