- Cootie Williams at the January 7, 1963 Duke Ellington Jazz Society meeting:
'...during their last tour, he ran into trumpeter Freddie Jenkins. Freddie is not in the insurance business in Fort Worth and is doing quite well. Cootie said, I think someone should mention him now and then. He helped build the band. I never read an article on him - why?
' (Jack Bradley & Jean Roni Failowe, "Cootie Speaks," Coda, April 1963, courtesy S.Bowie. )
- Joined Duke in 1928 on, according to him, Bubber Miley's recommendation (Storyville 046. ibid. p.126). He replaced Louis Metcalf, who claimed to have brought him in - see the personnel change discussion at 1928 10 00 in TDWAW1.
- Ulanov:
'"Remember him and Bubber?" Sonny asked. "How they used to fight?" He explained. "Bubber couldn't stand seeing Freddy pose when he took a solo. He sets himself, you know, thows his head back, alway dances down front. Well, Bubber told Freddy to stop posing so much. 'Cut it,' he said, 'behave like a grown-up horn-man.' He was boss of the section, so he could tell Freddy. Well, Jenkins didn't cut the posing. So Bubber moved him from the middle to the end, where he thought you woulden't see Freddy so well. Freddy showed better'n ever; he thought up more ways of being seen. Watch him flash those hand cymbals. Whatta man!"' (Barry Ulanov, Duke Ellington
, Da Capo, New York, 1977, p.85)
- Jenkins:
'All of us were well educated and well trained musically and quite capable of composing. Naturally, we improvised most of our own solos and, whenever we came up with something like a complete composition that was good enough for the band, the Duke paid us liberally. Where the piece didn't require too much work to fit the band, the guy might share in the ASCAP credit...' (Storyville 046. ibid.)
- New Desor lists Jenkins' solos on Ellington recordings The New Desor, An updated edition of Duke Ellingtn's Story on Records 1924-1974, Part Two, p.1472:
- A Triangle
- Back Room Romp
- Blues Of The Vagabond
- Chicago
- Cotton Club Stomp
- Doin' The Voom Voom
- East St. Louis Toodle-O
- Flaming Youth
- Freeze And Melt
- Happy As The Day Is Long
- Harlem Rhythm
- Harlem Speaks
- Harlemania
- High Life
- Home Again Blues
- Hot And Bothered
- Hot Feet
- Hottentot
- I Can't Give You Anything But Love
- Jungle Blues
- Jungle Jamboree
- Jungle Nights In Harlem
- Merry Go Round
- No Papa No
- Old Man Blues
- Ring Dem Bells
- Sump'n 'bout Rhythm
- Swing Low
- Syncopated Shuffle
- That Lindy Hop
- The Breakfast Dance
- The Lazy Duke
- The Peanut Vendor
- Tiger Rag
- When You're Smiling
- Goin' Nuts (vocal)
- Jenkins:
'... I think we got more numbers out of a session than many bands could. And, I think that was because everyone in the band was endowed with so much natural talent. We didn't have to pray over anything and write it all out. Duke, or someone, would just set down a background to give us the chord level and general idea, and that took only about ten minutes. Then Johnny Hodges, or someone, would start some figure, like -ba'da'ta'da'ta'da'Bing, and that was it. Everyone would hear his own part in his own ear, and we'd set up and do it that way. So, a lot of our stuff was created right in the studio and, if it sounded good, we'd record it and Duke would write it down later from the record. Sometimes, he'd add a little here or there to stretch it out for dance or concert purposes, and we'd look at it the next day and wouldn't recognize it. Duke would laugh and say 'This is just what you were doing yesterday.
We had a lot of fun with Duke. He is warm and vibrant, sometimes a little serious but he never loses his sense of humour. He is a man anyone can accept totally. Sometimes you like certain traits in a man. and dislike other traits. But, you love Duke all the way.
Did you know that Duke developed his own technique and styles mainly by utilizing the band? He used to set us on the stand and pay us union scale, maybe for five hours, just to help him formulate chords. He'd assign different notes to every instrument in the band and say 'Play that, B'a'a'm!', and it might produce a big C'13th, what we call a Christmas Chord. Then he'd take those same notes and switch them to different instruments and while you'd still have a big C'13th, it would sure sound a lot different. Sometimes he'd do that three or four times before he found just the combination he wanted.
...Duke was testing for what we called techni-choir. One thing among many he discovered, was that if you get sounds pitched very close together they would produce a mike-tone. Like a trumpet, upper register trombone and lower register clarinet would produce a mike-tone that would sound almost like a fourth instrument. And, that's the way Mood Indigo came into being. Another time we worked five hours on a passage using seven different relative keys. We didn't know what that was all about at the time, but later it was the intro to St. Louis Blues, and it worked.'(Storyville 046. ibid.)
