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Franklin Kiermyer

Franklin Kiermyer (born 21 July 1956 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian drummer, composer and bandleader who came to prominence in the 1990s during his long residency in New York City. Kiermyer's work is inspired by a variety of spiritual musics including the late period of John Coltrane and his quartet of McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.[1] Kiermyer’s album Solomon’s Daughter, featuring saxophonist and Coltrane band member Pharaoh Sanders, received a great deal of media attention and helped establish his reputation as a drummer and band leader.[2] Known mostly for his particularly expansive style of drumming and the passionate spiritual focus of his music, he has performed and recorded with spiritual musicians from other cultures, as well as many leading figures in jazz. Scatter The Atoms That Remain is Kiermyer's present band, founded in 2017 and originally composed of pianist Davis Whitfield, bassist Otto Gardner and saxophonist Jovan Alexandre. In May of 2019, saxophonist Michael Troy replaced Jovan Alexandre, who left the band due to health issues. "There may not be a quartet out there that best picks up where the Coltrane Quartet left off than drummer Franklin Kiermyer’s Scatter The Atoms That Remain." ~ The New York City Jazz Record After a series of smaller shows in and around New York City, Scatter The Atoms debuted at Jazz At Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club on February 2, 2018. "Drummer Franklin Kiermyer offers a sense of shared catharsis through music that is at once majestic, ferocious, and relatable. When music writers are tasked with describing Kiermyer, the words “ecstasy” and “ecstatic” appear almost predictably, but sometimes a word is just right. Kiermyer’s “Scatter The Atoms That Remain” quartet channels the kind of beautiful, disciplined intensity exemplified by late John Coltrane. This type of universal, non-denominational spirituality simply feels good." ~ Jazz At Lincoln Center The band first toured in Europe during April of 2019 with performances in Austria, Belgium and Germany. "Call it inspiration, intoxication or rapture. You feel it when it is there and the feeling was unmistakably present." ~ Enola, Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium