In the 1950s, pianist Pat Moran led a combo that included bassist Scott LaFaro and singer Beverly Kelly. Pat's piano was strong, confident and swinging—the keyboard sound of a bowling ball streaking down the lane for a strike. Bev had a hip, playful voice and was often joined by Pat's in a harmony pairing that was truly unbeatable. On The Pat Moran Quartet for Bethlehem in 1956, they added a male voice—drummer Johnny Whited. [Photo above: the Pat Moran Quartet in 1956; from left, John Whited, Pat Moran, Bev Kelly and John Doling]
As LaFaro told Martin Williams in an August 3, 1960 interview in the Jazz Review: I don't even like any of my records except maybe the first one I did with Pat Moran on Audio Fidelity."
Here's what Pat and Bev sounded like:
Here's Gone With the Wind...
Here's I Should Care...
And here's Bev Kelly alone backed by the Pat Moran Trio singing I'm Glad There Is You...
The reason I'm providing you with these audio clips at the top of this post instead of the bottom is because both of these remarkable women have been interviewed in two separate half-hour conversations by Allan Kroeker:
Here's Patti Moran...
And here's Bev Kelly...
JazzWax interviews: My interview with Patti is here and my interview with Bev is here and here.
Select discography: Here's a list of my favorite albums...
- The Pat Moran Quartet (Bethlehem/1956)
- Pat Moran While At Birdland (Bethlehem/1957)
- Beverly Kelly Sings With The Pat Moran Trio (Audio Fidelity/1957)
- This Is Pat Moran (Audio Fidelity/1957)
- Bev Kelly's Love Locked Out (Riverside/1959)
- Bev Kelly's You Go to My Head, with the Bob Graf Quartet (VGM/1959)
- In Person: Bev Kelly with Pony Poindexter (Riverside/1960)
- Pat Moran on Terry Gibbs's That Swing Thing (Verve/1961)
- Pat Moran on Terry Gibbs's Straight Ahead (Verve/1962)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX98mUeVy7s
Bonus: Here's Bev singing What Was Is Just What Was, the theme to the film The Late Show (1977)...
Here's Patti in church in 2007...
A special thanks to Keith Greenhalf in the U.K.
