Leroy Jenkins - Themes & Improvisations On The Blues (1994)

For a long time, Leroy Jenkins had only been known for his free jazz performances, with little to no attention to his composed work, when in 1992 the Soldier String Quartet and other musicians committed themselves to putting on a performance of Jenkins' compositions. The results are astounding. The four pieces captured on this release are from that concert of April 9, 1992, at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The title track would indicate that the piece would sound bluesy, but rather than following the typical 1-4-5 blues chord progression, or even following the blues scale, its connection to blues is more structural than tonal. Sets of instruments lay down a base over which one or two others improvise for a selected amount of time. Most of Jenkins' compositional work can be described as a frame around which the musicians can improvise with simple thematic instructions (like "make it kinky" in the score of "Monkey on the Dragon"). This is an exciting listen with much to stimulate the mind and ear; one can only hope that there are more releases of Jenkins' compositional work planned for the future.