Southington Loses Talented, Genial Musician Kim Myers

By Patch Editor Cassandra Day.

Southington has lost a true talent as talented jazz and blues keyboardist and vocalist Kim Myers Sr. passed away last weekend. 

The Plantsville resident, whom friends say was a mentor and always smiling — even when less than pleased — dressed in his trademark red and dapper attire for every performance.

Myers, 61, was an international star — playing such humble venues as Middletown's Luis Lopez Garden for last year's Community Health Center summer concert series, to international venues like those in Dubia, Foxwoods Resort Casino and private parties at the United Nations and for the governors of Connecticut.
 
His website includes photographs of him with Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Regis Philbin.

Check out the video of his Middletown performance to get an idea of the pleasure Myers took in playing cover tunes. Last summer, residents of Middletown's North End gathered in the verdant Main Street garden, where a trickling water fountain flows and the scent of boxwood fills the air — and his spirited concert took place.

Residents inevitably recognized the strains of a master and genial musician and his band playing "Ladies Night" — along with a terrific encore.

His good friend and bandmate, bass player and recording studio owner McAuthor Jackson of Windsor Locks, called Myers an "encourager." His friendship with Myers goes back to 1989. "He was just a warm presence," Jackson said, "always thinking of people before he thought of himself."

Myers saw Jackson playing bass in a music store more than 20 years ago, recognized his talent and brought him aboard.

"I was playing for Kim in the '90s and went on to be a producer, composer, audio engineer and bass player," Jackson says.

The day before Myers passed, Jackson says, he was playing a gig in Middletown, "ironically," he says, and was thinking of the musician. "I had a long, deep conversation with a friend and I said Kim told me one thing that really stuck — not to burn your bridges," Jackson recalled. 

Myers' band, which he played with since the early 2000s, featured Joe Wilson on saxophone, Paul Dubeski on bass, Pat Russo on guitar and Hank Deason on drums.

According to his website, "Myers puts his heart and soul into each performance, and has been doing so since he was a boy. When he was about 9 years old, his mother and grandmother send him to 'go pick the piano' while they sang hymns."

It continues. “I would try to get the melodies, and after a while it would come to me,” Myers said, describing how he first learned to play music.

Meyers sang and played gospel throughout his youth at the Zion Baptist Church in Middletown, where his funeral service was held Thursday.

He was also a frequent performer at the old blues joints. “I told my parents I was going to the store to buy candy. I’d be gone for an hour and a half, ”according to Myers website.

"The old gentlemen at the clubs would let him sit in and play the blues, and from that early experience he learned to fuse gospel and jazz together. 'When I perform, I always add a little gospel twist — it reminds me of those times before they tore down all the old joints and replaced it with technology.'”

He leaves a son, Kim Myers Jr. and his wife Tamara of Manchester; a daughter, Michelle Myers of Charlotte, N.C.; a sister, Doris Wimes of Hartford; and a grandson Nixon Myers. He is also survived by his nieces Lisa Dempsey and Pam Winford of Middletown, Jennifer Marshall of Michigan and Shawn Myers of Rhode Island. 

Share your memories of Myers and impressions of his musicanship in our comments below.

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