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