Narvin Kimball

Singer and banjoist Narvin Kimball grew up during the golden age of New Orleans jazz and outlived virtually all of his contemporaries. Active in the Louisiana jazz scene during the 1920s, he enjoyed a lengthy comeback that began in 1960 at Preservation Hall and lasted until 1999. Narvin's father was Henry Kimball (1878-1931), who was among the first people ever to play jazz on the string bass. When he was a boy, Narvin made himself a ukulele out of a cigar box. This kind of resourcefulness was not uncommon in New Orleans, where young George Murphy (later "Pops") Foster and his...