Biography
Avant-garde jazz enthusiasts of the 1970s embraced the Revolutionary Ensemble, drawing listeners who had grown up on Frank Zappa and were sometimes drawn only briefly into that orbit by the electric violin virtuosity of Jean-Luc Ponty and Sugarcane Harris. Leroy Jenkins, the group’s violinist, shared the blues-inflected, swinging approach of those soloists yet channeled his often heated improvisations inside the framework of what resembled a free-jazz power trio, free of Zappa’s theatrical charts or the cyclical patterns of rhythm-and-blues. Such observations capture only part of the Revolutionary Ensemble’s identity, however, just as labeling Jenkins simply a violinist tells only half the tale. He also composed and performed on assorted “little instruments,” whose purpose lay less in technical display than in opening a sonic environment where kazoo or harmonica could coexist comfortably. The remaining members, percussionist Jerome Cooper and bassist Sirone (also known as Norris Jones), likewise alternated between constructing delicate ambient textures and launching into full-throated collective drive. Early pressings on ESP and similar imprints often obscured the music’s quieter passages, prompting listeners to invoke the phrase “you had to be there,” whereas the louder, propulsive sections anchored by electric violin won over audiences outright.
The group eventually secured a contract with Horizon, the short-lived A&M subsidiary created to present jazz artists with deluxe packaging that included transcriptions and “stereo field” diagrams. The People’s Republic emerged as a flawed yet remarkable achievement and became the subject of a persistent music-industry anecdote, possibly apocryphal. According to the story, Quincy Jones dined with Herb Alpert, who was eager to play his guest one of the new jazz releases; Jones examined the album, asked what it was, declined to recognize it as music of any kind, and the label was soon discontinued, its producer John Snyder dismissed. The Revolutionary Ensemble nevertheless persisted for several additional years and recordings. Although the members reconvened once for a performance at the Nickelsdorf Jazz Festival in Austria in 1990, the ensemble’s essential history remains rooted in the 1970s free-jazz milieu. Formed in 1971 after Jenkins relocated from Chicago—where he had participated in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music—the trio continued the collective principles Jenkins had explored as one-third of the Creative Construction Company alongside Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. New York’s prevailing jazz culture, still centered on competitive cutting contests, contrasted sharply with the cooperative ethos Jenkins brought from Chicago, obliging him to establish his own ensemble in order to pursue the music he knew. The resulting group achieved a level of subtlety rarely matched in the decade’s new music, an achievement forged through disciplined daily rehearsal; Jenkins later recalled, “So we got together and practiced every day. In fact, we were rehearsing on 13th Street there every day, five days a week, anywhere from 11 to two o’clock. I mean, we just hung out. We just played and played, and my art of improvisation got tremendously better, and the group got beautifully tight.” The loft scene of lower Manhattan provided the primary venues, with Jenkins functioning as an informal guide leading audiences from one informal space to another.
By 1978 the original members, each driven by separate artistic imperatives, pursued independent paths. Jenkins maintained the most visible profile, issuing a steady series of projects, premieres, and recordings that continually refreshed his distinctive voice. Sirone, already an established free-jazz bassist, continued to collaborate with figures such as Cecil Taylor and Dewey Redman. Cooper earned acclaim for solo concerts and recordings that isolated particular aspects of tempo, instrumentation, and texture, methods that echoed both Eddie Prévost’s percussion work and Braxton’s compositional strategies; by the late 1990s Cooper appeared less frequently in New York yet still presented occasional house concerts in the East Village.
The group eventually secured a contract with Horizon, the short-lived A&M subsidiary created to present jazz artists with deluxe packaging that included transcriptions and “stereo field” diagrams. The People’s Republic emerged as a flawed yet remarkable achievement and became the subject of a persistent music-industry anecdote, possibly apocryphal. According to the story, Quincy Jones dined with Herb Alpert, who was eager to play his guest one of the new jazz releases; Jones examined the album, asked what it was, declined to recognize it as music of any kind, and the label was soon discontinued, its producer John Snyder dismissed. The Revolutionary Ensemble nevertheless persisted for several additional years and recordings. Although the members reconvened once for a performance at the Nickelsdorf Jazz Festival in Austria in 1990, the ensemble’s essential history remains rooted in the 1970s free-jazz milieu. Formed in 1971 after Jenkins relocated from Chicago—where he had participated in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music—the trio continued the collective principles Jenkins had explored as one-third of the Creative Construction Company alongside Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. New York’s prevailing jazz culture, still centered on competitive cutting contests, contrasted sharply with the cooperative ethos Jenkins brought from Chicago, obliging him to establish his own ensemble in order to pursue the music he knew. The resulting group achieved a level of subtlety rarely matched in the decade’s new music, an achievement forged through disciplined daily rehearsal; Jenkins later recalled, “So we got together and practiced every day. In fact, we were rehearsing on 13th Street there every day, five days a week, anywhere from 11 to two o’clock. I mean, we just hung out. We just played and played, and my art of improvisation got tremendously better, and the group got beautifully tight.” The loft scene of lower Manhattan provided the primary venues, with Jenkins functioning as an informal guide leading audiences from one informal space to another.
By 1978 the original members, each driven by separate artistic imperatives, pursued independent paths. Jenkins maintained the most visible profile, issuing a steady series of projects, premieres, and recordings that continually refreshed his distinctive voice. Sirone, already an established free-jazz bassist, continued to collaborate with figures such as Cecil Taylor and Dewey Redman. Cooper earned acclaim for solo concerts and recordings that isolated particular aspects of tempo, instrumentation, and texture, methods that echoed both Eddie Prévost’s percussion work and Braxton’s compositional strategies; by the late 1990s Cooper appeared less frequently in New York yet still presented occasional house concerts in the East Village.
Albums
Singles
