A Tale of Two Wyntons
How the music of Wynton Kelly and Wynton Marsalis shaped my life before I ever knew it.
My Name Was a Prophecy: Wynton Kelly and the Weight of Inheritance
Long before I was born, my father knew that he would have a son and that he would name him Wynton after his favorite jazz pianist, Wynton Kelly. A lot of research has been dedicated to how deeply our names influence us from birth. Not only do people grow into their names and live up to them, they also run away from them, trying to not let their name define them. Our names influence how people perceive us and in turn how we understand ourselves. Given that I was named after one of the most swingin-ist jazz pianists, a musician who was said to put a smile on every note he played, was I destined in some way shape or form to be a pianist?
The Piano Found Me Before I Found the Name
Before I was ever fully aware of the origin of my name, I can say that I gravitated toward the piano. Some of my earliest memories are of the old beat up upright piano my parents had in the back of our house that I would always try to hammer out the melody to the song Linus and Lucy on. I can say now that being a pianist is a huge part of who I am.
Any pianist can tell you that the piano is a universe within itself, a world view of its own. It provides you with a holistic picture of music but also forces you to look at the small pieces that make up that whole. Piano is simultaneously the orchestra and each individual instrument in the orchestra.
The Marsalis Connection: Violin First, Piano Forever
From the time I was banging on books with drum sticks and trying to figure out songs on that old upright piano, it would be a few years before I would formally start piano lessons. In fact, piano was not my first instrument. At the behest of the late great pianist Ellis Marsalis, my father was advised to start me on violin as a first instrument to develop my hearing and sense of pitch. “Make sure you develop his ears, put him on violin first, that’s what I did for Jason,” he told my father.
While piano provides a holistic view, it can also be a totalizing instrument if not accompanied with the proper musical training. It is a fixed pitch system. When you play a C on the piano, a C always comes out. (If the piano is in tune of course!) This isn’t true of the violin. With string instruments, you must earn each note. Playing in tune is a feat for a young musician within itself!
This sage advice from Mr. Marsalis was hugely important for my musical development. He was the right person to consult with on the issue of raising musical children. Four of his six sons became musicians, all on different instruments.
The Second Wynton: A Tale of Friendship and Influence
And here is where we arrive at the second Wynton in my life, the trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. My dad met Wynton Marsalis four months after I was born in October of 1993 at the Griot New York Garth Fagan dance program in Louisville, Kentucky. They would go on to become lifelong friends and intellectual sparring partners. My father moved us to the New York area when I was seven to work at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Marsalis.
Many people believe that I was named after Wynton Marsalis, when in fact, I am named after the musician his father named him after, Wynton Kelly. When I was a child, despite us sharing the same name, and despite him being a world-famous musician, I was never really impressed by him. I treated him like just another person, much to his amusement.
Wynton would go on to be a major influence on me and my musical worldview as I would grow older and able to appreciate the music he wrote and performed and the wisdom he could impart. One can say that I have in a way followed both roads in the forking path of my name. I would go on to be a composer, in part thanks to the influence of Wynton Marsalis’ septet music that I spent all my time transcribing as a middle schooler and the rigorous arranging lessons he gave me during those years.
Linus and Lucy and the Soundtrack of My Early Years
It turns out, the version of Linus and Lucy that first captured my imagination and drew me to the piano wasn’t Vince Guaraldi’s at all—it was the Wynton Marsalis Septet rendition, and I didn’t even realize it.
I had long assumed that I was drawn to this tune because of my dad’s love of the Peanuts comics, movies and subsequently the music. But then one day I realized that the original Vince Guaraldi tune was in the key of A flat major. Whenever I tried to play it as a toddler, it was always C major. I had actually believed the song was in C major until I took the time to listen to the original when I wanted to learn it properly as an older child.
My initial assumption of it being in C major was probably because it’s the most basic key—all white notes, easy for a child to play around with. But coincidentally—or maybe even providentially—the version of Linus and Lucy I was introduced to (or you could say indoctrinated with) as a kid was actually in C major. And the album it came from just so happened to be in heavy rotation during my early childhood.
This album is none other than Wynton and Ellis Marsalis’ 1995 album of Peanuts music, Joe Cool’s Blues. An album of Peanuts tunes by both Wynton and Ellis Marsalis - coincidence?
Nature, Nurture, and a Little Jazz Prophecy
My life has largely been a tale of two Wyntons. The tale of the pianist, and the tale of the composer. Was this part of a prophetic vision by my father when he blessed me with this name, or was this a product of the path his life and subsequently mine would take as he became more involved with jazz professionally?
Did people perceive me as a musician because of my name or was there something innate about growing up in a household where music was ubiquitous?
I was completely unaware of this as my toddler self. I just loved beating on books and banging on the piano. Music was something I loved and gravitated toward.
Looking back now, it’s clear how all the threads connect—my name spoken before I was born, an old upright piano, two Wyntons, Ellis Marsalis, and a childhood obsession with Linus and Lucy. All of it led here, to this first post of Wynton Kelly’s Liner Notes. I hope you’ll stick around for the stories, conversations, and analysis to come. Click below to subscribe and join me on the journey.