2003–2006 (Palmetto)
Frank Kimbrough
Released August 12, 2022
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mConZHnh_PSuQmY8GeETFA2K5MOvr6LhE
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About:
“The jazz world was shocked and profoundly saddened by the news that pianist Frank Kimbrough had passed away in December 2020 at just 64 years of age. In honor of Kimbrough’s memory, Palmetto Records is now releasing Frank Kimbrough 2003-2006, which compiles a pair of gorgeous trio dates from a particularly fruitful period in his career. Frank Kimbrough 2003-2006 brings together 2003’s Lullabluebye, featuring longtime collaborators Ben Allison (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums); and the 2005 follow-up, Play, boasting a new trio with the then relatively unknown bassist Masa Kamaguchi alongside legendary drummer Paul Motian.
Track Listing:
Volume I – Lullabluebye
1. Lullabluebye (Frank Kimbrough) 4:47
2. Centering (Frank Kimbrough) 4:20
3. Kid Stuff (Frank Kimbrough). 5:49
4. Ode (Frank Kimbrough) 5:51
5. Whirl (Frank Kimbrough) 5:23
6. Ghost Dance (Frank Kimbrough) 6:42
7. You Only Live Twice (John Barry) 6:06
8. Fu Bu (Frank Kimbrough) 4:36
9. Ben’s Tune (Ben Allison) 5:20
10. Eventualities (Frank Kimbrough) 6:38
Volume II – Play
1. Beginning (Frank Kimbrough) 4:59
2. The Spins (Frank Kimbrough) 5:39
3. Lucent (Frank Kimbrough) 5:21
4. Waiting In Santander (Frank Kimbrough) 8:13
5. Conception Vessel (Paul Motian) 6:16
6. Jimmy G (Frank Kimbrough) 5:22
7. Play (Paul Motian) 3:01
8. Regeneration (Frank Kimbrough) 5:48
9. Little Big Man (Frank Kimbrough) 4:23
10. Beginning 2 (Frank Kimbrough) 3:57
Personnel:
Frank Kimbrough: piano
Ben Allison: bass (Vol. I – 1–10)
Matt Wilson: drums (Vol. I – 1–10)
Masa Kamaguchi: bass (Vol II – 1–10)
Paul Motian: drums (Vol. II – 1–10)
Volume I – Lullabluebye recorded at Maggie’s Farm on April 15 & 16, 2003
Volume II – Play recorded at Maggie’s Farm on April 25 & 26, 2005
Produced, Recorded and Remixed by Matt Balitsaris
Remastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald
Associate Producer: Pat Rustici
Review:
The reissue of pianist-composer Frank Kimbrough’s trio albums originally released as Lullabluebye and Play offers further evidence that he was an artist of the first order. Masterful though not immodestly showy; easily flexible and adaptive but with an indelible personal approach. Natural, flowing and always honest; Kimbrough was a truly free improviser in the best sense, knowing and stretching the tradition, unafraid of trying something new, always feeling. Before dying of a heart attack at age 64 in 2020, he was central to the New York jazz scene: a member of Maria Schneider’s orchestra, co-founder of the Jazz Composers Collective, principal in its Herbie Nichols Project, leader of some dozen albums including a five-volume Monk project, teacher at New York University and Juilliard, and creative collaborator with vocalist/poet Maryanne de Prophetis, his partner. A child of the South, his mother taught piano, and he picked out church hymns. Classically trained but enamored of Bill Evans, and later Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Cecil Taylor and Andrew Hill, for years he worked in obscurity in a Greenwich Village bar. His distinctively lyrical curiosity and unusual range, from sensitive introspection to rollicking teamwork, resulted in the depth and beauty of these two trio sessions, as elsewhere across his oeuvre. Recorded three years apart with two sets of exemplary partners, both albums are based in devotion to deep interaction. Restoring two of his loveliest hours, Palmetto serves us all.
Howard Mandel (DownBeat)
