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