Billy Jenkins (musician)

Charles William Jenkins (born 5 July 1956) known as Billy Jenkins is an English blues and improvising guitarist, bandleader and composer. As a boy, he was a parish church chorister and sang in occasional invited choirs at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.

As a teenager he toured and recorded for legendary Arista record label boss Clive Davis with art rock band Burlesque (1972–77); performed as a young adult with 'alternative musical comedy' duo The Fantastic Trimmer & Jenkins (1979–82) and drummer Ginger Baker before founding (in 1981) the VOGC (the Voice of God Collective  - 'The voice of the people is the voice of God' [attrib. Plato and others] - to which BJ adds, '...and the religion is music!' ).

Since then he has produced a large body of over 40 recorded albums including 'Scratches of Spain', 'Motorway At Night', 'Entertainment USA' and 'Music For Two Cassette Machines'. Some of his recordings are about his SE London environs and include 'Sounds Like Bromley', 'Greenwich', 'Still Sounds Like Bromley' and 'Suburbia'.

From 1983 - 93 he lived and worked at Wood Wharf Rehearsal Studios in Greenwich, where he welcomed an average of 26.6 musicians through the doors every day.

Projects have included recording and performing with The Fun Horns of Berlin, improvised musical boxing Big Fights, Music For Low Strung Guitar, directing Anglo-Belgium and London Meets Vienna ensembles, improvising to film, collaborating in words and music with Ian McMillan, Ben Watson, Kate Pullinger a.o., composing and performing with The Gogomagogs, compositions for six guitars, 'The Drum Machine Plays The Battlemarch Of Consumerism' for six drum kits, curating the Vortex World Cup Jazz Ball and sporadic festival and club appearances on the continent and UK.

Member of the Arts Council of England Improvised Touring panel from 1993 - 98.

He has been nominated three times for a Paul Hamlyn Foundation award - in 2008, 2010 and 2011.

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 a.o., Belfast '99. Musical Director and workshop leader for Greenwich Young People's Jazz Orchestra, Blackheath 2000. School Workshops with the Pied Piper Project, Yorkshire, March 2001. Visiting Artist on the Jazz Faculty at Trinity College of Music (2001-2) and at the Royal Academy of Music from 2002 to 2009.  

From 1995 he performed live with his Blues Collective, solo, or duo with fellow guitarist Steve Morrison in Here Is The Blues! He also appeared as 'Billy the Aviator' in Tom Bancroft's award winning musical children's show 'Kidsamonium'.

At the 2010 London Jazz Festival, he performed with the BBC Big Band playing his music arranged by long time VOGC saxophonist Iain Ballamy, and directed by saxophonist Julian Siegal but since then, he has ceased travelling and performing.

Two recent album releases were selected by Mojo Magazine as a 'Top Ten Underground Album Of The Year' in both 2014 and 2015.

In 2016, his album 'True Love Collection' (released in 1998) was voted by BBC and Jazz FM presenters, jazz musicians, critics and journalists as one of the '50 Greatest Ever Jazz Albums'.

Having spent seven years (2008–14) creating and conducting humanist funerals in SE London, he has returned to researching, composing, writing and recording - but his hyperacusis (over-sensitivity to sound), tinnitus and various other proudly borne 'industrially related' minor, but chronic, physical and psychological issues severely limit his music making.

However, to celebrate his 60th birthday year in 2016, creative photographer and former jazz columnist Beowulf Mayfield persuaded the guitarist to partake in twenty four short podcast episodes of the Billy Jenkins Listening Club. Presented by Beowulf and written by Mr Jenkins, each episode focuses on an album or tracks from the extensive recorded discography and also features several of his musical and recording collaborators.