PECK KELLEY

KELLEY, JOHN DICKSON [PECK] (1898–1980). Jazz pianist John Dickson (Peck) Kelley was born in Houston on October 22, 1898. He was one of nine brothers. Although his mother reportedly had a fine singing voice, the Kelleys were not particularly musical. A cousin, Charlie Dickson, was a pianist and popular Houston bandleader in the 1920s. Peck was the only one of the nine brothers who showed much interest in the family's upright piano. He received his first instruction on the instrument from the teenaged daughter of a neighbor but soon quit because she kept rapping his knuckles with a pencil when he made a mistake. His interest in the piano continued, however, and by 1919 he was reportedly playing with Jack Sharpe in the red-light district south of Buffalo Bayou. In the fall of 1921 he organized his own band, Peck's Bad Boys, which at various times during the decade included such read more...