Dave Gelly MBE (born 28 January 1938) is a British jazz critic. A long-standing contributor to The Observer, he was named Jazz Writer of the Year in the 1999 British Jazz Awards. Gelly is also a jazz saxophonist and broadcaster, presenting a number of shows for BBC Radio 2 including Night Owls for much of the 1980s.

Gelly was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, on 28 January 1938, and grew up in south London.^[1][2] He attended St Dunstan's College, Catford, and won a scholarship to read English under F. R. Leavis at Downing College, Cambridge.^[2][3] Gelly played with Art Themen^[4] and Lionel Grigson in the Cambridge University band, and from the mid-1960s co-led his own quartets and quintets with Frank Ricotti, with Jeff Scott, and with Barbara Thompson.^[5] Gelly was a member of the New Jazz Orchestra, directed by Neil Ardley, which also featured Ian Carr, Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson, Mike Gibbs, Don Rendell, and Trevor Tomkins. Gelly was a teacher during the 1960s and 1970s at William Penn School, Dulwich.^[2]

As leader/co-leader

• 2001: Strike A Light (Mainstem Records)

As sideman

• 1968: Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe – The New Jazz Orchestra
• 1971: A Symphony of Amaranths – Neil Ardley
• 1973: Mike Taylor Remembered (with Jon Hiseman, Barbara Thompson, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Norma Winstone, Ron Mathewson, Stan Sulzmann, Alan Branscombe and Chris Pyne, among others)
• 2003: John Williams's Tenorama (Spotlite Records)

• The Giants of Jazz (Schirmer Books, 1986) with Miles Kington
• Masters of Jazz Saxophone: The Story of the Players and Their Music (2000)
• Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me (2002) ISBN 0-87930-729-3
• Being Prez: The Life and Music of Lester Young (Equinox, 2007)
• An Unholy Row (Equinox, 2014)

• Official website