About
Franklin Kiermyer
Drummer ~ Composer ~ Bandleader
“Music can open our hearts. That’s its purpose. Our goal is to rest in that openness and let go. The more we practice this, the more our natural faith develops. The music finds its strength in that. That’s what we want to share. Music changes people.” fk
Born and raised in Montreal, Kiermyer first gained attention in 1994 - during his long beat in New York - with his album Solomon's Daughter featuring tenor saxophonist and former John Coltrane bandmate Pharoah Sanders. Known mostly for his particularly expansive style of drumming and the passionate spiritual focus of his music, he has performed and recorded with many prominent jazz musicians and musicians from other cultures*.
Mostly self-taught, it was drummers Baby Dodds, Sid Catlett, Minor Hall, and Gene Krupa that first grabbed his attention. "All of these drummers had a big beat - loose, spontaneous and sure at the same time and I really responded to that. I’ve always gone for that feeling of power and release in my own playing.” fk
His father's record collection favored New Orleans music and the swing bands of the 30's and 40's, Fats Waller, Kid Ory, Count Basie and Duke Ellington were some of Kiermyer's favorites. Listening to these albums, as well as the varied orchestral and chamber music albums played in his parents' home magnetized his childhood.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's he was greatly affected by the psychedelic freedom music of Jimi Hendrix and other improvisers of the era and the social-political revolution they espoused.
Later on, Bela Bartok, Stravinsky and other 20th-century composers also became great inspirations as did the music of root traditions like the Babenzele and Efe people of the African rainforest and the nadaswaram and rudra-veena music of India.
When he was fourteen, his older brother gave him books about Tibetan Buddhism that led him to a life-long practice of meditation that would intensify over the years.
Franklin's first professional experience was playing standards and show tunes with his high-school music teacher at legion dances and supper clubs. Any chance he got, he'd take the opportunity to play with the local jazz musicians a few years older than him and with his contemporaries.
One of these friends introduced him to the mid-60’s music of the John Coltrane Quartet with drummer Elvin Jones. This music had an immediate, profound and lasting impact and helped shape his musical focus. “The albums Transition, Sun Ship and First Meditations became the greatest inspirations for me. This felt like real spiritual music using honesty and faith to transcend concepts and get to the heart of things. That openness, honesty and faith became my goal.” fk
Leaving school at eighteen to go on the road up and down the east-coast with an r&b bands, KIermyer began to see that his path was to develop his own way of playing to realize his growing vision. After a year-and-a-half, he moved back to Montreal to spend up to ten hours a day practising drums and developing his music. While on the road, he had begun to write down themes for imrovisation - simple songs like prayers.
Having reached a turning point in his evolution, Kiermyer spent much of 2001 to 2010 in remote Himalayan regions of Nepal and India on various solitary Buddhist meditation retreats. His musical output during this time was minimal but this evolution essential.
Scatter The Atoms That Remain is Kiermyer's new album and the name of his present band. Scatter The Atoms' first release, Exultation, was co-produced by Kiermyer and legendary producer Michael Cuscuna, as was Kiermyer's albums Closer to the Sun and Further. Cuscuna has gone on record praising Kiermyer's music: "Franklin Kiermyer conveys a spiritual feeling through his music that reaches each listener in different ways. It's the urgency you feel when you listen ... Franklin got beyond his influences and comes through with him as an original player - his feel, his rhythmic patterns ... He has his own way of playing the drums, his own way of organizing music, his own way of unfolding a performance."
Emancipation Suite, released in 2022 as a limited edition LP, was chosen as one of Down Beat Magazine's best albums of the year. "Scatter the Atoms That Remain calls for universal freedoms such as it enacts." Howard Mandel, Down Beat Magazine
Franklin KIermyer's forthcoming new album SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN is co-produced with Jason Olaine and features performances from Davis Whitfield, Jeff Bhasker, Isaiah Collier, Jasbir Jassi, Keyon Harrold, Rakalam Bob Moses, Aaron Parks, Carlos Niño, Linda Sikhakhane, Nate Mercereau, Géraud Portal, Otto Gardner, Melanie Charles & Temitope Momorebe Gospel Singers.
Over the years, Kiermyer has had the great good fortune to perform and/or record with many wonderful artists, including Pharoah Sanders, Sam Rivers, Billy Harper, Gary Bartz, Joe Lovano, Dewey Redman, Azar Lawrence, George Garzone, Isaiah Collier, Lawrence Clark, Emilio Modeste, Randy Brecker, Chris Gekker, John Esposito, Bobo Stenson, Benito Gonzalez, John Abercrombie, Tisziji Muñoz, Vernon Reid, Dave Fiuzcynski, Debashish Battacharya, Reggie Workman, Juini Booth, Gene Perla, Nat Reeves, Drew Gress, Umdze Lodro Samphel, Hassan Hakmoun, T.V. Gopalakrishnan and Don Alias to name a few.
Franklin Kiermyer plays Istanbul Agop cymbals exclusively