Frank Kimbrough

December 2, 2004 10:39 PM

Not your smooth jazz crap! Frank Kimbrough is part of the Jazz Composer's Collective, a prolific and amazing composer and one of my mentors. His music is groovy, intellectual and comes from an area that includes much thought, much playing and being the house pianist for years in what used to be a real crap bar owned by devotees of Ayn Rand. My favourite of his many groups is the Herbie Nichols Project, which resurrects the music of a man taken early from this world, but who could have done much more for music.
posted by Captaintripps (7 comments total)

....being the house pianist for years in what used to be a real crap bar owned by devotees of Ayn Rand.

Does that mean he got to jam with Alan Greenspan ?
posted by y2karl at 10:58 PM on December 2, 2004

So a guy walks into an objectivist bar, and says....
posted by weston at 12:11 AM on December 3, 2004

Nichols' album title "Love, Gloom, Cash, Love" is one of the best album titles ever. Great player and composer. I'll check out Kimbrough.
posted by digaman at 6:37 AM on December 3, 2004

digaman: Yeah, I totally love that album. I got that three disc box set a few years back and it was worth the search and price. That tune alone...

As for the Herbie Nichols Project, apparently Frank and bassist Ben Allison have the largest collection of Nichols' music and have spent years collecting copies of his tunes from Nichols' father, from the Library of Congress and wherever else they can find them. They have dozens that never made it onto a recording. I always thought the project did Herbie's music the setting Herbie would have ended up doing it in if he hadn't died of leukemia.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:55 AM on December 3, 2004

I'm sorry - Señor Swanky's owned by devotées of Ayn Rand?

I feel my mind blowing. I'd like to know more.
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:06 AM on December 4, 2004

I'm in love with Frank Kimbrough and Ben Allison both independently and as part of the Herbie Nichols Project. I've got Allison's "Peace Pipe" album coming in the mail this week, coincidentally.
posted by thejoshu at 7:42 PM on December 4, 2004

I don't think it was called Senor Swanky's at the time, but it was in exactly the same place.
posted by Captaintripps at 11:15 AM on December 5, 2004