Gordon Jenkins

At 73 years old, Gordon Jenkins physical status not available right now. We will update Gordon Jenkins's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Gordon Hill Jenkins (May 12, 1910 – May 1, 1984) was an American arranger, composer, and pianist who was a central figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, known for his lush string arrangements.

Jenkins was a member of The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Harry Nilsson, Peggy Lee, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Personal life

In 1931, Jenkins married Nancy Harkey, a high school sweetheart, and had three children: Gordon Jr., Susan, and Page. He divorced Harkey and married Beverly Mahr, one of the singers in his band, in 1946. Bruce, their son, was born. Jenkins also performed for Impulse with Beverly Jenkins. Gordon Jenkins Presents My Wife The Blues Singer, a 1964 film.

He was involved in a near-fatal automobile collision that left him debilitated at the end of his life. Despite his exhaustion, he arranged a complete orchestra for a recording session.

Jenkins died of Lou Gehrig's disease in Malibu, California, 12 days before his 74th birthday.

Bruce Jenkins, his son, wrote a book about his late father, titled 'Goodbye, in search of Gordon Jenkins,' which included a rare interview with Frank Sinatra and others for insight into Jenkins' process.

Ella Dawn Jenkins, Jenkins' granddaughter, is a San Francisco career musician.

Source

Career

Gordon Jenkins was born in Webster Groves, Missouri. He began writing for a radio station in St. Louis. Jenkins was recruited by Isham Jones, the artistic director of a dance band known for its ensemble participation, giving him the opportunity to improve his melodic scoring skills. On Broadway, he produced The Show Is On.

Jenkins, who joined the Jones band as a freelance arranger and songwriter, appeared at sessions with Isham Jones, Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Andre Kostelanetz, Lennie Hayton, and others. Jenkins came from Hollywood and worked with Paramount Pictures and NBC, before becoming Dick Haymes' arranger for four years. Jenkins had a hit song with "San Fernando Valley" in 1944. He was music director for the radio version of the Town of the Town, and his orchestra provided the music for Ransom Sherman's program on CBS in the 1940s.

Jenkins joined Decca Records in 1945. With "Maybe You'll Be There," he had his first million-seller in 1947, he had a hit, as well as Billy Eckstine's "My Foolish Heart" film theme. At the same time, he regularly arranged and conducted the orchestra for many Decca artists, including Dick Haymes ("Little White Lies," 1949), "This Is Heaven to Me" ("I Can Dream," 1949), and "I Can Dream" ("This Is Heaven to Me," 1951).

Jenkins "stood up on his little podium so that all the performers could see him perform," the liner notes to Verve Records' 2001 reissue of one of Jenkins' albums, Satchmo In Style. But Gordon did a speech about how much he loved Louis and that this was the best moment in his life before he gave a downbeat. "He cried and then cried."

During this period, Jenkins began recording and performing under his own name. While at Decca, one of his lasting contributions was a pair of Broadway-style musical vignettes, Manhattan Tower and "California," which were both released several times (78s, 45s, and LP). Jenkins was given the Key to New York City by its mayor when Jenkins' orchestra played the 16-minute suite on The Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1950s. In 1956, Patti Page LP album MG-20226 was released by Mercury Records as catalog number MG-20226. It's Gordon Jenkins' famous 1948/1956 Manhattan Tower suite, and the album debuted at No. 6 for her. On the Billboard charts, there are 18 of them. Sepia Records released the album on September 4, 2007, combining the 1956 Patti Page album You Go to My Head with the 1956 Patti Page album You Go to My Head in a compact disc design. Jenkins took a rare trip to film in 1952, scoring the action film Bwana Devil, the first 3-D movie shot in color.

"Crescent City Blues," Johnny Cash's most famous song, "Folsom Prison Blues," was on display in his Seven Dreams, released in 1953. In 1956, he extended Manhattan Tower to nearly three times its height, unveiled it (this time on Capitol Records), and performed it on an hour-long television show. (Both versions of "Manhattan Tower" are now available on CD.) The Future, Frank Sinatra's 1980 Grammy-nominated Trilogy album, was his last long-form work. Despite being attacked by critics, Sinatra adored the semi-biographical work and thought that Jenkins was unfairly portrayed by the media.

