Frank Gordon..... trumpeter, composer after graduating from Milwaukee's North Division High School in Jan 1957 he went to N.Y.C. for a few
months, then to Milwaukee for a few months and then back to N.Y.C. to study with Donald Byrd who, along with Cannonball Adderley convinced him
to go back to Milwaukee and enroll in Wisconsin Univ. in 1963-6. He moved to Chicago c. 1966 and enrolled in Roosevelt Univ., where he completed
his B.A. in 1970. He earned an M.A. at Governors State University in Park Forest, Ill. in 1977. During these years in Chicago he became an AACM
member and also studied privately with Bunky Green, Donald Byrd, Eddie Harris, and Muhal Richard Abrams (the latter continuing on and off into
1985).
He moved to N.Y.C. in 1976 to join the Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Band. He has recorded and toured America, Europe, Canada, Mexico and Cuba with
Lena Horne, Illinois Jacquet, the Charli Persip band, Art Blakey, Muhal Richard Abrams, David Murray, Hank Mobley, Charlie Haden, Clifford Jordan,
Quincy Jones, Eddie Harris, the Duke Ellington band, Sam Rivers, and with his own groups. He won four NEA grants to present concerts of his music
including one with 16 strings at Merkin Hall, Manhattan, in 1988. In November 1997 three of his compositions, which were commissioned by the
AACM, were premiered by the S.E.M. String Ensemble in N.Y. He has taught trumpet since (1992) at Rutgers University in Newark, and at the New
School, Jamey Aebersold Jazz Camps, and in public schools. He was a founding member of Ebony Brass. He also typesets music professionally on
computer and his music notation appears in books of Lewis Porter, Jackie McLean and others. In 1999 he moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he has
taught music appreciation at Armstrong Atlantic State University.
He appears in the films Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story; the Cotton Club; Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Live at the Domicile; Lena Horne on
Broadway.
Biography from Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians at jazz. com