Biography
Throughout the 1930s Guy Kelly maintained a steady presence as a dependable journeyman player on the Chicago scene. His early engagements took him to Baton Rouge, where he performed alongside Toots Johnson, and then to New Orleans for a two-year association with Oscar Celestin from 1927 to 1928. Tours with Kid Howard and Boyd Atkins’ Firecrackers led to his eventual settlement in Chicago. There his 1930s sideman work extended to Cassino Simpson, Erskine Tate, Dave Peyton, Tiny Parham, Carroll Dickerson, Jimmie Noone, Half Pint Jaxon, and Albert Ammons, the last during 1935–36 and again in 1939. He appeared on recordings by Celestin, Noone, Jaxon, and Ammons among others, yet never headed a date of his own.