Album Notes

The Bill Jenkins Trio
Jazz 1969

Bill Jenkins was born in Akron, Ohio on January 6, 1947, and by age 6, he was playing his first guitar. During his high school years at "St. V's", he was well on the way towards developing his own unique style of jazz guitar playing, modeled in part after his idol, the late Wes Montgomery (Bill was so saddened by Wes's death that he wrote a letter of condolence to his widow, who thoughtfully replied in kind). At the young age 18, Bill was already teaching his own style of guitar at Henry's Music, a well known establishment to both famous and also not-so-famous guitarists alike.

In 1968, while attending the University of Akron, the buzz about Bill was spreading. His smooth, melodic style of guitar playing was the frequent subject of conversation at many popular night clubs, where he performed regularly with several local artists including Pat Palmer and Rick Hanger, the other two in "The Trio". In the summer of 1969, "The Trio" convened in the basement of organist, Pat Palmer, to record a live demo on a vintage "Voice of Music Stereophonic Recorder". The warmth of a few of Bill's best jazz guitar arrangements was therein set to analog. This fragile tape would lay in wait for thirty years before its purpose would become known.

Later that year, on the evening of November 6, 1969, a drunk driver was blazing through a red light at a speed of 85 miles per hour... Bill was tragically struck and killed.

During the summer of 1999, I asked Bill's sister Kathy if she had recordings of Bill. After hearing "The Trio", I was so moved by the music that I asked Kathy, Pat, and Rick for their permission to publish Bill's arrangements, for the purpose of donating proceeds to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). With permission granted, the music was digitally restored through a frequency analysis and noise reduction process that left the original analog warmth intact for all future generations to hear.

Kathy, Rick, Pat, and I would together like to thank you for buying this compilation. After thirty years, its purpose has been fulfilled.

Tony Parker