Frank Mantooth

Frank Mantooth was a pianist, composer, arranger, clinician and educator residing in Garden City, Kansas. Frank's five albums, "Suite Tooth," "Persevere," "Dangerous Precedent," "Sophisticated Lady," and "A Miracle" have garnered a total of eleven Grammy nominations in both writing and playing categories. Released on the Seabreeze label, Frank's last CD project, "A Miracle," features Pete Christlieb, Kevin Mahogany, Diane Schuur, Pat LaBarbera, Bobby Shew, Kim Park, and other jazz artists.

As an author, Frank published five volumes of "The Best Chord Changes for the World's Greatest Standards" for the Hal Leonard Corporation. This is in addition to over 165 works for combo and jazz ensemble which have been published with five major publishing houses since 1978. Also published by Hal Leonard are a beginning improvisation method with accompanying play-along compact discs, two Christmas anthologies for solo piano, and the landmark treatise on chord construction, "Voicings for Jazz Keyboard," which has sold over 20,000 copies since its debut in 1987.

Frank taught at numerous summer jazz camps and in residence at various universities and high schools. Writing commissions came from the Kansas City Symphony, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Doc Severinsen, Pete Christlieb, Louie Bellson, and the USAF Airmen of Note.

1999 was a banner year for awards. In February of 1999, Frank received the Florence Crittenton Foundation's "Citizen of the Year" award. Previous recipients have been former Kansas Senator Nancy Kassenbaum-Baker and former First Lady Barbara Bush. The 1999 Wichita Jazz Festival bestowed upon Frank the annual Homer Osborne award for outstanding contributions to jazz education. Frank was included in the 2001 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Jazz.

Frank died of natural causes at his home in Garden City on January 30, 2004.