Word came on September 28 that Table veteran bassist Kelly Sill had passed away at age 70. Sill was a fixture on the Chicago scene for decades, recorded with everybody, and was highly admired and respected by just about everybody he encountered. He also played many, many gigs at the Table in his day. For a time, Kelly was connected with Joel Spencer.

Volume 22 of the Table archives finds Kelly Sill with Joel’s quartet at the Table with some table regulars: saxophonist Ron Dewar and pianist Donnie Heitler. With Joel on drums, this is a C-U jazz all-star lineup in their prime.

A few tunes suffered from serious phase noise on the cassettes we dubbed, and were not listenable. The taper also stopped and started the recorder after every song, so beginnings and endings of songs are clipped. I tried to add a bit of fading to make it more palatable to your ear. Nevertheless, we were able to pull a solid two hours of music from this gig.

You will be missed, Kelly.

Joel Spencer Quartet – Live at Nature’s Table November 1, 1980