Biography BIOGRAPHY Born and raised in Rome, Georgia, Mr. Duvall grew up listening to the music his mother loved - Louis Armstrong, the Dukes of Dixieland, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Hank Williams, Sr., Johnny Cash, Merl Haggard, Dean Martin and many others. Encouraged by his mother to pursue music if he so desired, Mr. Duvall began his musical training in the fifth grade playing trumpet in the middle school band. He continued on trumpet through high school earning numerous band awards for performance and leadership skills. During his junior and senior years of high school, he also began performing outside of school on electric bass as part of a local gospel group. After high school, Mr. Duvall auditioned and was accepted as a trumpeter in the US Army where, after basic training, he attended the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia.. At his permanent duty station, Fort Jackson, near Columbia, SC, he began performing on electric bass with the stage band, rock band and jazz combos. Upon leaving the Army, he applied and was accepted at the University of South Carolina as a jazz and commercial music major on bass studying primarily with the late Dr. John Emche, an accomplished jazz pianist, arranger and composer. During Mr. Duvall's sophomore year, he took a semester off to be part of an eleven week US tour with a group out of Opryland, USA. This tour, which featured all types of American music, was a bus tour consisting of mostly one night engagements which began in Nashville, headed north to New Jersey, south to Florida, west to Texas, north to Nebraska, east to Chicago and finally back to Tennessee. After graduating magna cum laude, Mr. Duvall began his Master's degree at USC in Music Composition with an emphasis in jazz studying with Dr. Dick Goodwin, an extraordinary multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, teacher and band leader. It was after one year of his Master's studies that Mr. Duvall left school to tour the US with pianist/singer/entertainer Buddy Greco who began his career in Benny Goodman's band. After returning to USC to finish his graduate studies, Mr. Duvall relocated to New York City where he performed in jazz clubs, off-Broadway shows and worked in music studios primarily with guitarist/producer Joe Taylor, a long-time friend from Columbia. Highlights while in New York include performing at Birdland with jazz saxophonist Chris Potter for his leader debut in New York, having an arrangement of a Marian McPartland composition for orchestra and jazz trio performed at Alice Tulley Hall and playing for John Gotti's birthday party... Mr. Duvall returned to South Carolina after nearly two years in New York and soon thereafter relocated to Charleston, SC where he eventually began performing as a jazz pianist. It was during this time that he met good friend and musical collaborator Robert Lewis, a highly regarded jazz saxophonist and composer, who heads the jazz department at the College of Charleston. Currently, Mr. Duvall leads the Frank Duvall Jazz Trio and performs throughout the area with other various ensembles. He also teaches at the College of Charleston where he is the acoustic and electric bass jazz performance instructor. He also directs and arranges for an instrumental ensemble and teaches a class covering the history of popular music in America. ----On a personal note, Mr. Duvall discovered fairly recently that his extended family was quite talented musically. On his mother's side of the family, many of his aunts and great-aunts played piano in the home and on his father's side, a great-aunt performed on piano in movie theatres providing music for silent films in Chicago. Her and her contemporaries lost their jobs when 'talkies' with sound tracks came along! PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES
Numerous performances with jazz pianist
Marian McPartland
of National Public Radio fame PROMINENT GIGS WITH THE FOLLOWING:
Marian McPartland, Freddie Hubbard, Buddy DeFranco, Bob Alberti, Chris Vadalla, COMPOSITION AND ARRANGING
Arrangement for orchestra and jazz trio for a
Marian McPartland
original "Time and Time Again" EDUCATION
Master of Music
degree from the University of South Carolina (1988)
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