Roger Kellaway
Encyclopedia
Roger Kellaway is an American
composer
, arranger
, and pianist
.
Born in Waban, Massachusetts
, he is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory. Kellaway has composed commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and jazz
big band, as well as for film, TV, ballet and stage productions.One of his early mentors, the late Phil Saltman, was his piano teacher and ran a Summer music camp called ENCORE in Marblehead, Massachusetts. As a composer/arranger, he has received two prestigious honors: a 1976 Oscar nomination for Best Adaptation Score
for the film A Star Is Born
, and the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement
for the album Memos from Paradise. As a pianist, Kellaway has performed and recorded with a wide range of prominent musicians, such as Lena Horne
, Elvis Presley
, Bobby Darin
, Barbra Streisand
, Joni Mitchell
, Natalie Cole
, Yo-Yo Ma
, Quincy Jones
, Caterina Valente
, Oliver Nelson
, Thad Jones
, Melanie
, Joe Beck
, Henry Mancini
, clarinetist Eddie Daniels
, jazz bassist Red Mitchell
, and violinist Yue Deng. Kellaway is perhaps best known for his Cello Quartet recordings in the 1970s.
In 1964 Kellaway recorded Happiness for Impulse!
with The Russian Jazz Quartet
, a group also featuring Grady Tate
, Igor Berukshtis, George Ricci and Boris Midney, the arranger for USA European Connection
.
For the TV sitcom All in the Family
(later known as Archie Bunker's Place), Kellaway wrote and played the closing theme, "Remembering You".
On November 07 and 08, 2008 Kellaway served as band leader and pianist during the Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl
concerts by Van Morrison
, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the acclaimed album that was released in November 1968. Featured also is guitarist
Jay Berliner
, who played on the album.
With Ben Webster
With Sonny Rollins
With Clark Terry
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arranger
In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
, and pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Born in Waban, Massachusetts
Waban, Massachusetts
Waban is one of the thirteen villages of Newton, Massachusetts, an affluent suburban city approximately seven miles from downtown Boston.-Origin of name:Waban was named for Waban, the first Massachusett Indian converted to Christianity, in 1646...
, he is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory. Kellaway has composed commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
big band, as well as for film, TV, ballet and stage productions.One of his early mentors, the late Phil Saltman, was his piano teacher and ran a Summer music camp called ENCORE in Marblehead, Massachusetts. As a composer/arranger, he has received two prestigious honors: a 1976 Oscar nomination for Best Adaptation Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
for the film A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1976 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1976 American rock music musical film telling the story of a young woman, played by Barbra Streisand who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star, played by Kris Kristofferson, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline...
, and the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement
The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement has been awarded since 1963. The award is presented to the arranger of the music.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:...
for the album Memos from Paradise. As a pianist, Kellaway has performed and recorded with a wide range of prominent musicians, such as Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown...
, Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
, Thad Jones
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.-Biography:Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten . Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen...
, Melanie
Melanie Safka
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk is an American singer-songwriter. Known professionally as simply Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Ruby Tuesday" and "Lay Down ".-Early career:...
, Joe Beck
Joe Beck
Joe Beck was an American guitarist who had been notable in jazz for more than 30 years.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Beck also briefly flirted with rock music in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, clarinetist Eddie Daniels
Eddie Daniels
Eddie Daniels is an American musician. Though he is best known as a jazz clarinet player, he has also played alto and tenor saxophones, as well as classical music on the clarinet....
, jazz bassist Red Mitchell
Red Mitchell
Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927, New York City - November 8, 1992, Salem, Oregon, was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. He was the brother of Whitey Mitchell....
, and violinist Yue Deng. Kellaway is perhaps best known for his Cello Quartet recordings in the 1970s.
In 1964 Kellaway recorded Happiness for Impulse!
Impulse! Records
Impulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
with The Russian Jazz Quartet
The Russian Jazz Quartet
The Russian Jazz Quartet was a modern jazz band founded in 1964 by saxophonist/clarinetist Boris Midney and bass player Igor Berukshtis, who made a break from their Soviet music hall orchestra on tour to defect to the United States via the American Embassy in Tokyo the same year.The incident...
, a group also featuring Grady Tate
Grady Tate
Grady Tate, , is a hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer.He has played with Lional Hampton, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Lena Horne, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, Chris Connor, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Cal Tjader, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Count...
