Kermit Driscoll

Kermit Driscoll
James "Kermit" Driscoll (born March 4, 1956) is an American jazz bassist. He is known for his long association with guitarist Bill Frisell.
Biography
Driscoll was born in Kearney, Nebraska. He began playing piano at age five. Soon after, he added saxophone, and at age thirteen he picked up the bass guitar. Almost immediately he was playing gigs around the midwest. When an offer to travel with a rock band came up, he dropped out of high school at age sixteen to go on tour.
He resumed high school at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, then attended the University of Miami, where one of his teachers was Jaco Pastorius. At Berklee College of Music in 1975 he became friends with guitarist Bill Frisell, and they often performed locally in Boston. Driscoll cites Pastorius and Frisell as two of the biggest influences on his life. Around 1976, he and his roommate, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, and Frisell found work in a band called the Boston Connection. According to Frisell, band members dressed in orange polyester suits and played disco.
In May 1978, Driscoll traveled to Belgium to play with Stephan Houben who was working with Frisell. With this group he made his first recording, Mauve Traffic, with Frisell, Houben, Greg Badolato, Vinton Johnson, and Michel Herr. The album included a composition by Driscoll entitled "Doggone it". In January, 1980, he moved to New York City, and during the next year toured with Buddy Rich.
From 1986 to 1996, he was a member of Bill Frisell's quartet. From 1990 to 1995, he was in the group New and Used with trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Andy Laster.
In 2005, he was diagnosed with advanced Lyme disease. Friends performed benefit concerts. Colauita helped gather donations and encouraged Driscoll to record. Reveille, his first album as a leader, was recorded with Colaiuta, Frisell, and pianist Kris Davis and released in 2010.
Driscoll has worked in many genres and music settings: Broadway, classical, jazz, folk, rock, film, and television. He has taught at SUNY Purchase College and Sarah Lawrence College.
On January, 28th, 2019 Driscoll was charged with aggravated assault, violating a restraining order, false imprisonment, hindering his arrest, obstruction and harassment. This was after being removed from a Cliffside Park, NJ home by the Bergen County Regional SWAT Team.
Discography
As leader
2010 Reveille (19/8 Records)
2012 Window & Door (Supraphon)
With New and Used
1992 Souvenir (Knitting Factory)
1995 Consensus (Knitting Factory)
As sideman
With Bill Frisell
1987 Lookout for Hope (ECM)
1989 Before We Were Born (Nonesuch)
1991 Where in the World? (Nonesuch)
1992 Have a Little Faith (Nonesuch)
1994 This Land (Nonesuch)
1995 Go West: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton (Nonesuch)
1995 The High Sign/One Week (Nonesuch)
1995 Live (Gramavision)
With John Hollenbeck
2005 A Blessing
2009 Eternal Interlude (Sunnyside)
With Joel Harrison
2013 Infinite Possibility
2015 Spirit House
With Gerry Hemingway
2002 Songs
2005 Double Blues Crossing (Between the Lines)
With David Johansen
2000 David Johansen and the Harry Smiths
2002 Shaker
With Mick Rossi
1997 Inside the Sphere
1999 They Have a Word for Everything
With John Zorn
1997 FilmWorks III: 1990–1995
1997 FilmWorks VII: Cynical Hysterie Hour
With others
1989 Those Who Know History Are Doomed to Repeat It, Henry Kaiser
1991 Miracle Mile, Wayne Horvitz
1991 Overlays, Ned Rothenberg
1998 Jazz Standards on Mars, Robert Dick
2000 Dancing Spirits, Karl Latham
2000 Hangdog Heaven, Jim Lord
2002 Almost Blue, Chet Baker
2002 Lalo, Lalo
2003 Do You Speak Vibe, Bill Molenhof
2004 Light Is Calling, Michael Gordon
2004 Save Big, Russ Johnson
2005 New York School, Tom Christensen
2005 Nu Love, Johannes Mossinger
2005 Oceana, Ben Monder (Sunnyside)
2006 Beginning to See the Light, Jane Stuart
2006 Velvet Gentlemen, Dan Willis
2006 Walkin' with the Wazmo, Jerry Vivino
2006 You Decide, Rave Tesar
2007 Resonance, Karl Latham
2007 The Path to Peace, Andrew Sterman
2008 A Day in the Life of a Mother and Wife, Cat Guthrie
2008 A Quiet Thing, Lisa Sokolov
2008 The Exile of St. Christopher, Max Gabriel
2009 The Funky Way of Emil Viklicky, Emil Viklicky
2010 The Satie Project, Dan Willis
References
External links
1956 births
American jazz bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
American jazz double-bassists
Male double-bassists
Berklee College of Music alumni
Interlochen Center for the Arts alumni
Living people
People from Kearney, Nebraska
University of Miami alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
Jazz musicians from Nebraska
21st-century double-bassists
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians