Ever since the age of 2, when she sang in her father's South Daytona Beach church, Kimber Manning knew she would make music her life. "...it's just one of those things that I really understood and grabbed onto right away", she says.

 

Her mother was an early influence. According to Kimber, "My Mom is a pianist and a good singer herself. She always had music going in the house and would play and ask me to come over and sing."

 

Among her early professional gigs were a Gospel group, several Youth Ministry Groups, operas and musicals and a job working with Gaylord Entertainment and a Madrigal Group.

 

In 2006, Kimber released her debut CD "Eventually", a collection of standards brilliantly reworked in her unique jazz stylings. "...Jazz covers the keyboard", she says adding, "Every note that's out there you hear it in Jazz music." Asked to describe her style, she says, "My own." and it's clear from listening to "Eventually" that she has an incomparable gift for not just singing a song but living it and making her listener live it right along with her.

 

Kimber counts among her influences, Take 6, especially Claude McKnight and the late Eva Cassidy about whom she says, "Gone way too soon, her lovely voice still inspires me." Others include Judy Garland, Anita Baker, Lanelle Harris, Sandi Patty and Allison Durham Speer.

 

Her current favorites include: Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Brian Adams, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston And Lauryn Hill. "Give me people who can really sing and play.", she says of today's musical landscape.

 

When asked to name her goals in music, she says, "To create it for the rest of my life!"