Ray Skjelbred - Treasures From the Keyboard
AUTHOR: Hal Smith
Originally Posted June 2012
Ray Skjelbred plays a rumbling bass line on a slow blues, head turned away from the piano and eyes shut tightly in concentration. He is inhabiting the soul of Chicago pianist Art Hodes. A few measures on, he opens his eyes and watches the keyboard…left hand walking the bass slowly and right hand playing a tremolo. Now Ray is in Burt Bales territory; a foggy San Francisco night at Pier 23. On the last chorus, the intensity builds, and Ray braces his shoulders to play a strolling bass line, climaxed by a series of crashing tone clusters that bring the performance back to Chicago, and the unbridled passion of Joe Sullivan. The performance ends with Sullivan’s signature coda, and a dramatic moment as Ray hunches over the keys, then rocks back quickly. His right arm bounces up like the follow-through of a Chicago Cubs batter. He relaxes visibly, and lets out a deep breath. He has given his all. The audience, realizing that they have just heard something extraordinary, responds with a long, sincere ovation.
A native Chicagoan, Ray began playing piano in 1960, after his family moved to Seattle. The aforementioned Burt Bales and Seattle pianist John Wittwer were Ray’s first teachers, and he learned even more from the classic recordings by keyboard masters of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Within a few short years, he became one of the most in-demand pianists in traditional jazz and swing –– especially after a move to the Bay Area in the late 1960s. There, he worked with Bob Mielke’s Bearcats, Turk Murphy’s San Francisco Jazz Band, Ted Shafer’s Jelly Roll Jazz Band, vocalists Victoria Spivey and Barbara Dane, jazz pioneers Darnell Howard and Pops Foster, Dick Oxtot’s Golden Age Jazz Band, the Roadrunners and too many other groups to name here. In Seattle, Ray had co-led the Great Excelsior Jazz Band with bassist Mike Duffy. It was basically a New Orleans-style group, with some Chicago and swing influences. After relocating to the Bay Area, Ray organized “Berkeley Rhythm,” a swinging octet that gigged around the Bay Area and recorded for Ray’s own “Berkeley Rhythm” label.
During his Bay Area residency, Ray was able to enjoy the music of his mentor Burt Bales at venues such as Dick’s at the Beach and The Serenader. And, having learned trombone along the way, Ray was able to play it in jam sessions with Bales. Ray played a long and musically rewarding stint at the Bull Valley Inn in Port Costa, with the phenomenal cornetist Jim Goodwin and a list of guest musicians that reads like a “who’s who” of latter-day jazz and swing. He also became acquainted with longtime keyboard inspirations Joe Sullivan, Jess Stacy and Art Hodes. Later he was the accompanist for the wonderful vocalist Barbara Lashley. Before the vocalist’s untimely death, Ray recalled playing an engagement with her at the Serenader in Oakland when, at the end of one song he looked up from the keyboard, only to see Earl Hines watching him intensely!
Despite a full musical calendar, Ray continued to pursue another career –– as a high school English teacher. His love of language and literature helped to lead him into yet another creative endeavor: Poetry. Though he is now retired from teaching, he still composes poems and three collections of his poetry have been published.
In 2007 Ray returned to Seattle, moving into a beautiful home in Lake Forest Park with his second wife Elsa, their son John and Pika, the world’s most gentle dog. Ray is active on the Seattle jazz scene as a soloist, bandleader (the eponymously-named First Thursday band, which performs at the New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square) and as a sideman with Glenn Crytzer’s Syncopators, a favorite of swing dancers from coast to coast. He also continues to work with Bob Schulz’s Frisco Jazz Band and his own “Cubs,” which are just now beginning to hit the festival circuit.
Ray Skjelbred’s piano heroes are “The Goofy Guys.” He has composed several tributes to these pianists, including “’Zackly,” “Fatha Swing,” “Kansas City Frank,”; “Zinky,” and “Jess’ Fine.” Ray’s “Reflections Rag” includes bits and pieces of Thelonious Monk melodies, and “Lean and Griefy” was inspired by a spoken cadence in a Mark Twain story.
Ray takes the words of Lester Young to heart: “I don’t want to be no repeater pencil.” Though listeners (and bandmates) cannot predict what Ray will play, you can count on hearing musical treasures whenever he sits down at the piano! Drummer Hal Smith has followed Ray Skjelbred’s music since 1970. Currently he works with Ray in the former’s “Cubs” and also in Bob Schulz’s Frisco Jazz Band.
