  
INTRODUCING BILLY JENKINS AND THE BLUES COLLECTIVE.
BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!
DVD REVIEW: BLUES AL FRESCO
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.
"The true improviser should only perform once" — Billy Jenkins.
More dangerous than a cancer ridden Alzheimer's old, dying, nearsighted war veteran with an M16 at the local 7-Eleven is Blitzkrieg Billy Jenkins, the assault weapon British jazz guitarist with more chops in the jar next to the bed than any short list of "guitar Gods" in the current crop. Armed with a hollow bodied Gibson and 60 years of attitude for an effects box, he shreds the souls of the lawn bowlers and takes no prisoners before a shell shocked crowd of pensioners at the Victoria Embankment Gardens, who come out for the puppet shows, and sings the history of jazz and blues like Elmer Gantry on speedballs.
Delivering a history lesson on the guit box, this guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music, and resident genius of the avante-guard, eats bananas during the bass solo while asking the second guitar about his weekend. Billy announces the chordal structure of the bass solo being played, then discusses the weekend with the second guitarist. "Have you finished yet, Lad? Have you finished your bass solo?" When the younger man abruptly stops. Billy misinforms, "Charles Mingus, ladies and gentlemen." He announces "The Village People, Ladies and Gentlemen" when the Bobbies show to restore order, and find the only chaos is unfolding on the stage.
Singing: "Jazz had a baby, grew into a problem child. Jazz had a baby, and they called it avante-guard. You can play it all you want, but not in Westminster Council's back yard…" The chords of this opus make speed metal sound like slo-mo.
When a young, bald master electric violin soldier slips to the ground at the end of a scorched earth solo, Billy shows no more mercy than a Patton at Normandy, "He slipped on a banana peel, Ladies and Gentlemen! Oh, no!" as Billy shreds in chords and clusters that scare the babies and make the elderly turn down their hearing aids. Then he calms the audience while examining the casualty, "We can get another one, it's no problem. I'll just pop over to the Festival Hall." Billy blesses the dead fiddle player with Sparkletts during the second guitarist's blues assault, and then gives the "not worthy" gesture made famous in the Wayne's World movies to the fender guitarist Richard Bolton.
"Westminster might ban us, we don't care," is Billy's last utterance on this DVD, intended no doubt to challenge both the old fogies on the dole, and the Sex Pistol punks in the lawn chairs. Billy teaches the history of avante-guard blues and jazz with attitude on a mission… like malevolence with an erection… like a master.
FROM BILLY JENKINS' MYSPACE PAGE:
In education he was Visiting Tutor in Guitar Techniques at Lewisham F.E. College (1990-96), guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music '95, Guest big band director at Middlesex University '96. Ensemble Masterclasses at the International Summeracademy Freie Kunstschule, Berlin '97. 'Moving On' music workshops with Andy Sheppard, Belfast '99, Musical Director and workshop leader for Greenwich Young People's Jazz Orchestra, Blackheath 2000. Workshops with Pied Piper Project, Yorkshire, March 2001. Visiting Artist on the Jazz Faculty at Trinity College of Music (2001-2) and currently at the Royal Academy of Music since 2002.
Get the full story on Billy Jenkins at: http://www.myspace.com/billyjenkins
DVD CONTAINS:
01 opening titles
02 The Duke And Me
03 I'm Happy
04 This Is A Day To Forget
05 White Van Man
06 I'm Staying In the Car
07 There Is No Lord Up There
08 Thaddeus' bass solo
09 Jazz Had A Baby…
10 …continued & credits
Running Time: 41 minutes
BILLY JENKINS AND THE BLUES COLLECTIVE:
Guitar: Billy Jenkins
Guitar: Richard Bolton
Bass: Michael Shumacher
Drums: Michael Pickering
Violin: Dylan Bates
Available through the Internet at Jazz CDs: http://www.jazzcds.co.uk/artist_id_94/cd_id_432
PERSONAL NOTE: Be kind to all such artists on the emailing. I met this guitar man while looking for other "Billys" on the Internet, and didn't know a thing about him but his name. After 10 or 15 extraordinary exchanges, Billy had to set me straight: "I get 50 emails a day!" So, be kind. If you write, describe the CD or DVD YOU JUST BOUGHT! He could kill you with his guided missile of a guitar.
Support him now! He's a dangerous old man!
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