HAROLD KELLING: August 9 1944 - May 12 2005
"All the music I play is for the Lord, whether it's jazz or rock or just plain weird."
In the early 1960s, Harold Kelling was listening to the music of Link Wray, and Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. Their music inspired a passion in him that began a life-long journey and a never-ending quest to explore a guitar style that evolved into a complex poly-harmonic and rhytmic art form. It is in this new style that Kelling freely abandons himself to improvisation infused with his unique genius, spirituality and technique.
Harold Kelling was the founding member of the legedary Hampton Grease Band. The musical genius behind the Grease Band is gererally attributed to him. Harold started the band using amateur, but very talented, musicians who quickly rose to the professional level. Without any formal music training but a good artistic and technical ability they conjured up an album's worth of original songs. Spontaneity, comedy and long jazzy guitar breaks were trademarks of their style. Bruce Hampton's "wigged out" stage presence and Kelling's spontaneous and elegant guitar styles were the glue of the band's performance. He and 2nd guitarist Glenn Phillips played intricate guitar melodies together that weave the entire Grease Band experience into a musical journey. The Grease Band recorded one album, Music to Eat, for Columbia Records and then disbanded.
The Starving Braineaters formed in 1972 . Comprised of the brilliant young Tom Rafferty on drums, Ken Gregory on bass and trumpet, and Bill Porter on piano, this band delivered a straight ahead jazz rock punch. The band spent the next year rehearsing and recording in their home studios. These were prolific times for Kelling, with many of his best compositions being written during this period. Through a friend at Columbia Records, the Braineaters drew the attention of visionary president John Hammond Sr., who personally came down to scout the band and handle the negotiations. They were set to ink a recording contract when Mr Hammond suffered a debilitating heart attack and the deal fell by the wayside. The Braineaters continued on for a short time thereafter, adding Carl Cuseo on soprano and alto sax, renamed with the more commercially friendly title of Collision Course, and then, broke up.
In 1978 he teamed up with keyboardist Robert Grimes. In Grimes, Kelling had a songwriter and player equal to him, and the ideal collaborator. This partnership became the basis for a decades long affiliation for both and the foundation for Masters of the Edge. The duo began playing and writing together. Kelling’s improvised style and concise phrasing took off on top Grimes’ song structures. Rhythmic explorations, flowing piano lines and searing guitar solos were compelling evidence of the band’s pre-eminent genius. Recordings were made and then, once again, forgotten, as another promising combo dissolved.
Since his early days of recording with the Braineaters, Kelling maintained a healthy respect for the recording proccess. Through out his career he recorded extensivley with every band he was involved with. Most of the tapes languished for years in the depths of his basement, covered in dust and mold. The result of his life’s work can now be heard in the many recordings that have now been recovered, remastered and readied for release, finally providing strong evidence that he deserves a place in the annals of rock history as one of the great guitarist’s of his time.
