Biography
Born on 24 March 1931 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, and deceased in December 1985 in Los Angeles, USA, Jenkins absorbed the 1940s blues sound that shaped many contemporaries while reshaping his approach across decades to suit the shifting requirements of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B. His first sessions, cut for Chess and Specialty in 1953 and largely unreleased, reveal that, in the manner of Jimmy McCracklin, he fashioned his style after St. Louis pianist Walter Davis; the tracks included “Cold Love” and “Mean And Evil,” together with “Eight Ball” and “I Ate The Wrong Part,” all derived from Davis compositions. After these dates he issued numerous sides on Combo and Flash, then launched his own Pioneer imprint in 1959. The bulk of this output consisted of piano or organ instrumentals that carried vocals by either Jenkins or Mamie Perry. He maintained the same instrumental-and-vocal format into the early 1960s via singles on General Artists. Toward the close of that decade he embraced Islam and adopted the name Jaarone Pharoah.
Singles
