Frank Jolliffe music, papers, and audiovisual recordings

Frank Jolliffe (1958-2012) was a pioneer performer of the Chapman Stick, the electric stringed instrument designed by Emmet Chapman in the 1970s and played by tapping its fretboard with the fingers of both hands, rather than being strummed or plucked. Jolliffe was among the first and most accomplished Chapman Stick players working in a jazz context. He impressed audiences and critics with his ability to simultaneously play solid walking bass lines with his left hand while deftly soloing and playing chords with his right hand. Guitar Player dubbed him "a Chapman Stick maestro," and Jazz Times called him "king of the Chapman Stick."

After studying guitar briefly at Berklee College of Music, Jolliffe earned a Bachelor of Music at William Paterson College in 1986, with the Chapman Stick as his primary instrument. He performed widely, playing at clubs in New York and music festivals in Europe. He taught at the National Guitar Workshop in the U.S. and the European Stick Seminar in Belgium, as well as the Hartford Camerata Conservatory. In the 1990s, Jolliffe switched from the Chapman Stick to the Warr guitar, an instrument designed by Mark Warr similar to the Stick. Jolliffe coined the term "touchstyle" to describe the Stick, Warr guitar, and other comparable instruments, a term that came into wide usage. In his 40s, Jolliffe began a second career as a librarian, earning an M.L.S. from Rutgers University, and he worked at the Columbia University Center for Jazz Studies, where he helped develop the Center's Jazz Studies Online and J-DISC, an online jazz discography.

Jolliffe's publications included The TouchStyle Songbook (1995) and a newsletter, The TouchStyle Quarterly (1995-2000). Jolliffe's recordings included Solo Stick (TouchStyle, 1988); Live on Comcast (TouchStyle, 1990) and In the Pocket (TouchStyle, 1991) with drummer Jim Mason; Live in Brigitines, Brussels (Clic, 1993) with guitarist Pierre Van Dormael; Totems (Sonic Utensil, 2011) with The Flying Particles; June 2011 (ArtCrime, 2011) with ArtCrime, and the self-titled ArtCrime (Unseen Rain, 2012).