John Jenkins
Young Jenkins: 1957 Quintet Sessions
(Fresh Sound FSR CD931)

A STRANGE jazz life was that of the alto saxophonist John Jenkins. Born in Chicago in 1931 he went to Du Sable High School, which had an extraordinary music teacher called Captain Walter Dyett who tutored some of the most powerful saxophonists of the post-bop epoch, including Johnny Griffin, Sun Ra’s great tenor horn John Gilmore and Clifford Jordan.

[[{"fid":"1684","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Much influenced by the Charlie Parker sound and Parker’s disciples Jackie McLean and Sonny Still, Jenkins gigged for several years around Chicago before moving to New York in March 1957 where he very soon found himself playing in the Mingus band.

Within a few months he had been picked up by major jazz record producers at Prestige, Savoy and Blue Note labels and two of the albums that he made are featured on this Fresh Sound reissue, Young Jenkins.