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With a wall-to-wall, standing-room-only crowd, the master musician who leads Shortt Dogg steps to the microphone with his electric bass guitar strapped acoss his shoulder and says, "Welcome to the UCO Jazz Lab. We're Shortt Dogg. We're here to entertain you this evening. We will walk you through some of the old, some funk, some soul and bring you a little new, too. So sit back, relax - not that far back - and we are going to find something to bring the music alive in your soul. We're Shortt Dogg."
Only a few hours earlier, Shortt Dogg maestro Johann Kimbro, marketing and communications coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Child Support Enforcement Division, was working with Sheriff John Whetsel's detention team at the Oklahoma County jail to help young adults as part of his duties. |
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Kimbro helps prisoners in the Offender Reentry Program get on track as they are released from jail. The program is funded through the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Most of the offenders in the 98-bed unit who are scheduled for release within 60 to 120 days have children and many more owe child support. And after incarceration, most don't know what to do to care for themselves or their children, he said.
"In the last few years, a lot has changed in the business of collecting child support," Kimbro said. "It used to be you get the money any way you can. It was an old-fashioned collection agency-style approach. So you get the money this week, and you still dont get anything else after that. And the children are still the big losers in the process."
"That had to change and we have changed with it. We are working and training ourselves and our partners to work with the whole family. When we work in the best interests of the absent parents, as well as meeting the needs of the custodial parents and their children, the holistic approach yields better long-term results for all involved."
There are a lot more tools available today to help families and staff in the collection processes, said Kimbro. |
Music, however, is the heart of Kimbro's lifeblood. He started playing the piano on his mother's lap when he was 5. That's no surprise to those who knew his parents, Isaac and Johnnie M. Kimbro. Both were life-long musicians and educators. When people look around the central Oklahoma African-American community, few can find a professional musician or educator who did not sit at the feet of Kimbro's mother. She founded and ran Kimbro's Music Studio for more than 40 years in Oklahoma City, until her recent death. Johnnie Kimbro was also minister of music for 30 years at Avery Chapel AME Church in Oklahoma City. Kimbro said he's proud of his parents' accomplishments and what they gave him as a foundation for life.
Kimbro started Shortt Dogg to bring his own love of music back to life in 1998. Today, Shortt Dogg is one of the most successful jazz, rhythm and blues bands in Oklahoma. They are making plans for a European tour soon.
Three of Shortt Dogg's members are in the Kimbro family. Kimbro's younger sister, Shawn Kimbro Dawson, is on keyboards and Dawson's daughter, Ckai Dawson, is a lead and backup vocalist for the group. When Shortt Dogg is "play'n in da house;' you don't get to sit still for very long because the music will rock your soul.
It's intermission between sets and the members of Shortt Dogg come down from the stage and are besieged by, Dogg groupies. Ann Salazar, an administrator at the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, counts herself as a fortunate "Doggie."
"When Shortt Dogg is playing anywhere in central Oklahoma, I'm going to be there,” she says.
Kimbro went to college on a music scholarship at Oklahoma City University. Capitol Records lured him away after two years to play as a studio musician in Los Angeles and to tour with several nationally-known artists, including Tyrone Davis, Al Green and Smokey Robinson. Then it was back to OCU, where in 1974 he completed four years of study with a major in business administration and a minor in criminal justice. Music was never far out of his sight.
Kimbro was then off to the Federal Correctional Institution at El Reno, Okla., where he began a 20-year career in the field of corrections. A promotion in 1979 moved him to a correctional supervisor position at the U.S. Penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. His next promotion sent him to the Sandstone Federal Prison in northern Minnesota, as assistant director of programs.
With an ear-to-ear grin on his face, Kimbro explained how he got back to Oklahoma from the North American tundra.
The Sand Springs Prison was not too far from the Canadian border and the winters were brutal. Temperatures of -22° below zero, Fahrenheit, were common. Kimbro said every parking space there had pools coming out of the ground with electrical outlets on them. The first thing you did when you parked was to plug your car’s heater block into the electricity to keep the radiator and oil pan from freezing.
“One day there was four and a half feet of snow on the ground when Kimbro came home from the prison. Kimbro’s wife, Sabrina, greeted and said she’d had enough. He could stay, but she and the children were going back to Oklahoma. Jokingly he adds, “I liked being married to my wife and loved my two girls so I put in my notice, we packed up and moved back to Oklahoma.
On their return, Kimbro began his tenure with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections as a programs manager at Big Mac, the Oklahoma State Prison at McAlester.
Kimbro landed his first job with OKDHS in November 1996 as a child welfare specialist in Wewoka, Okla. A year later he received a promotion to the Child Support Enforcement programs unit.
Several years after returning to Oklahoma, Kimbro's wife died, leaving him as a single father with two daughters to raise. "It was tough on all of us, but we were blessed to have strong family ties and we pulled together to do what families do - we moved forward, slowly at first, but forward just the same. I have two beautiful daughters. They are adults now and doing well. You could say, I'm a proud father and grandfather.”
Kimbro's keeping his eyes focused on the future while living out his dreams in the present. He has already started two projects as part of his life after OKDHS. Bring Back The Music, a non-profit organization in its infancy, helps young children get the right start in music. It is a full-services music training program that will work with those who have talent to understand everything there is to know about music - from the basic chords of a tune all the way through music production, distribution and the personal appearances necessary for success in the music business.
"They have taken most of the heart out of school music programs in public schools until children are in high school;' Kimbro said. "Music needs to be developed at a much younger age. We are putting programs together to make that resource available to these young children here and now."
He also is working on plans with one of Oklahoma's higher educational institutions and a community group to develop a youthful offender-style boot camp program that would serve ages 17 to 26. Youth who become involved with the law today usually don't have the skill sets to be successful in gainful employment. The program would have strong focuses on education, technical training and the discipline necessary to be successful in the workplace, Kimbro said.
With visions for a brighter future and his electric bass guitar strapped to his shoulder, Johann Kimbro plans on keeping life alive through his soulful music and finding productive ways to give back to the people and communities he loves.
It's the end of the evening and people are rock'n all over the Lab. Dressed in white from head to toe, Kimbro, the master musician, steps back to the microphone.
In a deep melodic voice this lead bass player says, "This last number will bring to an end our work for you this evening. We've enjoyed being here with you. We hope that you have enjoyed what we have been able to deliver this evening."
The crowd chants louder and louder, "Shortt Dogg, Shortt Dogg, Shortt Dogg, Shortt Dogg, Shortt Dogg, Shortt Dogg."
"That's right ladies and gentleman, we are Shortt Dogg. We will be right back here at the UCO Jazz Lab again the first Friday of next month. For us, it's a standing engagement. We hope it will be for you too. We're looking forward to seeing you again real soon. Remember, we are Shortt Dogg!"
The still standing-room only crowd jumps to its feet. The music blares and everyone is now dancing in place, in the aisles and down the main hallway. There's no being cool now because everyone "in da house" sweats it out as Johann Kimbro and Shortt Dogg bring the stage lights down and the music to a close.
