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Jon-Erik Kellso

Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso started playing professionally in and around Detroit, Michigan where he was born in 1964. Jon began early, playing in a big band at age 11, in the International Youth Symphony at age 13, and in a concert alongside cornetist Wild Bill Davison at age 17. Kellso played with a wide variety of groups there, including the J.C. Heard Orchestra.

In '88 Jon-Erik joined James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band with whom he's made appearances throughout North America, concertized on PBS TV, and recorded extensively.

Since moving to New York City in 1989 to join Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, Jon has enjoyed performing and recording with the likes of Ralph Sutton, Dan Barrett, Howard Alden, Marty Grosz, Milt Hinton, Bob Haggart, Dick Hyman, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Redbone, Levon Helm, Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ken Peplowski, Bob Wilbur, and Kenny Davern.

Recent engagements include a week at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis' Louis Armstrong Continuum; various appearances on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" live Public Radio International show, including a live cinecast to movie theaters everywhere with Elvis Costello; several jazz fest at sea cruises; concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with John Lithgow; tours of the U.S. and Japan with Ken Peplowski's Kingdom of Swing big band; annual appearances in jazz clubs and festivals in New Orleans; and jazz parties, festivals, and concerts all over the world.

At home in New York Kellso has been leading the EarRegulars with guitarist Matt Munisteri and various guest artists at the Ear Inn on Sunday nights since 2007. On Mondays and Tuesdays Jon plays with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks at Iguana. Aside from these steadies, Jon can also be seen performing at all the great NYC venues, including Mezzrow, Luca's Jazz Corner, Birdland, Dizzy's, Small's, etc.

Jon-Erik can be heard on several television and movie soundtracks, including “Ghost World,” "The Aviator," "Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," "Revolutionary Road," "Bessie," "Kill Your Darlings," and the remake of "Mildred Pierce" with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. He was on screen in "Revolutionary Road," and was also seen and heard in the HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire."

Jon is on well over 100 albums, including five CDs as a leader and two with cornet great Ruby Braff. Jon pays tribute to Braff on his "Remembering Ruby" CD, on Gen- Erik Records. The EarRegulars have two CDs out, one recorded in Berlin, and the other in New Orleans.

Awards

Pulitzer Prize, Emmy, Grammy, Tony, Murray, Congressional Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, Magenta Heart, Time Magazine Man of the Year, blah, blah, blah....

Ricky Alexander: Just Found Joy

Read "Just Found Joy" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 18, 2024

The odd picture on the cover of Ricky Alexander's Just Found Joy is neither a takeaway from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) album cover, nor a play on the GOAT acronym. Actually, the album art was photographed at the Store Barns Farm in Downstate New York. This is a superb album of a dozen (less one original) older classic hits played by traditional jazz adepts--if not GOATS--who excel performing in this genre. “People Will Say ...

Album Review

The Bix Centennial All-Stars: Celebrating Bix!

Read "Celebrating Bix!" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 21, 2023

Cornetist Leon Bismark “Bix" Beiderbecke, while certainly heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, developed his own highly stylized way of playing and improvising jazz. One wonders what musical highlights might have been accomplished had he lived beyond his 28 years. Celebrating Bix!, originally released in 2003 as a single CD album, adds selections which, due to size constraints, did not make the original release, but they all certainly “make it" here as a double CD and vinyl release. What ...

Album Review

The Bix Centennial All Stars: Celebrating Bix!

Read "Celebrating Bix!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 14, 2023

Here's a new album by the Bix Centennial All Stars honoring the legacy of the renowned cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Sort of. Actually, most of the music on Celebrating Bix! was recorded and released in March 2003, the actual centenary of Beiderbecke's birth in Davenport, Iowa. This expanded twentieth anniversary edition includes a trio of songs not released at that time owing to limited space, and has been reissued on two CDs instead of one. Having said that, ...

Album Review

Jon-Erik Kellso and the EarRegulars: Live at the Ear Inn

Read "Live at the Ear Inn" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 31, 2023

As trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and his EarRegulars had been performing every Sunday night for more than sixteen years at New York City's historic Ear Inn, Kellso reasoned it was time that one of their concerts should be recorded to share more broadly the fun and enthusiasm that animates every session. Once the ties had been bound, parts of two concerts were recorded, on January 15 and 29, 2023. The music is a hybrid, with one foot planted ...

