Bert Kelly (June 2, 1882 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – January 1968 in Long Beach, New York) was an American musician, who pioneered jazz as a banjoist, bandleader, educator, promoter, night club owner, and night club operator. After professional stints in Seattle and San Francisco, Kelly moved to Chicago in 1914 where he flourished a banjoist, bandleader, and promoter. In 1915 — before the U.S. prohibition — he founded and operated a Chicago speakeasy called "Bert Kelly's Stables," where patrons were introduced to early jazz.

Kelly as a musician

Kelly's band

Early gigs San Francisco Chicago

Early use of the word "jazz"

Kelly claimed that his band, Bert Kelly's Jazz Band, was the first to publish the word "jazz" in 1915.

Kelly as a jazz club entrepreneur

Chicago

In the early 1920s — during U.S. prohibition — he founded and operated a Chicago speakeasy called "Bert Kelly's Stables," located at 431 Rush Street, in Chicago's Tower Town. It rapidly gained regional and national popularity as one of the jazz hotspots of the 1920s. The first house band featured Alcide Nunez, whose featured number "Livery Stable Blues" inspired the name of the venue. Later artists at Kelly's Stables included Freddie Keppard. The brothers Johnny Dodds and Baby Dodds were featured in the house band after their break from King Oliver's band.

New York

Kelly later opened another jazz club, Kelly's Stables, in New York City, which was prominent on the 52nd Street jazz scene in the 1930s and 1940s.