Timothy R. Hoover is the author of Soul Serenade: King Curtis and His Immortal Saxophone. After twenty-one years of research, interviewing, writing and rewriting, this definitive work was published on November 2, 2022.

While attending a David Sanborn concert in 1994, Hoover heard Sanborn cover King Curtis’s signature hit song, “Soul Serenade,” which led to his dogged pursuit of anything about King Curtis. Tragically murdered at the age of thirty-seven in 1971, King Curtis was on the cusp of super-stardom, yet so many have never heard of him. An initial 2001 interview with retired Atlantic Records vice president, Jerry Wexler, was the springboard to his quest to find King Curtis for the next two decades. This led to interviews with Ahmet Ertegun, retired founder and president of Atlantic Records, Isaac Hayes, Clarence Clemmons, Sam and Joyce Moore, Delaney Bramlett, Bonnie Bramlett, booking agent Ruth Bowen and so many others.

Freelance articles on King Curtis and Delaney Bramlett written for Hittin’ The Note magazine (an Allman Brothers fan magazine that morphed into a blues/ soul publication) were his first published efforts.

Hoover also hosts a King Curtis tribute radio show for 90.1 MJWR (Memphis Jazz Workshop Radio), an internet-based radio station benefiting the Memphis Jazz Workshop. This non-profit organization is dedicated to reenergizing the jazz genre in Memphis, Tennessee. Targeting high-school jazz musicians, the Memphis Jazz Workshop has students graduating from their program who have received four-year, full-ride college scholarships to major music university programs around the country, from the University of California Berkley to Miami University in Miami, Florida.