Rodney Kendrick (born April 30, 1960) is an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, and producer. He has been described as a "hard swinging player and composer with a delightful Monkish wit and drive." Rodney Kendrick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but raised in Miami, Florida, where his parents moved soon after his birth. Kendrick grew up in a musical, and Pentecostal church-going family. His father James Jimmy Kay Kendrick, a pianist who worked with saxophonist Illinois Jacquet for seven years, played with saxophonist Sonny Stitt and Sam Rivers, and his mother gospel singer named Juet.