Frank Miller, who has died aged 86, was a well-known poet and jazz musician in New York, although wider public recognition evaded him. Whereas his contemporaries and, in some cases, his friends, such as the comedian Lenny Bruce, gained large followings, Frank remained in the shadows.
His parents, William and Louise, divorced when Frank was 10. He learned to play the piano and trumpet at Bermudian Springs high school in York Springs, Pennsylvania. In the early 1950s he moved to New York, where he found work playing jazz and mixing with the artists and writers that were emerging as a new voice. Frank gradually became part of the beat generation and began to write freeform lyrics that he performed over his own improvisations.
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