He played regularly in San Francisco in the 1940s, with Lu Watters's Yerba Buena Jazz Band among others, but was drafted in 1943 and only recorded with that group on one brief session with Bunk Johnson.
In 1963 he made a bit of a return by playing with Turk Murphy at anti-nuclear rallies.
The Salty Dogs play standards and original pieces influenced by the Dixieland artists of the 1910s and 1920s as well as the 1940s and 1950s "revivalists" such as Lu Watters and Turk Murphy.
Lu Watters | Scott Watters | Henry Watters | Ethan Watters | Charles J. Watters |
Later recorded revivals of the number include those by Chet Atkins, Bo Grumpus, Eddie Condon, Stéphane Grappelli, Clancy Hayes, Keith Ingham, Spike Jones, Danny Kaye, Jeannie Carson, Lu Watters, and The Reverend Horton Heat.
Against the current tide of rock and roll, the young ragtimer played with Turk Murphy's Jazz Band, and studied with other prominent jazz musicians such as Pops Foster, Lu Watters, Wally Rose, and Clancy Hayes, all the while living in a room above Mcgoon's for one dollar per day.
Helm had played with Lu Watters and Turk Murphy, both prominent figures in the San Francisco’s New Orleans Revival Movement, which Kees preferred over Bebop.