Billboard : 02/17/1958
Three stars

Aided by flowing, consistently provocative rhythmic support and a most compatible, invigorating front-line compatriot in guitarist K. Burrell, Parker-influenced altoist Jenkins shows more promise than on previous records. It is Burrell, however, who steals the show with pulsating C. Christian-type solos. Sonny Clark‘s piano contributions are also to be noted. Sell to modern buyer who “digs” the jam session feeling.

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Down Beat : 04/17/1958
John A. Tynan : 4 stars

One of the up-and-blowing young voices on alto (Bird division), John Jenkins is afforded ample room in this invigorating set to show his mettle. He emerges a welterweight to be to be reckoned with now and in the future.

The presence of Burrell and a better-than-average rhythm section contributes in great part to the overall healthy, happy feel of the album. Burrell plays with pungency and fire, demonstrating once more what an individual force he is fast becoming in the world of modern jazz guitar. Clark comps with intelligence and solos with the easy fluency that built his reputation as a pianist of the first rank during recent years on the west coast. Chambers, as always, is the unfailing heartbeat of the section; his one arco solo, moreover, swings with positively ferocious attack.

As the only solo horn on the session, Jenkins reveals a softer, almost poignant tone at times (especially in Everything) that was discernible on his recent double date with Jackie McLean.

There is, also, a certain sweetness in his approach, quite at variance with most of his glorious brothers of the Parker school. In this, however, lies one of his weaknesses, it seems to these eras. One wishes for more fire, for a taste of unadulterated passion in his playing. Time, though, may remedy this present shallowness.

In this first Jenkins date as a leader, much credit must go to whomever is responsible for pairing the young Chicagoan with Detroiter Burrell. The unison alto-guitar sound that results is singular and pleasing.

Finally, the driving drummer on the date, Richmond, plays with constant taste and unfaltering time.

In his notes, Ira Gitler mentions that Richmond, until recently “… was a tenor man mired in the wilds of rock and roll.” Let’s start a movement to emancipate those many captives of r&r by recording their temporarily disguised jazz talent. Maybe we could head off a lot of emotional distress in such musicians by giving encouragement.

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San Francisco Examiner
C.H. Garrigues : 07/13/1958

Realizing that album names are usually meaningless, Blue Note frequently neglects to name its albums at all – in tacit expression of the fact that the important thing here are the musicians.

These mean are very good. Jenkins is a relatively new alto man who plays much in the Parker tradition; the others on the date are Kenny Burrell, Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers and Dannie Richmond (another newcomer, recently with Charlie Mingus). For me, it was Burrell who made the proceedings a gas.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

One day in the summer of 1956, while visiting the offices of Blue Note Records, I met Joe Segal of Chicago. Although we had not known each other before, we found much to talk about and during the course of a long walk to the West side (Blue Note was on Lexington Avenue in those days) and a longer stop on the corner of 52nd Street and 6th Avenue (no symbolic connection with The Street; my barber happens to be located there) we discussed jazz in general and Chicago’s jazz in particular.

In the late Forties, when I was an undergraduate in the Midwest, Chicago was one of my vacation spots when school holidays were too short to allow traveling to new York. I had heard and met many musicians, but the names Segal mentioned were strange to me except for Ira Sullivan, Eddie Baker and a few others. Many new players had sprung up, quite understandably, since my last visit in January of 1950. I remember Johnny Griffin from long before that (my high school days, in fact) as a kind sitting in Lionel Hampton‘s sax section wearing a pair of air corps sunglasses, but Clifford Jordan, Johnny Gilmore and John Jenkins were as unfamiliar to me as, say, Kenny Mills is to you.

Kenny Mills is a trumpeter who attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri when I was at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He was 18 then and a talented boy who listened seriously to Gillespie, Navarro and Davis. I don’t know where he is today (several years ago someone told me he had heard him playing in Oklahoma City) but I mention him to suggest to you the amount of swinging musicians all over this country whom you and I have never heard. They’re in the hamlets, towns and cities; some of them will never leave their localities. Add to this unknown number the ones you have heard of but never heard and the figure may still be an X in an equation but an X that represents a vast unknown.

