| 1931 | Wynton Charles Kelly was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2, 1931. |
| 1935 | He started playing the piano. He did not have chance for much formal training in music. |
| 1940s | He also played organ in local churches. |
| 1943 | He began playing professionally, as a member of R&B groups.
He played with brothers Lee and Ray Abrams, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Ernie Henry, and Cecil Payne. |
| 1946 | He toured as member of Ray Abrams' R&B band.
He joined Hot Lips Page's band for several months. |
| 1947 | He made his recording debut on Hal Singer's "Cornbread", and was a pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit. |
| 1948 | He recorded his first solo on Babs Gonzales' record. |
| Late 1940s | He played with Hot Lips Page (1948 or earlier), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (1949), and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (1950). |
| 1950 | He made his recording debut as a leader on the Blue Note label. |
| 1951 | He played with Lester Young and the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. |
| 1952 | He played in Lester Young's band and Dizzy Gillespie's band.
He joined into the army. He recruited Duke Pearson into the show band, but two of them were only black musicians there. |
| 1954 | He was musical director of the army show.
He left the army |
| 1955 | He reunited with Washington and Gillespie.
He played with Benny Carter. |
| 1956 | He was part of Charles Mingus' band for a tour of Washington DC, California, and Vancouver.
He recorded with Billie Holiday, also played for the Blue Note debuts of Johnny Griffin and Sonny Rollins. |
| 1957 | He left Mingus' band to rejoin Gillespie's band for touring Canada and the southern United States.
He played as a guest in Art Blakey's group (released as Theory of Art), and also joined recording for Griffin's A Blowin' Session, Gillespie, Clark Terry.
He played the bass, for one track of Abbey Lincoln's That's Him!. (Because the regular bassist, Paul Chambers, became drunk and fell asleep in the studio.)
He left Gillespie and formed his own trio. |
| 1958 | He recorded his second album, the quartet Piano, as a leader for the Riverside label.
He released his first album, Piano Interpretations, on Blue Note, as a leader.
He played for recordings Betty Carter, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Blue Mitchell, and Hank Mobley. He also played organ on one track of Pepper Adams and Jimmy Knepper's The Pepper-Knepper Quintet.
He released "Piano". |
| 1959 | He released "Kelly Blue".
He joined Miles Davis's band.
He made his first album for Vee-Jay Records, in a quintet.
He recorded with John Coltrane, for one track, "Naima", from Coltrane's Giant Steps. |
| 1960 | He toured 22 cities in Europe as a member of Davis' quintet. |
| 1961 | He made his first recording with Wes Montgomery. |
| 1963 | He left Miles Davis's band, and formed his own trio with Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb (The trio stayed together until 1969, when Chambers died). |
| 1964 | Little Tracy from his Verve album Comin' in the Back Door reached number 38 on Billboard's R&B chart. |
| 1965 | His trio joined Wes Montgomery on a tour of the US, and released as the Kelly co-led Smokin' at the Half Note. |
| Late 1960s | He kept playing his trio with Cecil McBee and Ron McClure. |
| 1970 | His final recording session appeared for Dexter Gordon's recording. |
| 1971 | He died in Toronto, Canada, following an epileptic seizure, on April 12. He had travelled there from New York to play with George Reed and Herb Marshall. |
