Kirkpatrick, Don(ald E.)
Kirkpatrick, Don(ald E.)
Kirkpatrick, Don(ald E.), jazz pianist, arranger; b. Charlotte, N.C., June 17, 1905; d. N.Y., May 13, 1956. He married Johnny Hodges’s sister. He came to N.Y. from Baltimore with drummer Johnny Ridgley’s Band (summer 1926), and soon began working for Chick Webb. He worked mainly with Webb until late 1932, then spent a long spell with Don Redman from early 1933. During the late 1930s and 1940s, he was mainly active as an arranger, scoring for Webb, Don Redman, Benny Goodman, Alvino Rey, Cootie Williams, Count Basie, etc. He also gigged with various leaders including Zutty Singleton and Mezz Mezzrow. He left full-time music for a while, then did an overseas tour in 1943. He worked at Nick’s, N.Y., from mid-1944 and gigged with Bunk Johnson in N.Y. in November 1947. He was with Wilbur de Paris from 1952-55, then played in Boston with Doc Cheatham (late 1955). He played gigs at Stuyvesant Casino, Central Plaza, and Hotel Theresa (N.Y.), during the last few months of his life. He died of lobar pneumonia.
—John Chilton, who’s who of Jazz/Lewis Porter