And so Joe Segal told me, in glowing terms, of the Chicago scene unknown to me. Then the proof began to manifest itself. Johnny Griffin was heard in his own album, Chicago Calling (BLP 1533, BLP 1559) and the Cliff Jordan – Johnny Gilmore tenor sax duo excited everyone with Blowing In From Chicago (BLP 1549). Just prior to the latter recording, Ira Sullivan and Wilbur Ware were featured in BLP 1536 with J.R. Monterose. These were the recorded evidence. Meanwhile, Griffin was hired by Art Blakey and Jordan came East with Max Roach and later joined Horace Silver‘s group. A young alto player came too, and while he worked briefly with Charlie Mingus‘ quintet, John Jenkins did most of his blowing on a freelance basis. Blue Note listeners first heard him with Hank Mobley on Blue Note BLP 1560. He had emerged from the vast unknown.

This is John’s first recording as a leader. The group he heads here offers a singular sound; his alto sax in unison with the guitar of Kenny Burrell. The result is a bright, plastic front line with a texture all its own.

John was born in “that toddlin’ town” on January 3, 1931. Like Cliff Jordan, John Gilmore and Johnny Griffin, John studied under Capt. Walter Dyett at Du Sable High. Clarinet was his first instrument and alto entered about six months later. His first important playing experience was in 1949 at the Roosevelt College sessions promoted by Joe Segal. During the next seven years, John continued to play at these swinging affairs and also at local clubs such as the Bee Hive. In March of 1957 he came to New York and the rest is history… recorded I might add.

Jenkins’ admitted favorites are Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean and the Sonnys, Stitt and Rollins. While you will hear occasional parallels to McLean, the Parker imprint will be the most evident to you. John is an avid follower of Bird, but he has many personal turns of his own within the idiom. He has a wonderful fluidity of line as he goes skipping and gliding along and he is able to get his heart into his sound. There is the stamp of sincerity in the playing John Jenkins.

In abetting John, Kenny Burrell, no stranger to Blue Note listeners, not only offers his unison playing skills, but also the unadulterated power of his solo voice. His happy amalgam of the Charlie Christian influence with Parker-Gillespie idiom marks him as one of the top guitarists today. He has two albums of his own on Blue Note, BLP 1523 and BLP 1543.

When speaking about long, fluid lines, the name of Conrad Yeatis Clark must be included. Sonny, as he is better known, is from California and will be remembered as the pianist with the Buddy DeFranco Quartet in 1952-53. This is his first recording in several years and he makes the most of the opportunity with heartwarming solos and thoughtful comping.

Bassman Paul Chambers has become more than merely an asset to a recording session… he is a necessity. His big-toned steadiness is a highly nourishing rhythmic factor; his solos are always laden with ideas and a general wittiness. Chambers can be heard as leader of his own group on Blue Note LPs BLP 1534, BLP 1564 and BLP 1569.

Dannie Richmond is a young drummer who, until recently, was a tenor man mired in the wilds of rock and roll. To his and jazz’s benefit, he made a successful escape. He and John were teammates in Charlie Mingus‘ group and Dannie is still holding down his post at this writing.

The tunes themselves are broken up into four originals, three by Jenkins, one by Burrell, and two standards.

John has wanted to do From This Moment On since he heard Ella Fitzgerald sing it. It has not been done too often by jazzmen. Here, John carries the melody in the first chorus except for the bridge which is chorded by Kenny.

Motif, by John, consists of two choruses of 12 bar blues, and a “Honeysuckle” bridge of 8 bars followed by another 12 bar blues chorus.

The request for a ballad that has not been overdone was answered by John with Everything I Have Is Yours. He is as tender with a ballad as he is strong with a swinger.

Side two consists of all originals. Sharon is John’s dedication to his daughter and Chalumeau, a passing reference to one of the registers of his old instrument, the clarinet. The latter has sections of counterpoint between John and Kenny with Sonny taking the breaks.

Burrell’s Blues For Two, a riff blues, is the closer and gives everyone, including Richmond, a chance to work out.