From:  "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Tue Sep 14, 2004  1:32 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Jackie Kelso
 
JACKIE KELSO

Born John J. Kelson, 1922, Los Angeles, California

The wailing tenor sax solos of Jackie Kelso can be heard on countless
West Coast rockers : "Say Mama" by Gene Vincent, "Bye Bye Baby"
by Johnny Otis, "Try Me" by Bob Luman, "Moose on the Loose" by
Roddy Jackson, "Do What You Did" by Thurston Harris and, a little
later, "Twistin' the Night Away" by Sam Cooke, to mention just a few.

Writing about Jackie Kelso and the records he plays on is difficult for
two reasons. For one thing, you need to have a pair of very good ears
to distinguish his (R&R-styled) playing from that of Plas Johnson. Then,
when it comes to classic rock 'n' roll sessions, Jackie's recall is appalling
to put it mildly. Most of what follows is based on the two-part "Repeating
Echoes" interview with Stuart Colman from 1986, transcribed in "Now Dig
This" magazine last year. "Do you recall playing on that particular record?"
asks Stuart about "Jennie Lee" by Jan and Arnie. "Very, very clearly",
says Kelso. It is now almost common knowledge that Plas Johnson is
the sax player on "Jennie Lee". Same with "Pink Shoelaces" by Dodie
Stevens, where the solo is also almost certainly by the Plas.
On the other hand, on his website,
http://www.plasjohnson.com/PJ/Biography/Discography/plasRandRoll.htm
Plas Johnson claims to play on certain records on which not he, but Kelso
is known to have played. (The Piltdown Men recordings, for instance.)
So we cannot simply take these two great sax players on their word. Both
claim to play on Eddie Cochran's "My Way", Bobby Day's "Mr and Mrs
Rock and Roll" and several other records. So who's right and who's wrong?

Kelso started taking music lessons when he was eight years old. His first
instrument was the clarinet. At the age of fifteen he acquired his first alto
saxophone. This was also the instrument that he first played after joining
Roy Milton's band (The Solid Senders) in 1946, switching to tenor sax later
on. Milton was a very successful R&B artist in those days, who recorded
for Specialty Records for almost a full decade. Tired of touring, Kelso left
Milton's band in 1955 and soon found himself employed by Johnny Otis,
as an A&R man for Otis's record company, Dig Records. He also became
a member of the Johnny Otis band, which included Plas Johnson at that
time. For a while the band had two tenor sax players, but Plas got busier
and busier doing session work and he felt he could leave Otis' band,
because there now was another good tenor sax player to replace him.

Jackie went on the road with the Johnny Otis Show, often as band
leader, and is mentioned at the beginning of "Shake It Lucy Baby", the
long opening track of the "Johnny Otis Show" LP on Capitol (recorded
1957, released 1958). Plas Johnson also sent Kelso out on record dates
as his sub, so Jackie felt he had to learn quickly to sound like Plas and
play the rock 'n' roll style. (Until then, Kelso had played mainly R&B and
jazz.) He was always co-operative, trying to make both the producer and
the artist happy. Kelso also got the chance to record instrumental singles
under his own name, on small West Coast labels labels like Spry ("Cooler,
Please"), Signet ("Straight As An Arrow") and Vita ("Once More").

In the early sixties, he was involved with many instrumental rock and
roll recordings (Piltdown Men, Sandy Nelson, The Routers, etc.). Phil
Spector often used three sax players for his Wall of Sound and Jackie
was usually one of them, along with Steve Douglas and Nino Tempo.
Kelso adapted easily to the changes in the music business and was
always in demand as a session player or bandleader. Like Plas Johnson
and many other R&R session men from the fifties, he returned to his
first love, jazz, and, now in his eighties, is still touring with the Count
Basie Orchestra. He still did the occasional rock & roll job though,
like backing Little Richard on his 1986 album "Lifetime Friend", which
was produced by Stuart Colman.

Jackie Kelso : a truly great saxophonist and, according to those who
have met him, an extremely nice person.

Further reading: Stuart Colman Presents Repeating Echoes : Jackie
Kelso on Radio London. Part 1 in Now Dig This 247 (October 2003),
page 12-14 ; part 2 in NDT 248 (November 2003), page 24-26.