, Igor Berukshtis, George Ricci and Boris Midney, the arranger for USA European Connection
USA European Connection
USA European Connection was a female disco group consisting of Leza Holmes, Renne Johnson and Sharon Williams. In 1978 they hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with the Come Into My Heart album....
.
For the TV sitcom All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
(later known as Archie Bunker's Place), Kellaway wrote and played the closing theme, "Remembering You".
On November 07 and 08, 2008 Kellaway served as band leader and pianist during the Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl is the fifth live album recorded by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, and released in the US on February 24, 2009 and on February 9, 2009 in the UK...
concerts by Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the acclaimed album that was released in November 1968. Featured also is guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
Jay Berliner
Jay Berliner
Jay Berliner is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. Starting with his first television experience at age 7 on NBC’s The Children’s Hour with sister Eve, his career has spanned the globe: from the Metropolitan Opera house , where he was house guitarist and mandolinist; to...
, who played on the album.
As leader
- A Portrait of Roger Kellaway (Regina/Fresh Sound Records, 1963)
- Happiness (with Russian Jazz Quartet, Impulse!Impulse! RecordsImpulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
, 1964) - The Roger Kellaway Trio (PrestigePrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
/OJC, 1965) - Solo Piano (Dobre Records, 1970's)
- Say That Again (Dobre Records)
- Alone Together (DragonDragon RecordsDragon Records is a Swedish Jazz record label which was founded by the journalist Lars Westin in 1975. Westin was then the editor of OJ ; Westin now runs the company with Leif Collin .-History:...
, 1988) with Red MitchellRed MitchellKeith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927, New York City - November 8, 1992, Salem, Oregon, was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. He was the brother of Whitey Mitchell.... - Live At Mayback Recital Hall – Vol. 11 (Concord JazzConcord RecordsConcord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
, 1991) - What Was That (Dragon, 1991) with Jan AllanJan AllanJan Bertil Allan is a Swedish jazz trumpeter and composer. He is a winner of the Grammis awards, the Swedish equivalent to the Grammys. He has also composed for several films such as The Adventures of Picasso ....
- Roger Kellaway Meets Gene BertonciniGene Bertoncini-Biography:Bertoncini was born in New York City, where he was raised in a musical family. His father played guitar and harmonica. Bertoncini began playing guitar at age seven and by age sixteen was appearing on television. He graduated from high school and attended the University of Notre Dame,...
And Michael MooreMichael Moore (bassist)Michael Moore is an American jazz bassist.Moore started on bass at age 15, at Withrow High School in Cincinnati, where he performed in various ensembles as well as the Presentation Orchestra in George G. "Smittie" Smith's famed The Withrow Minstrels. He played with his father in nightclubs in...
(Chianscuro, 1992) - Life’s A Take (Concord, 1992)
- Inside & Out (Concord, 1995, with Ruby Braff)
As sideman
With Oliver NelsonOliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
- More Blues and the Abstract TruthMore Blues and the Abstract TruthMore Blues and the Abstract Truth is an album by American jazz composer, conductor and arranger Oliver Nelson featuring performances recorded in 1964 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1964) - Soulful BrassSoulful BrassSoulful Brass is an album by American jazz composer/arranger Oliver Nelson and pianist/entertainer Steve Allen featuring performances recorded in 1968 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
with Steve AllenSteve AllenSteve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
(Impulse!, 1968)
With Ben Webster
Ben Webster
Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
- See You at the FairSee You at the FairSee You at the Fair is an album by jazz saxophonist Ben Webster, released on Impulse! Records.-Track listing:#"Someone to Watch over Me" 4:30#"In a Mellow Tone" 4:26#"Over the Rainbow" 4:42...
(Impulse!, 1964)
With Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
- AlfieAlfie (album)Alfie is a 1966 album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins of music from the film of the same name. The original British film soundtrack featured Rollins with local musicians, including pianist Stan Tracey, who are not heard on this album....
(Impulse!, 1966)
With Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
- The Happy Horns of Clark TerryThe Happy Horns of Clark TerryThe Happy Horns of Clark Terry is an album by American jazz trumpeter Clark Terry featuring performances recorded in 1964 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1964)