Cashbox : 10/22/1960

Having arrived as one of the most consistently compelling jazz pianists on the scene, Kelly does not rest on his laurels with the Miles Davis group, but rather works hard here for further recognition of his versatility. An infectious swinger, he has the very reliable assistance here of Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers to swing Temperance, On Stage and Pot Luck, plus 3 others. Fine performances.

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Saint Paul Recorder
Albert Anderson : 09/30/1960

Pianist Wynton Kelly, one of the most talented young jazz musicians in the business, turns in a tremendous individual performance and teams with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones to provide some of the most imaginative music on record on a Vee Jay LP just released under the title Kelly at Midnight.

Featuring six original tunes, the disc is a natural follow-up to Wynton’s Kelly Great, also released by Vee Jay. However, in this reviewer’s opinion, Kelly and the trio have much more to say on this waxing… Moreover, the popular Miles Davis alumnus alumnus seemed to have selected the tunes just suited for his piano stylings.

On Side 1 his sound is both full and melodic, and his style alternatively subtle and aggressive, as he probes the two featured tunes – Temperance and Weird Lullaby. On the flip side, he moves progressively into the background to move Chambers and Jones upstage. The tunes they interpret together, meanwhile, are On Stage, a tune with an airy theme, Skatin’, a slightly different offering featuring the drumming of Jones and Pot Luck, a tune spotlighting cohesive rhythm.

On a whole, the group plays both rhythmically and imaginatively in a manner which should please not only the “Moderns,” but lovers of fine music as well. This one should go over big for Wynton and Vee Jay as well.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason – 10/16/1960
Album of the Week

Wynton Kelly plus Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums) in some really lovely piano-with-rhythm work. Jones and Chambers work together like twin brothers, a result of their long association with the Miles Davis band.

Kelly, who had recently joined Davis when these recordings were made, got right into step immediately. Kelly is a versatile and accomplished pianist. To begin with, he swings everything he plays. He has a deep, earthy feeling for the blues and yet he never becomes mournful. Everything he plays has wit in it sooner or later.

He invents many delightful interpolations on themes and is especially adept at producing a mood without becoming saccharin. This is a fine trio LP with excellent supporting work by both Jones and Chambers.

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Down Beat : 11/24/1960
John S. Wilson : 3 stars

Kelly is a model modern mainstream pianist – in tune with the times without being choked by the cliches of the moment. His single-note liens are bright and airy, and he can dig in with both hands when he wants to. Similarly, Paul Chambers is a consistent, straight-down-the-middle, no-nonsense bassist.

Jones, however, is much more erratic. When he finds the right groove, he can be a tremendously strong, propulsive support, a role he plays well on Weird Lullaby, On Stage, and the early portions of Pot Luck. But he is just as likely to get out of balance in as delicately adjusted a group as this. That is what happens on Temperance and Skatin’, both of which are clobbered by his obtrusive up-staging.

Kelly remains a disarming and pleasant pianist through it all.

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Liner Notes by Nat Hentoff

Miles Davis was being asked one afternoon for a verbal analysis of Wynton Kelly‘s musical worth. Miles characteristically scoffed at using such imprecise tools as words to describe what happens in jazz; but finally he said “Wynton’s the light for a cigarette. He lights the first and he keeps it going. Without him there’s no smoking.”

Another judicious tribute came from Cannonball Adderley who has worked with Wynton in the Miles Davis band. “He’s a fine soloist, who does both the subdued things and the swingers very well. Wynton is also the world’s greatest accompanist for a soloist. He plays with the soloist all the time, with the chords you choose. He even anticipates your direction.”

Somewhat earlier, I’d been talking to King Curtis, a Texan now in New York and a specialist in rhythm and blues. “Wynton worked with me for a while, and naturally I’ve heard him with Dinah and with Miles. What struck me was that wherever Wynton worked, he fitted in. He’s not limited to one king of playing. With Dinah, he had the taste and supportive power of a superior accompanist. With me, he had the first and the straightaway swinging my bands have to have. And with Miles, he can be as subtle as Miles requires.”