- Chester Nerges:
'Freddie Jenkins: Third Trumpet
Duke's third cornetist and smallest man ln the band received his schooling and musical education in New York City. After beginning in the school band his first professional job came from Horace Henderson, who was leader of a small dance orchestra. He remalned with this group for some time, and deciding to further his education, entered Wilberforce University, where he worked hiss way through school playing for dances, and was also a member of the university band. Completing his course he returned to New York and rejoined Horace Henderson, opening at the Savoy Ballroom for an engagement of six months. At the end of this period the band left New York, but Freddie remained due to the persuasion of Harold Parker, manager of the Savoy, and organized a group of his own, remaining there four months longer
Duke, who at the time was in the Cotton Club, happened to hear him play his unusual style of cornet and immediately placed him in his band. He has been a member for three years. In addition to his wonderful musical talent, Freddie possesses a personality that has not only made him a favorite among musicians, but has won him hosts of friends and admirers throughout the country. He has a very large vocabulary of 9 and 10-syllable words which his always using at the wrong time. He is rated as first assistant and noisemaker to the rhythm section by his ability in using metal derbies and mutes for other purposes than for playing in.' (Chester Nerges, Blue Notes
, The Chicago Defender city edition, Chicago, Ill. 1931-08-01, as reproduced in Steven Lasker, A Cotton Club Miscellany,
pp.22-23. ibid.)
- Jeff Aldam:
'When the Ellingtonians toured Britain in 1933, it was to showman Jenkins, a brilliant technician, that many of the trumpet solos were allotted, though on record Cootie Williams was more heavily featured. Jenkins' chorus on "High Life"...has become a classic, subsequently scored for section of trumpets. Much of his open work was in the Armstrong manner, though in this vein he was outshone by the broader, more majestic Cootie. A versatile musician, he could play tightly muted and tense, or delicately phrased and bouncing...There is a strong sense of humour throuhout his work, his obbligato work being particularly effective.' (Peter Gammond, editor, Duke Ellington, His Life and Music
, Da Capo Press, New York, 1977 p.194.)
- Barry Ulanov, p. 137, describing one of the June 1933, possibly the first, London Palladium concerts:
'...Black and Tan Fantasy kept the mood qauiet and restrained, with an added touch of the lugubrious. Then Freddy Jenkins stomped on to the stage center [sic], posed, and sang, danced and trumpeted his way through the torchy song which Sophie Tucker had made an international success, Some of These Days. Posey scored. Neither he nor the audience wanted him to return to shis seat to beat some cymbals and clown in the background and carry his responsible trumpet section load. Then the famiiar strains of Mood Indigo elicited enough attention to quiet the thrilled spectators and bring the program to a properly triumphant conclusion.'(Barry Ulanov, ibid.)
- Steven Lasker in DEMS 04/2-55
'Jenkins, who first joined the band in 1928, took a leave of absence just before Christmas 1934 when a bout of illness (tuberculosis according to Ulanov, p204) sent him to Harlem Hospital (Chicago Defender, 5Jan35; Baltimore Afro-American, 5Jan35). By July 1935 he was much improved, the 13Jul35 Chicago Defender noting he was never seen without that big smile ... and the surprising thing about it all is his faith in future possibilities for a great comeback.
According to Chilton's Who's Who of Jazz, Jenkins in 1935 joined "Adrian's Tap Room Band," led by Adrian Rollini. Jenkins is heard with them on titles recorded for Bluebird on 26Aug35, some under his own name.
When Louis Armstrong opened at Connie's Inn on 29oct35 Jenkins was present, filling in for Armstrong during changes (Swing Music, Nov-Dec35, p.258) and conducting Luis Russell's Orchestra. The engagement at Connie's ended on 10Feb36, at which point Armstrong went on tour, while Jenkins remained behind. John Chilton (Who's Who of Jazz) reports that at some point in 1936, Jenkins became part-owner of the Brentwood Club in New York.
Jenkins rejoined Ellington at the Cotton Club in March 1937. A feature in the April 1937 issue of Metronome included profiles of Ellington's sidemen. Jenkins was noted as back in the band after two years' absence due to illness.
Reviewing the Cotton Club Parade for Jazz Hot (June-July 1937, p11), Stanley Dance noted Jenkins was in the band each time I went there, and the seven-piece brass section had such tone, volume and punch as I'm sure has never been equalled in jazz.
A photo taken at the Cotton Club of the band with the seven-man brass team of Whetsel-Williams-Jenkins-Stewart-Nanton-Brown-Tizol appears in Stewart's Boy Meets Horn.
In the fall of 1937, Jenkins was temporarily bedded following an intricate throat operation
(Melody Maker, 13Nov37). The 30Apr38 Chicago Defender, in a story datelined the day before, noted that Jenkins was out of the band; none of the musicians would say why
but Harlem rumor had it that he needed a rest.
Photographs of the band on the occasion of their 29May38 Randall's Island concert show Jenkins in his last known engagement with Ellington.'
- Ulanov, at p.204, tells a melodramatic story of Jenkins' 1937 departure, saying he was dead to the world for months, and that Duke secured specialists and made sure he had every attention. (Barry Ulanov, ibid, p.294)
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