Biography
Born on 11 May 1940 in Lansing, Michigan, Robert Hamilton Kindred grew up just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first took up the clarinet and went on to perform on both that instrument and alto saxophone in the Philadelphia Youth Jazz Band led by Jimmy DePriest. By age 17 he had joined the small ensemble Pennsylvania Sixpence, whose repertoire of swing and dixieland took the group to numerous east-coast clubs, across Europe, and into recording studios. After finishing college Kindred stepped away from music altogether, building a career as a corporate head-hunter and eventually launching his own firm. At thirty he attended a Phil Woods concert that prompted his return to the instrument; he studied with Woods and, two years later, committed to music full time. He spent a period with the continuing Glenn Miller Orchestra before moving to Woody Herman’s band, where he can be heard on the 1975 album Live At Carnegie Hall. During those same years he also worked alongside Charles Earland, Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Hank Jones, Mel Lewis, Shirley Scott, Buddy Tate, and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.
Although he gradually became best known on tenor saxophone, Kindred continues to play baritone saxophone and flute as well. Among his own projects are the tribute concert To Ben And Johnny, With Love, honoring Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges, and the annual production Bending Towards The Light … A Jazz Nativity, which he co-composed with his wife, the singer Anne Phillips. Throughout the 1990s he appeared at major festivals and halls in the United States and abroad, among them the Topeka Jazz Festival, the Colorado Springs Jazz Party, Carnegie Hall’s tribute to the Nicholas Brothers, and the Fairbanks Arts Festival, where he led jazz-woodwind clinics and appeared as soloist with the local symphony orchestra. In 2001 he recorded the albums Over The Rainbow and But Beautiful with Little Jimmy Scott and made a duo album with Larry Willis for Mapleshade Records.
Beyond performing, Kindred has served as a clinician for jazz education through the International Art Of Jazz, Festival Jazz, and the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory Company. While critics have occasionally linked his tenor style to other saxophonists, his most striking trait remains his individuality; any momentary echoes of others never obscure the fact that he is always original, commanding, and eloquent. Much like Spike Robinson, whose late creative blossoming proved so rewarding, Kindred reached a comparable peak of artistic and audience recognition in the opening years of the twenty-first century. That this acclaim arrived only after decades of maturity represents a loss for jazz, yet the recognition is no less richly earned for having come late.
Although he gradually became best known on tenor saxophone, Kindred continues to play baritone saxophone and flute as well. Among his own projects are the tribute concert To Ben And Johnny, With Love, honoring Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges, and the annual production Bending Towards The Light … A Jazz Nativity, which he co-composed with his wife, the singer Anne Phillips. Throughout the 1990s he appeared at major festivals and halls in the United States and abroad, among them the Topeka Jazz Festival, the Colorado Springs Jazz Party, Carnegie Hall’s tribute to the Nicholas Brothers, and the Fairbanks Arts Festival, where he led jazz-woodwind clinics and appeared as soloist with the local symphony orchestra. In 2001 he recorded the albums Over The Rainbow and But Beautiful with Little Jimmy Scott and made a duo album with Larry Willis for Mapleshade Records.
Beyond performing, Kindred has served as a clinician for jazz education through the International Art Of Jazz, Festival Jazz, and the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory Company. While critics have occasionally linked his tenor style to other saxophonists, his most striking trait remains his individuality; any momentary echoes of others never obscure the fact that he is always original, commanding, and eloquent. Much like Spike Robinson, whose late creative blossoming proved so rewarding, Kindred reached a comparable peak of artistic and audience recognition in the opening years of the twenty-first century. That this acclaim arrived only after decades of maturity represents a loss for jazz, yet the recognition is no less richly earned for having come late.
Albums
