Dave Gelly was born at the height of the Swing Era. He grew up in South London and won a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English under F.R. Leavis and, later, anthropology under Edmund Leach.

Smitten by jazz at an early age, he took up the clarinet at 14 and the saxophone a few years later. He played in, and eventually led, the award-winning Cambridge University band, whose personnel included, among others, Art Themen and Lionel Grigson.

After university, Dave led a busy musical life while also working first as a teacher and later in publishing. He played in Blues By Six, alongside future Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, in the New Jazz Orchestra, with Ian Carr, Barbara Thompson, Jon Hiseman et al, and on numerous broadcasts and pop sessions, some of which (notably tracks by McGuiness-Flint and Keith Emerson) now come back to haunt him in their afterlife on 'old gold' radio stations. He played, toured or recorded with a number of veteran American blues artists, too, among them Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Johnny 'Guitar' Burns, Champion Jack Dupree and Johnny Shines.

The work of those years (mid-sixties to mid-seventies) of which he is most proud was done under the leadership of the late Neil Ardley, a unique and remarkable composer. Recordings include two albums by the New Jazz Orchestra and several under Ardley's own name, in particular the marvellous Symphony Of Amaranths.

He continues to play regularly around the UK (often in partnership with Annie Bright). His two most recent recordings are his own CD Strike A Light (Mainstem Records, 2001) and as a member of John Williams's Tenorama (Spotlite Records, 2003).

Dave began writing about music in the early 1970s. He joined The Observer as a freelance critic in 1974 and continues to write regularly for that newspaper. Over the years he has had work published extensively in the national press and specialist music magazines. He was voted Jazz Writer of the Year in the 1999 British Jazz Awards.

Throughout the 1980s, Dave hosted Night Owls, a weekly late-night programme on BBC Radio Two, and wrote and presented scores of feature programmes for that and other BBC networks. He was among the team of top writers who created the mammoth, Sony Award-winning Sinatra tribute series Voice of the Century for Radio Two. In the 1990s, in partnership with Malcolm Laycock, Dave ran Encore Radio, a production company specialising in jazz, big bands and vintage popular music.

He has written a number of books, the most recent being Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me (Backbeat, 2002) and Being Prez: the Life and Music of Lester Young (Equinox [UK] and OUP [USA], 2007).

Dave Gelly was appointed MBE by HM The Queen in the 2005 New Year Honours.