Jenkins, John
With Kenny Burrell
In the late fifties the Chicago-born John Jenkins was an up and coming young alto saxophone player on the New York jazz scene, playing with top jazzmen like Charles Mingus, Donald Byrd, and Hank Mobley, among others. It looked like he was going to have a long and promising career, when suddenly in the mid-sixties he gave up music altogether and disappeared from the jazz world. Thankfully, before doing so he recorded several sessions, including two as leader for Blue Note in 1957. This quintet session (recorded with the all-star rhythm section of Kenny Burrell, Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers, and Danny Richmond) is considered to be the better of the two. Here Jenkins also gets an opportunity to show off his flair for composition as well, contributing three of the six pieces found on the album ("Motif", "Sharon" and "Chalumeau"). After such a competent start, jazz fans can only mourn the fact that Jenkins didnt continue recording!