Search - :: Glide on

Legendary Guitarist lost in time ! ! !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 07/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First, a bit of warning:

"Wild" Bill Jenning's style is going to be a bit too country for most Jazz fans, and a bit too much Jazz for most country fans... Its a totally different sound than you're probably used to hearing. -- Imagine, as an example CHET ATKINS recording with Jack McDuff - - If this is something that makes you raise a brow and captures your fancy, then I'd strongly advise getting this CD... If it makes you flinch, pass on it. - - cause there's no doubt about it, Duff was always a groovy, greasy player... and Wild Bill Jennings had plenty of TWANG in his thang... then again, if you're going to play real SOUL, there's going to have to be a bit of country in it anyway (Memphis, FYI was never located in New England.) Boogaloo Joe Jones himself told me that a great deal of his own music was influenced by Country and Western !) - - Bill's strength by the way is a type of cool, effortless yet gritty down home phrasing... when he goes off on a roll, he really riffs !



All in all, the music of Bill Jennings is basically part Tiny Grimes - - with touches of Bill Butler, and anticipations of Cornell Dupree... it fits in PERFECTLY with McDuff's sound (which back then was a lot more Leslie and Vibrato heavy), but again, I forewarn, not for everbody. (As I write this I'm listening to Brother Jack McDuff's debut LP, "Brother Jack McDuff" featuring Wild Bill Jennings... I ever understood why they used to pair him up with bass players, because his bass lines were hotter and more rock solid than any other player, but I also have to admit an incredible lock between Wendell Marshall and Alvin Johnson.) - - Do I miss George Benson? Well, who wouldn't, however, its a different era, and a different sound... groovy and swinging, but in a different way, so all in all - - only two things I can say:

Why aren't more albums with young DUFF playing with his mentor Willis Jackson on the market? and...

Why isn't Bill Jennings better remembered???"