Jeanette Kimball

Born in Pass Christian, Mississippi, pianist Jeanette Salvant Kimball (1906-2001) was recruited to play piano in Oscar Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra in 1926 and performed and recorded with the band throughout the latter 1920s and married the banjo player, Narvin Kimball, in 1929. In 1935 she took a hiatus from the Tuxedo to raise her family and teach music, returning to work in the mid-1940s with Buddy Charles and Dave Bartholomew at the Dew Drop Inn and with Herbert Leary’s big band. In the 1960s and 70s she was featured at Preservation Hall and worked with the Original Camellia Jazz Band.

Bruce Raeburn