As is usually the case, Wynton was being discussed enthusiastically by musicians before there was much attention paid him in the public prints. His broadest range of recognition has resulted from his long stay with Miles. Born in 1931 and raised in Brooklyn, Wynton’s experience, as King Curtis indicated, has been quite variegated. He’s played with Lester Young and Dizzy Gillespie (small band and big band), was Dinah Washington’s accompanist for three years, and now is with Miles. When he was quite young, he recorded a 10″ solo LP for Blue Note I remember as having been uniquely fresh and melodically attractive.

For several years thereafter, however, Wynton was regarded as the perennial sideman. Only in the past couple of years has Wynton again been commissioned to lead his own albums. The best by far he’s done with a quinte is Kelly Great on Vee-Jay, a remarkably relaxed session with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter in the front line. He has now – with Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones – achieved his most consistently accomplished trio work on record.

Temperance… Notice, in the first notes of that tune, the full, plangent piano sound Wynton gets. And the wholly unforced, resilient beat. There is also the melodic logic and uncluttered development of his variations. Underneath, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe build a foundation that would hold and move mastodons. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Ralph Gleason was pointing out that Paul and Philly Joe have worked together for so long (three years in Miles’ band and later on many record sessions) that they now have a remarkable unity in their playing: “This constant exchange of musical ideas, somethings for as much as 12 hours at a stretch and often every night for months, has resulted in a really amazing intermeshing of musical thought.” Add Wynton, who has worked with both Chambers and Jones for hundreds of nights, and here is a trio of rare cohesion with besides a rare collective fire that comes from the individual intensity of each member. Note, for one example, Philly Joe’s brilliant, spearing breaks in Temperance.

Weird Lullabye is a reflective piece with a poignant theme. What is impressive here is that Wynton is as consistent and emotionally involved in this uncommonly tender essay as he was in the aggressive wailing of Temperance. And those who categorically put down Philly Joe for the volume of his playing might pay particular attention to the subtlety of his brush work on this track. Paul Chambers, who has been growing steadily as a soloist, indicates in his solo here how much he’s learned of the values of economy, of selecting the key notes.

Philly Joe starts On Stage with characteristic decisiveness, and Wynton sounds the airy theme. Philly Joe, it seems to me, is the most imaginatively resourceful drummer now in jazz. On his best nights, there has been no one since the death of Sid Catlett who can invent so many things in a solo and yet have that solo develop with unerring order and balance. Joe is also an invigorating spur to a soloist. Listen, for example, to the variety of propulsive accents he provides Wynton in Wynton’s opening solo. Then Philly changes function to simmer behind Paul’s bowed flight, adding body to his accomplishment until Wynton returns and the section is intact.

Skatin’ – with Joe again acting as a Greek chorus – is based on an infectiously rhythmic motif. What Wynton’s solo demonstrates is that it’s entirely possible to be authentically “funky” while also maintaining a light touch and a light-hearted, improvisatory approach. Some of the earth is, after all, covered with green. After Paul’s assertive solo, there is a rollicking, brilliantly integrated drum solo by Philly Joe Jones and a return to the original subject of discussion.

The final Pot Luck is another unpretentious framework for stretching out. Again it’s evident that rarely in modern jazz has a rhythm section been in such complete communication that the resultant impression is of one, six-handed man. Many jazz recordings utilize rhythm sections that do not often work together outside the studio. When you get one that has, the difference is instantly clear.

Philly Joe’s final roman candle display underlines the fact that he is an unusually authoritative drummer. Everything he does, no matter how much is going on simultaneously, is sharp and clear and there is absolutely no hesitation. Nor is there detachment. He and Paul and Wynton are fully involved with the music and confidently secure in their protean grooves.

And Wynton, as Miles Davis has noted, always has the light, so that where he is, there’s bound to be smoke.