R.I.P. Leroy Jenkins

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Leroy Jenkins, one of the greatest jazz violinists ever to have walked the planet has passed away. He was a couple of weeks shy of his 75th birthday.

Leroy was a member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the '60s, and together with bassist Norris "Sirone" Jones and drummer Jerome Cooper, started the Revolutionary Ensemble ca. 1972.

Leroy expanded on the violin's jazzical language, from Stuff Smith and Ray Nance, bringing to the instrument the vocabulary of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler (all saxophonists). He performed frequently as a violin soloist, and in addition to composing for orchestras and leading numerous small groups since the 1980s, he and the Revolutionary Ensemble reconvened in 2004.

Please take a moment to give Leroy his due, and if you are not familiar with his music, check him out.

http://aacmchicago.org/members/Leroy.html
http://www.lovely.com/bios/jenkins.html

― hstencil, Monday, 26 February 2007 05:08 (eighteen years ago)

he shouldn't have run into that cave without the rest of his guild!

― chaki, Monday, 26 February 2007 05:20 (eighteen years ago)

Damm, that Revolutionary Ensemble reunion disc from a cpl of years back showed that he was still at the top of his game

RIP

― Ward Fowler, Monday, 26 February 2007 07:32 (eighteen years ago)

Indeed.

People's Republic from 1976 is one of the greatest free jazz records ever, especially the title track which is one of the best condensed-history-of-music pieces of music I can think of.

Thinking also of Escalator Over The Hill very recently - after Calo Scott and Don Cherry he's the third Desert Band member to die :-(

And his early work in the Creative Construction Company with Braxton and Leo Smith is stunning (see also Braxton's BYG/Actuel albums).

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 26 February 2007 08:37 (eighteen years ago)

O god.

P.I.P.

Only once did I see him perform live. Early 1990s. It was a solo concert, too. And abslutely wonderful.
And Leroy 's one of the most generous, thoughtful and sweetest interviewees I've ever had the luck to converse with.

― t**t, Monday, 26 February 2007 09:38 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, and I must also mention For Players Only, which LJ did for and with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra in 1976; very fine large ensemble work and a useful counterpart to Braxton's Creative Orchestra Music 1976 from the same period. As with all the non-Bley/Mantler JCOA records, this requires urgent and key CD reissue.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 26 February 2007 10:04 (eighteen years ago)

I saw him play at my college, around 77-78, my friends and I were adjusting to the idea that there was more to jazz than fusion and we'd even encountered Sun Ra at that point but that was scant preparation for Leroy Jenkins' high energy assault, truly a mind-expander. RIP.

― m coleman, Monday, 26 February 2007 11:10 (eighteen years ago)

We should give props also to the AACM, who made Jenkins' career possible. For a young black string player in the 40's/50's, there was pretty much no opportunity to progress to a slot in some prestigious symphony orchestra or chamber ensemble. The AACM created an atmosphere in which you were free to bring anything to the table, which meant that Jenkins could abandon his attempts to play R&B saxophone — "black music", on a "proper black instrument" — and bring his classical violin/viola background into the realm of improvised music, without having to be the reincarnation of Stuff Smith or Joe Venuti.

I'd just found a copy of Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America last week, inspired by the Loft Jazz S/D thread; I didn't like it much on first half-listen (recommended: The Legend of Ai Glatson, from the same time period) , but it will be getting a few more spins this week, in honor of Mr. Jenkins.

― mark 0, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:39 (eighteen years ago)

fuck a can't-parse-entities

bring back the old code!

― mark 0, Monday, 26 February 2007 14:40 (eighteen years ago)

Check out that reunion disc on Pi Recordings, if you haven't. Great, great stuff.

― unperson, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:07 (eighteen years ago)

:-(

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:24 (eighteen years ago)

Goddamnit! I missed an opportunity to see him perform solo a couple of years ago. I think it was even free and I simply felt like shit that night.

I do at least have a couple of things he did on Black Saint that I can listen to tonight in his honor. Still...#@@%#$@#!

― Oilyrags, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

I stayed there (at Ornette's Prince Street loft) for three months and met a lot of people who came to meet Ornette. I didn't realize how famous he was. At first, I thought he was a struggling guy. He was struggling then, but not because he needed to but because he was demanding such high things. He seemed to be making it fine, and it was great to see him live like that, you know, a guy that's playing this kind of music being able to command that kind of life. It was a great experience for me. Guys like Lee Konitz... They knew each other. And I thought that was weird. I would never believe that Lee would know Ornette. In fact, I thought he'd be putting him down. I became friendly with Lee on account of that—not for musical reasons, but for friendship. And every time Ornette has a concert, I look for him.

From [Removed Illegal Link].

― mark 0, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:37 (eighteen years ago)

Bring back the MF'in HTML! Here's the link: http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=61fp12

― mark 0, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 11:38 (eighteen years ago)

dbags check the gmail group

― Oilyrags, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:25 (eighteen years ago)

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