"He was really our last connection to a bygone time in the history of New Orleans," said Ben Jaffe, director of Preservation Hall, in an Associated Press interview. Jaffe's parents founded the hall in 1961. Kimball made several trips to the Twin Cities to play with the Preservation Hall band in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, thanks to the local musicians who owned the Emporium of Jazz in Mendota.

Kimball's father, Henry Kimball, was a bass player. As a boy, Narvin made a cigar-box ukulele. His parents encouraged his interest in the four-string sound and saw to it that he had banjo lessons. He began playing on Mississippi riverboats in the 1920s with the Fate Marable Band, which also employed Louis Armstrong, and made his first records in 1928, with Papa Celestin's Original Tuxedo Orchestra on the Columbia label. It was on the boats that he met clarinetist Willie Humphrey to begin a musical association that lasted, on and off, for about 60 years until Humphrey's death in 1996.

In the 1930s Kimball switched to string bass. His own band, Narvin Kimball's Gentlemen of Jazz, played in the New Orleans area for about 40 years, and he played bass with swing bands from 1935 to 1960. But like many musicians, he had a "day job" -- he worked as a mail carrier for 37 years. In 1960 he switched back to banjo, and his mailman rounds put him in contact with the new Preservation Hall. He joined the original band as its youngest member – at age 57 – when it came together officially in 1966. The left-handed Kimball's banjo style was distinctive and a little more elaborate than that of most players. He varied chord sounds to lead into the changes, supporting the melody the way a "walking" bass line does. As a soloist he was a virtuoso, and he also supplied vocals that were warmly received by audiences. He was especially known for his rendition of "Georgia On My Mind."

His last performance with the Preservation Hall band was in 1999, at age 90, on a PBS television special. Not long afterward, Jaffe said, he suffered a series of strokes that ended his banjo playing.

Kimball died at his daughter's home in Charleston, S.C., where he had been staying since Hurricane Katrina. He was buried in New Orleans on March 23. He is survived by his wife, Lillian; two daughters, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

This article first appeared in Coda, an electronic supplliment to the Twin Cities Jazz Society's Jazz Notes. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.