BLP 1573

John Jenkins With Kenny Burrell

Released - December 1957

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, August 11, 1957
John Jenkins, alto sax; Sonny Clark, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Paul Chambers, bass; Dannie Richmond, drums.

tk.2/1 Chalumeau
tk.3 From This Moment On
tk.4 Motif
tk.5 Everything I Have Is Yours
tk.7/6 Sharon
tk.9 Blues For Two

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images / 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date	Duration
From This Moment On	Cole Porter	11/08/1957	07:37
Motif	John Jenkins	11/08/1957	06:14
Everything I Have Is Yours	Harold Adamson, Burton Lane	11/08/1957	06:10
Side Two
Sharon	John Jenkins	11/08/1957	07:47
Chalumeau	John Jenkins	11/08/1957	05:56
Blues For Two	Kenny Burrell	11/08/1957	04:42

Credits

Cover Photo:	FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design:	TOM HANNAN
Engineer:	RUDY VAN GELDER
Producer:	ALFRED LION
Liner Notes:	IRA GITLER

Liner Notes

ONE DAY in the summer of 1956, while visiting the offices of Blue Note Records, I met Joe Segal of Chicago. Although we had not known each other before, we found much to talk about and during the course of a long walk to the West side (Blue Note was on Lexington Avenue in those days) and a longer stop on the corner of 52nd Street and 6th Avenue (no symbolic connection with The Street; my barber happens to be located there) we discussed jazz in general and Chicago's jazz in particular.

In the late Forties, when I was an undergraduate in the Midwest, Chicago was one of my vacation spots when school holidays were too short to allow traveling to New York. I had heard and met many musicians, but the names Segal mentioned were strange to me except for Ira Sullivan, Eddie Baker and a few others. Many new players had sprung up, quite understandably, since my last visit in January of 1950. I remembered Johnny Griffin from long before that (my high school days, in fact) as a kid sitting in Lionel Hampton's sax section wearing a pair of air corps sunglasses, but Clifford Jordan, Johnny Gilmore and John Jenkins were as unfamiliar to me as, say, Kenny Mills is to you.

Kenny Mills is a trumpeter who attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri when I was at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He was 18 then and a talented boy who listened seriously to Gillespie, Navarro and Davis. I don't know where he is today (several years ago someone told me he had heard him playing in Oklahoma City) but I mention him to suggest to you the amount of swinging musicians all over this country whom you and I have never heard. They're in the hamlets, towns and cities; some of them will never leave their localities. Add to this unknown number the ones you have heard of but never heard and the figure may still be an X in an equation but an X that represents a vast unknown.

And so Joe Segal told me, in glowing terms, of the Chicago scene unknown to me. Then the proof began to manifest itself. Johnny Griffin was heard in his own album, Chicago Calling (Blue Note BLP 1533, BLP 1559) and the Cliff Jordan — Johnny Gilmore tenor Sax duo excited everyone with Blowing In From Chicago (Blue Note BLP 1549). Just prior to the latter recording, Ira Sullivan and Wilbur Ware were featured in Blue Note BLP 1536 with J. R. Monterose. These were the recorded evidence. Meanwhile, Griffin was hired by Art Blakey and Jordan came East with Max Roach and later joined Horace Silver's group. A young alto player came too, and while he worked briefly with Charlie Mingus' quintet, John Jenkins did most of his blowing on a free-lance basis. Blue Note listeners first heard him with Hank Mobley on Blue Note BLP 1560. He had emerged from the vast unknown.

This is John's first recording as a leader. The group he heads here offers a singular sound; his alto sax in unison with the guitar of Kenny Burrell. The result is a bright, plastic front line with a texture all its own.

John was born in "that toddlin' town" on January 3, 1931. Like Cliff Jordan, John Gilmore and Johnny Griffin, John studied under Capt. Walter Dyett at Du Sable High. Clarinet was his first instrument and alto entered about six months later. His first important playing experience was in 1949 at the Roosevelt College sessions promoted by Joe Segal. During the next seven years, John continued to play at these swinging affairs and also at local clubs such as the Bee Hive. In March of 1957 he came to New York and the rest is history.....recorded I might add.

Jenkins' admitted favorites are Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean and the Sonnys, Stitt and Rollins. While you will hear occasional parallels to McLean, the Parker imprint will be most evident to you. John is an avid follower of Bird, but he has many personal turns of his own within the idiom. He has a wonderful fluidity of line as he goes skipping and gliding along and he is able to get his heart into his sound. There is the stamp of sincerity in the playing of John Jenkins.

In abetting John, Kenny Burrell, no stranger to Blue Note listeners, not only offers his unison playing skills, but also the unadulterated power of his solo voice. His happy amalgam of the Charlie Christian influence with Parker-Gillespie idiom marks him as one of the top guitarists today. He has two albums of his own on Blue Note, BLP 1523 and BLP 1543.

When speaking about long, fluid lines, the name of Conrad Yeatis Clark must be included. Sonny, as he is better known, is from California and will be remembered as the pianist with the Buddy De Franco Quartet in 1952-53. This is his first recording in several years and he makes the most of the opportunity with heartwarming solos and thoughtful comping.

Bassman Paul Chambers has become more than merely an asset to a recording session...he is a necessity. His big-toned steadiness is a highly nourishing rhythmic factor; his solos are always laden with ideas and a general wittiness. Chambers can be heard as leader of his own group on Blue Note LPs BLP 1534, BLP 1564 and BLP 1569.

Dannie Richmond is a young drummer who, until recently, was a tenor man mired in the wilds of rock and roll. To his and jazz's benefit, he made a successful escape. He and John were team-mates in Charlie Mingus' group and Dannie is still holding down his post at this writing.

The tunes themselves are broken up into four originals, throe by Jenkins, one by Burrell, and two standards.

John has wanted to do From This Moment On since he heard Ella Fitzgerald sing it. It has has not been done too often by jazzmen. Here, John carries the melody in the first chorus except for the bridge which is chorded by Kenny.

Motif, by John, consists of two choruses of 12 bar blues, and a "Honeysuckle" bridge of 8 bars followed by another 12 bar blues chorus.

The request for a ballad that has not been overdone was answered by John with Everything I Have Is Yours. He is as tender with a ballad as he is strong with a swinger.

Side two consists Of all originals. Sharon is John's dedication to his daughter and Chalumeau, a passing reference to one of the registers of his old instrument, the clarinet. The latter has sections of counterpoint between John and Kenny with Sonny taking the breaks.

Burrell's Blues For Two, a riff blues, is the closer and gives everyone, including Richmond, a chance to work out.

—IRA GITLER

Cover Design by TOM HANNAN
Photos by FRANCIS WOLFF
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER