Red Kelly

Distinguished from the trumpeter who shared his name, Thomas Raymond Kelly came into the world as a jazz bassist in Shelby, Montana, on August 29, 1927. After contracting polio in early childhood, he began on drums in a fife-and-drum ensemble formed at St. Thomas Orphanage near Great Falls, but the disease prevented him from working the hi-hat pedal, so he turned to the bass instead.

Already earning a living as a musician at sixteen, Kelly left high school behind and moved to Seattle. Much of his career unfolded on the road before he settled in New York City, where he performed with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, and Les Brown. In 1952 he entered the band of clarinetist Woody Herman and remained until the middle of 1955; from 1957 to 1959 he worked with pianist Stan Kenton, then spent most of the 1960s on tour with Harry James.

While traveling with James he formed a lasting friendship with drummer Buddy Rich that later included occasional collaborations. In 1976 Kelly mounted a satirical run for governor of Washington by creating the Owl party, whose name expanded to “Out With Logic, On With Lunacy,” and campaigned under the slogan “Unemployment Is Not Working,” finishing third in the election. He stepped away from performing in 1986 and opened his own jazz club, Kelly’s, in Tacoma. The Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame inducted him in 2000, and he died on June 9, 2004.