Saying that the recorded legacy of John Jenkins as a leader
is meager seems like a vast understatement. As a matter of fact, besides two
sessions cut about two weeks apart in the summer of 1957 and a third one co-led
with trumpeter Donald Byrd that same year, Jenkins would never enter a studio
as a leader again, quietly disappearing from the jazz scene in the mid 1960s.
He did appear as a sideman on several dates by the likes of Jackie McLean, Paul
Qunichette, Hank Mobley, Clifford Jordan, Wilbur Ware, and Teddy Charles, yet
never again as a leader. This is undoubtedly regrettable in the light of the
quality of the music produced during the two summer sessions that we are
discussing today. Jenkins also played alongside jazz giants such as Charles
Mingus and Art Pepper, but many of these collaborations went sadly unrecorded,
which is another reason why his discography looks so slim. Born in Chicago in
1931, Jenkins began his musical education by playing the clarinet, yet he soon
switched to alto saxophone, and in his formative years he was influenced by his
friend Jackie McLean (with whom he recorded the album Alto Madness for Prestige
also in 1957) as well as by Charlie Parker; hence his preference for bop and
hard bop when it came time to lead his own sessions.
The first of these dates took place on July 26, 1957 at Rudy
Van Gelder’s famed studio in New Jersey and was released on a Prestige album
simply titled Jenkins, Jordan, and Timmons. As the title itself suggests,
Jenkins, who plays alto saxophone, is joined by Clifford Jordan on tenor, Bobby
Timmons on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Dannie Richmond on drums. It is a
wholeheartedly bop session, and a rather brief one at that, yielding five tracks
that offer plenty of room for all involved to solo. Jenkins is in fine form,
acting as leader from the very beginning of the first track, a Jordan original
entitled “Cliff’s Edge,” and he brings in two of his own compositions,
“Princess” and “Blue Jay.” These are two excellent mid-tempo vehicles for the
kind of improvisation that Jenkins enjoyed, based on swift phrases with enough
unexpected notes here and there to keep the listener’s attention. “Soft Talk,”
the longest track on the album, is much more fast-paced, and though it is
dominated primarily by Jenkins, it does contain a compelling solo by Timmons,
and even Ware gets to solo briefly on bass. Jenkins is ably supported by
Timmons on “Tenderly,” both the only standard and the only ballad in the set,
which stands as a fine example of Jenkins’s gusto when it comes to slow
numbers.
Kenny Burrell and John Jenkins |
Bobby Timmons plays piano on Jenkins's first session as a leader |
2 comments:
By chance I happened to hear the John Jenkins - Kenny Burell version of Everything I have is Yours on radio this morning and was very impressed by the alto player sounding almost like Bird. In spite of listening to jazz for more than 50 years I never heard about this guy Jenkins.Your article gave me just the information I wanted and great pictures too!
Thanks!
Erik Stenvik
Norway
Dear Erik,
Thank you so much for your very kind comment. I am very glad you enjoyed my article about John Jenkins and that you found it useful! As you say, Jenkins was influenced by Charlie Parker, and in spite of being a very talented alto player, he never got the recognition he deserved, and in fact, he recorded very little. But what he recorded was always high-quality stuff, particularly the album with Burrell.
Mange takk!
Anton G.-F.
The Vintage Bandstand
http://vintagebandstand.blogspot.com
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