Frank McComb
Few artists travel the continuum between sublime passionate
vocals and skilled musicianship. Divine soul man,
FRANK MCCOMB, is one of the very few. His virtuoso
piano and organ work has made him an underground
favourite on the soul and jazz scenes and a highly sought
after session player. He’s recorded and performed with
many of music’s giants including: Frankie Beverly & Maze,
Teena Marie, Chaka Khan, Lalah Hathaway, Terri Lynn
Carrington, Phyllis Hyman and Teddy Pendergrass, and
even Prince.
Well-known in the jazz and soul circuits, his 2005 performance
with NAACP’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner,
Prince, thrust Frank back onto a world-stage. The climatic
performance was a re-emergence for Frank who started his
career as a music director for the late Gerald Levert and pop
diva, Anastacia. The televised performance served as an introduction
to some and as re-connection with fans.
Frank McComb’s journey to the world stage began in 1970
in Cleveland, OH. The musical prodigy started playing
piano at the age of 13, under the tutelage of his aunt. He
recalls, “It all started in February of 1983. Church had just
ended and my aunt was still playing on the church piano.
She made it look so easy, so I asked her to teach me to play.
I wasn’t expecting to start that day, but she scheduled my
lessons for 1 hour every Sunday after church. Mysteriously
the classes ended after the 3rd week, I was left on my own
to tickle around on the piano after church services.” If you
do the math that amounts to about 3 hours of piano training,
however the seed was planted so deep inside young Frank
that he continued to grow as a musician.
Two years later, he met Willie Ross, a local R&B guitarist
who was so impressed by the youngster’s playing he enlisted
him for his local gigging group. “Willie was my musical
father,” McComb says. By the summer of 1985, he was the
youngest musician playing in clubs around Cleveland, Ohio.
Embraced by local veteran musicians who recognized the
innate talent in their young prodigy, the older band members
supplied his transportation to gigs until he’d saved up
enough money to buy his first car.
By 17, Frank was heading his own band. He formed a trio
that played around Cleveland and became musical director
for The Rude Boys, a male R&B vocal group signed to
Atlantic Records via the late Gerald Levert, which lead to his
first touring gig. While touring, he met up with D.J. Jazzy
Jeff & Fresh Prince and not long after moved to Philadelphia
to do session work in the studio which would later become
Jazzy Jeff’s A Touch Of Jazz Studios.
In 1995, while living in southern California, McComb heard
from keyboardist Patrice Rushen that Branford Marsalis
was looking for singers to perform in his funky jazz project
Buckshot LeFonque. “Branford called me, and I said just
say where and when,” McComb recalls.
Not long after the world would get a taste of his artistry on
wax when Branford Marsalis released two seminal Hip-
Hop/Jazz fusion projects. The self-titled Buckshot
LeFonque & Music Evolution both released on Columbia
Records. Buckshot LeFonque featured McComb alongside his legendary
ensemble of artists and collaborators which included
DJ Premier and Maya Angelou. Frank’s lead vocals on
“Another Day,” the second single off of Buckshot
LeFonque’s second recording Music Evolution, propelled
the sale of the album and brought recognition to Frank as
an emerging talent.
After returning home from a lengthy tour with Buckshot
LeFonque, Frank would reconnect again with Branford
Marsalis when the jazz virtuoso took helm as head of A&R
at Columbia Jazz signing McComb on as a solo artist. In
the summer of 1999, he recorded, Love Stories, but the
label had difficulty marketing Frank’s debut because it didn’t
fit neatly into the jazz category, floating into blues, soul,
R&B, and gospel genres. Eventually when Marsalis left the
label, Frank ventured on his own as well. In between labels, he amassed quite a following from touring
and remaining an active fixture on the live music scene.
He’s performed around the world and has become favourite
overseas in cities like London, Amsterdam, Milan, France,
and Japan to local venues throughout the U.S. Frank partnered
with Steve Harvey (producer of Donnie’s “Welcome to
the Colored Section”) and released an exclusive European
and Japanese import, The Truth which featured music legends
Billy Preston and Paulinho DaCosta alongside Bay
area favourite Ledisi.
While Love Stories and The Truth were in stores, Frank
began to hear from fans that the MoJazz Recordings
(Motown’s Jazz imprint) had been leaked and his unreleased
music was selling on the black market for as much
as $50 per cd.” He adds, “I was often asked to sign bootleg
copies of my own music. I decided that if the people wanted
the music so much that it was selling for $50 on the black
market, unmixed, unmastered, without artwork, that I should
form my own music company and take the chance on
recording, packaging, and selling my own music directly to
the buying public. What did I have to lose?” he reflects.
He formed Boobeescoot Music, built a home recording
studio and launched a website, www.frankmccomb.info to
promote his music.
“Over a period of 4 years I had recorded a large number of
songs at home with no special purpose for them. I placed
them in what I call my “vault” and left them there,” he
shares. One night in his studio while thinking about how
much music he’d created, McComb opened his vault and
pulled out tracks that would eventually be compiled into
Straight From The Vault, a blend of soul, jazz and pop
music, his 3rd album and first album released independently
on Boobeescoot Music.
This collection won him
Soultracks.com’s 2005’s Best Album of the Year for their
“Reader’s Choice Awards”.
With the vault already opened, he reached deeper into it
and released The 1995 Bootleg (the shelved Mojazz album
recorded in 1995) in April 2006. December 1st, 2006
marked the simultaneous releases of The 1995 Bootleg
Limited Edition, which featured live performances and his
first instrumental project "A Tribute to the Masters", paying
homage to McComb’s aforementioned heroes: Herbie
Hancock and Chick Corea. The album takes the listener
higher by paying respect to contemporary giants George
Duke, Patrice Rushen, Ramsey Lewis, Joe Sample and
Russell Ferrante (of the Yellowjackets).
In addition to artists who he pays tribute to on A Tribute To
The Masters, he also counts Oscar Peterson as his musical
hero. After one listen you can also throw Stevie Wonder and
Donny Hathaway into the potpourri of influences heard
through Frank’s various bodies of work.
McComb is currently mixing and editing his first live
CD/DVD recording Frank McComb Live In Atlanta with an
expected Fall 2007 release.
Now with complete control over his career, and a fan base
that keeps growing Frank is positioning himself for a career
with longevity. “I pray that I can continue to record and
release the kind of music I grew up listening to years ago
when real chord changes existed, songs had a subject and
the most important...there was integrity.”
Velvet Music entertainment is Frank McCombs booking agent for concerts, Private engagements for mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands.
www.frankmccomb.info
www.frankmccomb.info/boobeescoot/index.html
www.myspace.com/frankmccombmusic