Phil Kelly's career in jazz, film and symphony pops

On the drums first

Phil Kelly started out behind the drum kit. Early in his career he logged several years as a jazz drummer with artists such as Terry Gibbs, Red Garland and Denny Zeitlin, played drums for Si Zentner, and put in years as a studio and recording drummer. One of his first employers on the road, as drummer and arranger, was Chicago singer and guitarist Frank D'Rone; their first date together was a live recording for Mercury Records at the hungry i in San Francisco in 1961.

He also worked as arranger, conductor and drummer for vocalists including Buddy Greco, Julius LaRosa, Frank D'Rone, Sylvia Syms, John Gary, Jenny Smith and Al "TNT" Braggs.

Writing for bands, television and commercials

For more than 40 years Phil worked as a composer and arranger for film, television and other media. He wrote for Bill Watrous's Manhattan Wildlife Refuge (including "Zip City" for the 1973 album and charts for Tiger of San Pedro), for the old Tonight Show band and Doc Severinsen, and for Si Zentner. His commercial work runs to more than 500 national commercials, plus music for ESPN, ABC Sports, NFL Films, and industrial films and shows for Cadillac, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, American Airlines and Zales Jewelers.

Screen and exhibition credits include ten episodes of the PBS series Wishbone in 1994, the PBS project West of Hester Street, and the music for the JFK "Sixth Floor" memorial exhibition in Dallas, which has welcomed millions of visitors since it opened in 1991.

Symphony pops

Phil was primary arranger for the Fort Worth Symphony Pops series for more than 25 years, starting in 1975, and wrote for the Dallas Symphony's "Dallasound" pops series in 1974. Doc Severinsen and Peter Nero commissioned custom pop symphonic scores from him, and his arrangements have been played by the Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati, North Carolina and Vermont symphony orchestras. The full list sits with the selected recordings and arranging credits.

The Northwest years and three albums

Phil moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1998 and settled in Bellingham, Washington. He kept writing jazz and pop orchestra arrangements for publication and on commission, lectured on film scoring and music for the media at the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University and the University of Colorado at Denver, and coached student big bands at the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend in 2002 and 2003.

In August 2003 he recorded Convergence Zone with the NW Prevailing Winds, his first big band album under his own name, and it drew two Grammy nominations. My Museum followed with a Los Angeles band, the SW Santa Ana Winds, and JazzTimes placed it among its top 50 albums of 2007. The third record, Ballet of the Bouncing Beagles, reunited the Northwest band. Critics' verdicts on all three are collected on the album reviews page.

"Kathy's Waltz" on Convergence Zone was written for his late wife, Kathy.