Jenkins appeared on New York's Capitol Theater from 1949 to 1951, as well as the Paramount Theater in 1952. In 1953 and several times after, he appeared in Las Vegas. He served with NBC from 1955 to 1957, and appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964. Jenkins was still musical director at Decca in 1949, and he signed the Weavers, a Greenwich Village folk group with Pete Seeger as one of its members, despite Decca's direction. Jenkins' orchestral arrangements, as a result of Weavers' folk music and Jenkins' orchestral arrangements, became extremely popular. Lead Belly's "Goodnight Irene" (1950) was backed by Jenkins' translation of the Israeli folk song "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena." "The Roving Kind," "On Top of Old Smoky" (1951), and "Wimoweh" (1952), two of their many hits.

Also while at Decca Records, Jenkins arranged and conducted many songs for Peggy Lee, including her 1952 major hit recording of Rodgers and Hart's "Lover," which she also appeared in the Warner Bros. version of The Jazz Singer (1952 film). Lee also had success with "Be Anything (But Be Mine)" and "Just One of Those Things," which were both scripted by Jenkins.

Jenkins was recruited by Capitol, where he worked with Frank Sinatra on the album Where Are You? after a brief stint with RCA's "X" Records, which produced Gordon Jenkins' Almanac in 1956, where he appeared with him. (1957) and Where Did Everyone Go (1959), and Nat King Cole, with whom he had his greatest hits, was released on 1957; Jenkins was involved in the production of Love Is the Thing (Capitol's first stereo release), as well as the albums Where Did Everyone Go? (1958) and Where Did Everyone Go? (1963): Affective in 1963. Jenkins also wrote the music and lyrics for Judy Garland's 1959 album The Letter, which also featured vocalist Charles LaVere, and appeared in many of Garland's London concerts in the early 1960s.

Although most of Jenkins' arrangements in Capitol were in his signature string-laden style, he continued to demonstrate more flexibility when needed, particularly on albums like "A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra (1957), which opens with a swinging interpretation of "Jingle Bells" and Nat King Cole's album of spirituals, which includes many tracks with a pronounced 2 4 displaystyle textstyle frac 24beat that could almost be described as rock. Gordon Jenkins Presents Marshal Royal, a jazz-pop crossover project with Count Basie's alto saxophonist that featured both strings and a swinging rhythm section, produced a diverse range of charts for his critically acclaimed 1960 album.

Jenkins' soaring string designs fell out of favor in the 1960s, but he only worked sporadically. Sinatra, who had left Capitol to start Reprise Records, continued to call on the arranger's services at various points over the next two decades, including 'All Alone (1962), and She Shot Me Down (1981), which Jenkins received a Grammy Award, Ol' Blue Eyes Back (1973). Jenkins also collaborated with Harry Nilsson, arranging and conducting A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973), an album of jazz standards. Jenkins' sessions were caught on camera and later broadcast by the BBC as a television special.

Although Jenkins was best known as an arranger, he also wrote many well-known songs, including "P.S." "I Love You" (Benny Goodman's sign-off tune), "Blue Prelude" (with Joe Bishop), "This Is What I Ask"), and "When a Woman Loves a Man" (Benny Goodman) "I Love You" (Benny Goodman's sign-off tune). Jenkins wrote both the "Future" suite and the entire "Future" section of Sinatra's 1980 concept album Trilogy: Past Present Future, as well as scoring the music for Sinatra's 1980 film The First Deadly Sin, which starred Sinatra in his last major film role.

Nancy Harkey, a high school sweetheart, married Gordon Jr., Susan, and Page. He divorced Harkey and married Beverly Mahr, one of the singers in his band, in 1946. Bruce, Bruce's uncle, had a boy. In addition, Jenkins produced Impulse with Beverly Jenkins! My Wife is a character in the film "Growl the Blues Singer" was released in 1964.

He was involved in a near-fatal automobile crash that left him debilitated toward the end of his life. Despite his exhaustion, he conducted a complete orchestra for a recording session.

Jenkins died of Lou Gehrig's disease in Malibu, California, twelve days before his 74th birthday.

Bruce Jenkins, a sports writer, wrote a book about his late father, 'Goodbye, In search of Gordon Jenkins,' which also included a rare interview with Frank Sinatra for further details into Jenkins' journey.

Ella Dawn Jenkins, Jenkins' granddaughter, is a San Francisco musician.

Source