Born in Roxboro, North Carolina, Kimbrough has been playing piano since before he can remember. The son of a piano teacher, he was a church organist by the age of 12 and formed his first bands before he began high school. After becoming interested in jazz, he left school and found work in Chapel Hill, NC, and Washington, DC, before moving to New York City in 1981. In 1985 he began researching the ...
Born in Roxboro, North Carolina, Kimbrough has been playing piano since before he can remember. The son of a piano teacher, he was a church organist by the age of 12 and formed his first bands before he began high school. After becoming interested in jazz, he left school and found work in Chapel Hill, NC, and Washington, DC, before moving to New York City in 1981. In 1985 he began researching the music of Herbie Nichols and ten years later was awarded a Jazz Performance Fellowship by the NEA to fund performances of Nichols' music. The Herbie Nichols Project has released three highly acclaimed recordings, including Strange City on Palmetto Records, and continues to tour
internationally.
Kimbrough's reputation as accomplished composer, leader and bandleader is spreading: He's received funding from Chamber Music America; has recorded as a leader in solo, duo, trio and quartet formats (with his quartet, Noumena); and has been selected three years running in the DOWNBEAT Critics Poll. DOWNBEAT wrote:"Frank Kimbrough displays both a markedly original voice and a rare depth of conception."
Since 1993 Kimbrough has recorded and toured internationally with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and appears on her GRAMMY-nominated CDs Coming About and Allegresse. Other sideman credits include recordings and/or performances with Ron Horton, Kendra Shank, Rick Margitza, Rich Perry, Lee Konitz and Eddie Gale. Kimbrough taught music at New York University from 1996-2001, and has conducted master classes at the New School University, University of Iowa, Oberlin College Conservatory, Appalachian State University, Paris Conservatory and Oxford University among others.