Album Review

Catherine Russell: Send for Me

Read "Send for Me" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
April 21, 2022

Il valore della tradizione. È l'aspetto che la cantante Catherine Russell ribadisce dal 2006, quando pubblicò il suo primo album da leader, dopo anni di lavoro come corista con Donal Fagen, gli Steely Dan, Wynton Marsalis, Madonna, David Bowie e altri. Quando terminò la collaborazione col cantante britannico dopo l'uscita di Reality (Iso Records 2003), Catherine era prossima ai 50 anni ed era restìa a intraprendere un percorso solista. Invece fu una scelta indovinata, come dimostra il successo dei suoi ...

Album Review

Scott Hamilton and Duke Robillard: Swingin' Again

Read "Swingin' Again" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
September 2, 2021

In 1987, Duke Robillard released the album Swing (Rounder), a successful combination of jazz and jump blues. He got his old friend, tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton to help him out with the recording. Although Robillard is primarily known as a blues guitarist, the record made it obvious that jazz is also deeply rooted in his musical DNA. With Swingin' Again, he revisits the jazz world, and he once again teams up with Hamilton to help him out. Robillard ...

Album Review

Jon-Erik Kellso: Blue Roof Blues

Read "Blue Roof Blues" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 23, 2008

E' affascinante notare come, contro ogni tentativo schematico della critica, il jazz sappia coltivare la convivenza di stili nati in decenni anche lontani. Attualità e avanguardia sono forse concetti romantici da rivedere, ma non è questa la sede.Ci limitiamo a notare quanto possa essere vivo e vitale un CD come Blue Roof Blues--A Love Letter to New Orleans, opera di Jon-Erik Kellso dedicata alla città che è la culla del jazz e alla sua recente sofferenza causata dall'uragano ...

Joe Lang wrote for the July/August '07 issue or Jersey Jazz: "Blue Roof Blues: A Love Letter to New Orleans" is an exceptional album. Conceived as a tribute to the city that suffered so much from the devastation of Katrina, it is a triumph that evinces both the pain and joy of the city....Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso assembled a company of outstanding musicians who are steeped in the traditional jazz sounds of the Crescent City, but who are constantly taking the music to places where it has not been before....Kellso once again proves that his is a unique and exceptional voice on trumpet....In addition, this album highlights his strength as a composer who honors the tradition, but adds a personal and contemporary sensitivity....Suffice to say that you will find that each (track) is a gem. This is an album that is ostensibly aimed at an audience inclined toward the sounds of traditional New Orleans Jazz, and, indeed, it will certainly find great favor with those devotees. Give it a listen, however, and you will hear music that defies classification. I expect that there will be many who consider themselves modernists in their taste being drawn to the music on "Blue Roof Blues."

His debut album, "Chapter One" captured the attention of noted jazz critic Owen Cordle, who wrote, "Kellso has a fluent gift of melody and a knack for spicing it up with a Roy Eldridge-like rasp, a Howard McGhee-like excitability, and Rex Stewart-like tonal effects. Kellso debuts with a warm, swing-oriented session with no stray notes. The effortless, swinging mood is sustained throughout all 13 performances. Kellso is a most welcome discovery."

In Scott Yanow's recently published book entitled "Swing," Kellso's "Chapter 2: The Plot Thickens" received 9 of 10 stars. He is described as being "one of the finest Mainstream and trad cornetists to emerge during the 1990s." Jon is also featured in Yanow's "Trumpet Kings" book.

Jack Sohmer reviewed "Chapter 2" for the Mississippi Rag, writing, "Kellso emerges as one of today's most fulfilling mainstream trumpeters and cornetists. His poignant, rounded tone suggests a seamless combination of Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman, Cootie Williams, Frankie Newton, and Roy Eldridge, a synthesis of which anyone may be justifiably proud. From the listener's point of view, it is difficult to think of anyone, save Ruby Braff, who so successfully embodies the best traditions of the past while at the same time bringing them convincingly into the present. Kellso is telling his story in the hallowed tradition of great yarn-spinners throughout history. He entertains, informs, and keeps our interest whetted for the next installment."

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