Franklin Kiermyer (born 21 July 1956) is a jazz drummer, composer, and bandleader.
Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Kiermyer first gained attention in 1994 with his album Solomon's Daughter, featuring tenor saxophonist and former John Coltrane bandmate Pharoah Sanders. Known mostly for his particularly expansive style of drumming and the passionate spiritual focus of his music.
Mostly self-taught, Kiermyer cites the early influence of drummers Baby Dodds, Sid Catlett, Minor Hall, and Gene Krupa. "All of these drummers had a big beat. It felt loose, spontaneous and sure at the same time and I really responded to that. IâÂÂve always gone for that feeling of power and release in my own playing.â The music of Fats Waller, Kid Ory, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, as well as various orchestral music played in his parents' home magnetized his childhood. Growing up in the 60's and 70's he was also greatly affected by the psychedelic freedom music of Jimi Hendrix and other improvisers of the era and the social-political revolution they espoused.
In his early teens, his older brother gave him books about Tibetan Buddhism that led him to a life-long practice of meditation that would intensify over the years. Around the same time, a close friend introduced him to the mid-60âÂÂs music of the John Coltrane Quartet with drummer Elvin Jones. This music had an immediate, profound and lasting impact and greatly helped shape his musical focus. âÂÂRecords like Transition, Sun Ship and First Meditations became great inspirations for me. This felt like real spiritual music â a spiritual practice of using honesty and faith to transcend concepts and get to the heart of things. That openness, honesty and faith became my goal.â Kiermyer
Having reached a turning point in his evolution, Kiermyer spent much of 2001 to 2010 in remote Himalayan regions of Nepal and India on various solitary Buddhist meditation retreats, following the instructions of his teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. His musical output during this time was minimal. Kiermyer has stated that he felt this period was instrumental in reaching his spiritual and musical goals.
Scatter The Atoms That Remain was the name of Kiermyer's band from 2017 to 2024. a colleague suggested he give the band its own name to differentiate the new music they were developing and that the name should somehow refer to Franklin's spiritual practice. "The first thing that came to mind was a spontaneous song my teacher had sung to me many years before when he was instructing me to practice Chöd.â Kiermyer
âÂÂTake this big corpse of the five skandhas and burn it in the realization of selflessness. Scatter the atoms that remain in the space of the Dharmadhatu and in the Dharmadhatu of no attachment ... Ah! Ah! Ha! Ha! Aaaah!â Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche
Since its inception, Scatter The Atoms That Remain featured outstanding musicians rounding out the lineup. Usually performing and/or recording as a quartet or quintet, the band has included at various times: saxophonists Gary Bartz, Billy Harper, George Garzone, Isaiah Collier, Jovan Alexandre, Ben Solomon, Lawrence Clark, Emilio Modeste, Linda Sikhakhane, Abraham Burton, Boris Blanchet and Michael Troy - trumpeters Randy Brecker, Keyon Harrold, Josh Evans, Giveton Gelin and a cameo by Roy Hargrove a few weeks before his untimely passing. - Pianists Davis Whitfield, Aaron Parks, Leo Genovese, [[Wajdi Riahi] - bassists Gene Perla, Géraud Portal, Otto Gardner, Nat Reeves, Yasushi Nakamura, Evan Flory-barnes and Eric Wheeler, guitarist Eric Schenkman, vocalist and flautist Melanie Charles, producer/songwriter and singer Jeff Bhasker and Bollywood singing star Jasbir Jassi have all either performed or have been guests on recordings with the band.
Kiermyer has also performed and recorded with many other notable musicians including Umdze Lodro Samphel, Dewey Redman, Don Alias, Reggie Workman, John Abercrombie, Bobo Stenson, Tisziji Muñoz, Azar Lawrence, Joe Lovano, Chris Gekker, John Esposito, Dave Douglas, Juini Booth, Benito Gonzalez, Vernon Reid, Drew Gress, Fima Ephron, Dave Fiuzcynski, Famoro Dioubate, Umdze Lodro Samphel, Eric Person, Anthony Cox, Benny Barbara, Bob Mover, Michael Stuart, Hassan Hakmoun, John Stubblefield, John Rojak, Hill Greene, Dom Richards, Ivan Symonds, T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Debashish Battacharya, and Jatheeya Billy Robinson.
"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 âÂÂecstasyâ and âÂÂecstaticâ appear almost predictably, but sometimes a word is just right. KiermyerâÂÂs âÂÂScatter The Atoms That Remainâ quartet channels the kind of beautiful, disciplined intensity exemplified by late John Coltrane." Jazz At Lincoln Center
Scatter The Atoms' first release, Exultation, was co-produced by Kiermyer and legendary producer Michael Cuscuna, as was Kiermyer's albums Closer to the Sun and Further. Cuscuna has gone on record praising Kiermyer's music: "It's the urgency you feel when you listen ... Franklin got beyond his influences and comes through with him as an original player â his feel, his rhythmic patterns ... He has his own way of playing the drums, his own way of organizing music, his own way of unfolding a performance." Emancipation Suite, released in 2022 only on limited edition LP, was chosen as one of Down Beat Magazine's best albums of the year "Scatter the Atoms That Remain calls for universal freedoms such as it enacts." Howard Mandel
Kiermyer's new album, entitled "SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN" is co-produced by him and Jason Olaine and slated for release in the Fall of 2026.