RIP Edwin Kelly

[trane_fanatic]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...BAGKEB7KS61.DTL

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edwin Kelly -- jazz pianist, teacher at Laney

- Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edwin Kelly, a well-known Bay Area jazz pianist and dedicated church musician, died Friday following a series of strokes. He was 69.

Mr. Kelly taught music at Laney College in Oakland for more than 25 years, played in churches around the Bay Area and performed with his Gospel Ar'Kestra as well as the Ed Kelly Quintet.

He won accolades throughout his career. Among other honors, he was inducted into the Northern California Blues Hall of Fame in 1991, received a Bammie Award in 1982 for Best Jazz Pianist in the Bay Area and a Humanitarian Award from the Gospel Academy Awards, which mostly recognizes Northern California artists.

He eschewed the touring lifestyle that can keep musicians on the road for up to 9 months out of the year in favor of spending time with his wife and four children.

"He definitely could have gone further if he had wanted to pursue that kind of life," said Kathleen Enright, a friend of the family. "This way, he was successful with the home life, too."

The Kelly household was a musical one. His wife, Faye Kelly, who died before him, was a choir director, voice teacher and piano player. All the children sang. Terrance Kelly, who describes his father as "the best dad anybody ever had" can remember his parents putting on shows for the children and the kids doing the same for them. His father would sometimes tease his mother, playing the blues and singing about a torn pink bathrobe she liked to wear: "To' up bathrobe, it looks so bad to me."

"The kids would be on the floor cracking up," said Terrance, who lives in Oakland and founded the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. "My mother would stand there with her hand on her hip."

Born in Wharton, Texas, Mr. Kelly grew up in Oakland and graduated from McClymonds High School in 1953. He then studied with Ernest Bacon at the University of the Pacific, took classes at Berklee College of Music in Boston and graduated from Hayward State, now Cal State East Bay, in 1969.

During his more than 50-year performing career, in which he mastered not only the piano but the Hammond B-3 organ, he played with legends like John Handy, Bobby Hutcherson and Ray Drummond. Jazz fans could hear him at the Monterey and Sacramento jazz festivals, and he was once featured at the B-3 Organ Summit in San Francisco. He also played at the Good Shepherd Church in Oakland and for the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.

In addition to his son, Mr. Kelly is survived by three daughters, Charlie Ann Boyd-Halston of Round Rock, Texas, Cheryl Kelly-Leggett of Athens, Ga., and Keri Lynn Kelly-Moss of Titusville, Fla.; a sister, Theresa Scales-Rowe of San Lorenzo; a brother, Rev. Adolph Kelly of Sacramento; and six grandchildren. He is also survived by a special, longtime friend, Bettye Wright.

Services for Mr. Kelly will be held 11 a.m. Friday at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland.

Edited February 9, 2005 by trane_fanatic