Jazz Pianist Daniel Kelly (from a jazz pianist’s point of view)

[Javier Jbara]

It was a great delight for me to talk with Daniel Kelly in the last guest appearance of the term. Kelly plays a unique and original approach to jazz music. His touch at the piano was the first thing that I heard. In “Blind Visionaries”, the relaxed and precise manner in which he touched the piano embodied the sensitive and introspective nature of the artwork. A light touch created a mature atmosphere, compared to the high-energy that would have been given off if he played with a heavy and aggressive touch. Additionally, the constrained harmony Kelly used provided a lot of tension. Most of his chords did not use upper extensions or notes from outside of the key. These chord voicings are not primarily used in jazz; Jazz pianists almost exclusively play chords with at least 4 different notes. This tells me that he is intentionally stepping outside the stereotypical jazz idiom to match the ambiance. Another reason could be his extensive history working with musical theatre, which uses simpler chords to not interfere with the vocalist. These two things were an interesting aspect of his playing, and I plan on “stealing” some of his approaches in my own music.

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