Frank Kimbrough (November 2, 1956 – December 30, 2020) was an American

post-bop Post-bop is a genre of small-combo jazz that evolved in the early to mid 1960s in the United States. Pioneers of the genre, such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and Jackie McLean, crafted syntheses ...

jazz pianist. He was born and raised in

Roxboro, North Carolina Roxboro is a city and the county seat of Person County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 8,362 at the 2010 census. The city is north of Durham and is a part of the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical A ...

. He did some work at

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

before moving to

Washington, D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in 1980 and then

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1981. His influences included

Herbie Nichols Herbert Horatio Nichols (January 3, 1919 – April 12, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote the jazz standard " Lady Sings the Blues". Obscure during his lifetime, he is now highly regarded by many musicians and critics. Lif ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...

Vince Guaraldi Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (; birth name, né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip. His compositions for this s ...

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

Paul Bley Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ...

, and Andrew Hill. After signing with Mapleshade Records, he released his first album, ''Star-Crossed Lovers'', on cassette tape in 1986 and his first CD in 1988. In the 1990s, he was a member of the

Project becoming co-leader with

Ben Allison Ben Allison (born November 17, 1966) is an American double bassist, composer, producer, bandleader, educator. In addition to his work as a performer, he co-founded the non-profit Jazz Composers Collective and served as its Artistic Director for ...

. He had also worked with Joe Locke and was with the Palmetto label. Kimbrough played in sessions with Paul Murphy. He also played in the

Maria Schneider Maria Schneider may refer to: * Maria Schneider (politician) (born 1923), East German politician * Maria Schneider (actress) (1952–2011), French actress * Maria Schneider (musician) Maria Lynn Schneider (born November 27, 1960) is an Americ ...

Jazz Orchestra. Kimbrough was also a music educator, teaching piano at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

during the 1990s, and became a professor at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

in 2008. Following Kimbrough's death, Newvelle Records produced a digital tribute album, ''Kimbrough'', in 2021 that featured multiple ensembles covering 58 of his compositions.

Discography

With Ted Nash * '' Rhyme & Reason'' (Arabesque, 1999) With

* '' Coming About'' (Enja, 1996) * '' Allégresse'' (Enja, 2000) * '' Days of Wine and Roses - Live at the Jazz Standard'' (ArtistShare, 2000) * ''

Concert in the Garden ''Concert in the Garden'' is the fourth studio album by American jazz composer Maria Schneider. The album was released in 2004 by ArtistShare and won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2005. In 2019, the album was selected by ...

'' (ArtistShare, 2004) * ''

Sky Blue Sky blue is a shade of light blue comparable to that of a clear daytime sky. The term (as "sky blew") is attested from 1681. A 1585 translation of Nicolas de Nicolay's 1576 ''Les navigations, peregrinations et voyages faicts en la Turquie'' in ...

'' (ArtistShare, 2007) * '' The Thompson Fields'' (ArtistShare, 2015) * '' Data Lords'' (ArtistShare, 2020) With

Dawn Upshaw Dawn Upshaw (born July 17, 1960) is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contempor ...

and

Winter Morning Walks ''Winter Morning Walks'' is a studio album by Maria Schneider and Dawn Upshaw. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition and Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical in 2014. Reception Vincent Plush of ' ...

(ArtistShare 2013) With Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project * ''Centennial'' (ArtistShare 2012) * '' Lines of Color'' (ArtistShare 2015)

Literature

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

and

Ira Gitler Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...

, ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. Oxford/New York 1999,

References

External links

AllMusic
*
Frank Kimbrough's home page
1956 births 2020 deaths American jazz pianists American male pianists Palmetto Records artists People from Roxboro, North Carolina 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from North Carolina 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Mapleshade Records artists Black Saint/Soul Note artists Sunnyside Records artists Enja Records artists Pirouet Records artists {{US-jazz-pianist-stub