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Kermit Driscoll

Kermit James Driscoll was born on March 4th of 1956 in Kearney Nebraska, beginning his musical life playing piano at age 5. Soon after he added saxophone and at age 13 picked up the electric bass. Almost immediately he was playing gigs around the midwest. When an offer to travel with a rock band came up he dropped out of high school at age 16 to go on tour. Later he resumed high school at Interlocken Arts Academy where he played in the Studio Orchestra. In Sept. 1974 he enrolled in the University of Miami and was fortunate to study with Jaco Pastorius. In the following year he went to the Berklee College of Music where he completed his degree graduating with honors.

In May of 1978 Kermit went to Belgium to play with Stephan Houben who at the time was working with Bill Frisell. It was with this group that he made his first recording. It was also at this time that he met his future wife Michelle with whom he married in Dec. 1979. In January of 1980 he came to New York, and soon after got the bass chair of Buddy Rich's band and toured with that band from November 1981 - 1986. It was in this experience that played and met with lots of great musicians, and supported his family doing music along with occassion odd jobs to make ends meet. Michelle & Kermit had their first son, Mike in 1980 and then Eric in 1984. Bill Frisell formed his group in 1986 along with Joey Baron and Hank Roberts and for the next 10 years that was the centerpiece of his musical life. He also co-led the group New and Used with Dave Douglas and Andy Laster from 1989 thru 1992. After Bill Frisell's group subsided he continued to earn a living playing the bass. There have been lots of Broadway shows, club dates, sessions and teaching at SUNY and the New School. He maintains a number of creative outlets, continuing to write and occasionally perform his own music. In 1994 he began a Qigong practice and currently teaches it (Dahnhak) on a volunteer basis.

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134
Album Review

Kermit Driscoll: Reveille

Read "Reveille" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Reveille marks bassist and educator Kermit Driscoll's freshman solo outing, and features his longtime associate, guitarist Bill Frisell. As a member of Frisell's dynamic trio with drummer Joey Baron, the term cutting-edge took on notorious implications. Similar forward-reaching concepts are explored throughout this multidimensional program. Mildly surprising is the inclusion of Vinnie Colaiuta, though the all-universe pop, jazz and rock session drummer is quite adroit at handling the freer sojourns, where his polyrhythmic assaults and propelling beats distribute a broad ...

233
Opinion

The Healing Force of the Universe

Read "The Healing Force of the Universe" reviewed by AAJ Staff


By Kermit Driscoll I'll start this story at the bottom. Sometime at the beginning of last summer I had been taking oral antibiotics for the treatment of Lyme disease for one year and was gradually getting worse. My “Lyme specialist doctor at that time suspected that the disease had gone to my brain and ordered a brain SPECT scan and a brain MRI. Her findings were positive and I was told that intravenous antibiotics were necessary.

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149

Recording

One Track Mind: Kermit Driscoll with Bill Frisell and Vinnie Colaiuta, "Great Expectations" (2011)

One Track Mind: Kermit Driscoll with Bill Frisell and Vinnie Colaiuta, "Great Expectations" (2011)

Source: Something Else!

By S. Victor Aaron Pardon me as I continue on the topic of Bill Frisell The Sideman on an interpretation of a Miles Davis fusion deep cut. In the back of a Paris taxicab, probably sometime in the mid 1970s, three aspiring musicians were gobsmacked from the music playing on the radio. It was the early fusion side-long jam “Great Expectations" recorded by Miles Davis shortly after Bitches Brew. For one of these musicians, Big Fun, the album that this ...

148

Recording

Kermit Driscoll "Reveille"

Kermit Driscoll "Reveille"

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne

Bassist Kermit Driscoll is best known for his work in the 1990s behind such downtown luminaries as Bill Frisell (1987-96) and John Zorn (1988-94). He was also co-founder of the Knitting Factory collective New and Used, featuring trumpeter Dave Douglas, which waxed several records in the nineties. But the bassist, who studied under Jaco Pastorius, has also performed with a wide swath of musicians from jazz greats Chet Baker and Toots Thielmans and pop stars Ben E. King and The ...

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106

Recording

Kermit Driscoll - Reveille

Kermit Driscoll - Reveille

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Bassist Kermit Driscoll has played in the band of the idiosyncratic guitarist Bill Frisell on many occasions, so it's nice to hear them with him in the leadership position. Also joining them are the up and coming pianist Kris Davis and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. The music still retains the heartland vibe of a Frisell record, but the music is focused and song based, and with Davis adding enigmatic piano accents and thick bass leaving open space for the group ...

271

Contest

Enter the "Kermit Driscoll - Reveille" Giveaway

Enter the "Kermit Driscoll - Reveille" Giveaway

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Nineteen-Eight Records “Kermit Driscoll—Reveille“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select THREE winners at the conclusion of the contest on February 9th. Click here to enter the contest (Following Kermit Driscoll at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at Nineteen-Eight Records About Reveille One thing's certain: it was definitely worth the wait. Kermit Driscoll has been a remarkable bassist and inspired sideman for the last 30 years, ...

174

Recording

Koby Hayon Trio New Release - "Gemini" with Kermit Driscoll & Jerome Morris

Koby Hayon Trio New Release - "Gemini"  with Kermit Driscoll & Jerome Morris

Source: Michael Ricci

Israeli Guitarist and composer Koby Hayon releases debut CD “Gemini"

Koby Hayon was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1999, Koby moved to Tel-Aviv to pursue his musical career, and played as a jazz guitar player in many different groups in venues throughout Israel . In 2001, Hayon moved to the United States, where he earned his BM in Jazz Studies at SUNY Purchase.

In Hayon's compositions, he fuses his heritage with his vast musical training by writing materials ...

191

Music Industry

Kermit Driscoll Gravely Ill with Lyme Disease

Kermit Driscoll Gravely Ill with Lyme Disease

Source: All About Jazz

Though he has never released an album under his own name, the bassist Kermit Driscoll has had a considerable impact in adventurous jazz circles over the last 20 years.

Mr. Driscoll first emerged as a close compatriot of the guitarist Bill Frisell during an influential stretch from the mid-1980s through the mid-'90s. (Live, a 1991 Gramavision album credited to Bill Frisell, is especially worth seeking out for Mr. Driscoll's nimble rapport with Mr. Frisell and Mr. Baron, a drummer.) Mr. ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fifth And Adams

Blujazz Productions
2018

buy

Reveille

Nineteen Eight Records
2011

buy

Reveille

Nineteen-Eight Records
2010

buy

Live 2002

Waterpipe Records
2002

buy

This Land

Nonesuch Records
1994

buy

Watch Your Step

From: Fifth And Adams
By Kermit Driscoll

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