Jazz Crowd Turns Out For Red Kelly's Birthday

Red Kelly celebrated his 71st birthday in style this week, packing his convivial Tacoma restaurant / bar with friends and relatives - and fine music, of course.

The legendary bassist's place on Tacoma Avenue - part Irish pub, part blue-collar bar and part jazz museum - is always worth a visit.

"A guy from the Smithsonian was in here last month," Red said, holding court from the corner of the restaurant's "Elbow Room," as kids and grandmas piled their plates at the buffet and musicians swapped road stories. " `We gotta have this stuff,' he said."

The "stuff" in question is the incredible collection of rare jazz photographs and memorabilia papered over Kelly's wood-paneled walls, reflecting his 50-plus years in the business. Everyone is there, from Django Reinhardt to Charlie Parker, but particularly Red's old employers - Harry James, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and Red Norvo, to name just a few.

"I told him it was probably a good idea to set it up now," Red continued, "They want to put the new police headquarters here. We're probably going to move sometime next year."

Red gets around with a cane now, after his heart attack. What hair he's got left is wispy and white.

"I'm gettin' by," he said, with customary good spirits. "Did I tell you the whole Basie band came through?"

No surprise. Musicians from all over the world drop by to sit in at Kelly's. It's a jazz man's kind of place. On the back door, there's a sign that says "Musicians' Dressing Room." It opens onto a wooden porch with a view of Tacoma.

Ex-Basie saxophonist (and Tacoma stalwart) Bill Ramsay and pianist Larry Fuller, who reported he'd just finished an album with Ray Brown, sat in at Red's party. They put some sizzle into the Tacoma band on the stand, Affinity.

Red still plays, too, every Friday and Saturday with vocalist / pianist Peggy Wied (15 years on the Love Boat), drummer Norm Jeffreys (30 years with Nelson Riddle) and pianist Al Gord.

If you want to taste a little piece of jazz history, catch Red and Friends at Kelly's, before it moves. You never know who's going to show up.

-- Ditto for Seattle, in general. Legendary Boston drummer Bob Moses is in town this week for three Seattle shows, in a band led by pianist Pax Wallace, who has been off the scene for a while.

"I've been woodshedding and composing," Wallace explained earlier this week.

Pax met Moses in Boston last year and the drummer, who did a residency at Cornish College two years ago, agreed to come out. Pax then recruited bassist Chuck Bergeron, who in turn brought on his pal Charles Pillow, an excellent New York tenor man who plays with Maria Schneider and who also has a charged new album, "Currents" (A Records). Seattle trumpeter Jim Knapp completes what Pax calls his "dream band."

Wallace, 38, is a thoughtful, analytical composer and an "inside / outside" player influenced by Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Wayne Shorter. His deliciously raucous tune "Elephant Migration" struck Moses' fantasy right off. In addition to Pax's compositions, the band will play works by Moses and Knapp.

Here's the rundown of Seattle shows: Tula's, 9 p.m. tomorrow; The Studio (2224 C Eastlake), 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and University Unitarian Church, 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

-- A relatively obscure Kentucky pianist named Beegie Adair has caused such a stir at radio station KPLU-FM that she's gotten herself booked into Jazz Alley next week.

"Earlier this year, we were playing her Sinatra album," explained music director Nick Morrison, "and people started calling in. When her new album came out, `The Nat Cole Collection,' the response was incredible."

The station has received more mail orders for Adair's disc than any other album since the service began.

Adair has appeared on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" and hosted her own radio-interview show, "Improvised Thoughts." Her albums lean toward a melodic, easy-listening style. She performs Sept. 1-5. ------------------------------- Paul de Barros is a free-lance writer. His Jazz Inside Out column appears every other week in Ticket.