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sadtimes.co.uk
buy online now for only £12
(incl.
p&p) from www.billyjenkins.com
 
sadtimes.co.uk VOTP
VOCD002
1. Badlands
2. Cliff Richard Spoke To Me
3. Resting On My Bed Of Blues
4. sadtimes.co.uk
5. I'm Happy
6. The Duke and Me
7. I Love Your Smell
8. Like John Lee Said
This is an unusual studio recording
from Billy Jenkins. Normally he constructs one off bands for each
project. Here, he's brought his touring band into the studio which means
you can enjoy the wonderful talents of Dylan Bates on his electric,
electric violin; Richard 'Homer' Bolton on electric, electric rhythm
guitar (although he did manage to get a couple of excellent solos in when
Billy's back was turned) and the rhythm section from the last Blues Collective
CD 'S.A.D.' - the mutually wonderful Thad Kelly on electric, electric
bass guitar and Mike Pickering on drumkit.
Special sweet smearing on some of
the tracks is supplied by harmonica recluse Whispering Gerry Tighe and
organ grinder Dave Ramm. And once more Choir Mistress Suzi M. organised
a fine collection of voices for the almost obligatory 'all singin' all
dancin' finale.
The eight new songs were all written
by BJ over the past couple of years. Some you may have heard live,
some were presented to the band actually in the studio.
sadtimes.co.uk is the follow
on album from S.A.D on Babel BDV9615, which was released in 1996.
BILLY'S
BLUES LYRICS
| JAZZ
JOURNAL
January 2001
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
sadtimes.co.uk (VOTP VOCD002)
£12
Yes, it's bad boy Bill Jenkins again.
I enjoyed his last blues set for all the wrong reasons and this one is
the same standard. Jenkins has a good feel for the blues and writes some
zany lyrics to accompany his sometimes irrational blues plodding.
Despite his madcap manner he still
manages to come up with a good blues feel to his music. As for the lyrics,
you'll chuckle at Cliff Richard Spoke To Me. Hardly a suitable subject
for the blues but Billy makes it both laudable and laughable. There are
some nice lines in The Duke And Me. It's all about an intimate evening
with Duke Ellington and Harry Carney providing the music. Sounds like a
perfect evening. Billy Jenkins may not be most readers' idea of jazz and
blues but he loves the music enough to channel his wild humour into something
palatable
David Lands
(c)2000 Jazz Journal/ David Lands |
| JAZZ
REVIEW
December 2000
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
sadtimes.co.uk (VOTP VOCD002)
£12
Yet another bracing dose of musical
satire from the Bard of Bromley. Jenkins' splintered guitar style and sardonic
lyrics suggest a six-string cross between Thelonious Monk, Mose Allison
and Dr. John, but sometimes his slicing blues playing is so good (nothing
wrong with his singing either), that it's hard to believe he isn't serious.
There isn't much jazz here (is there ever? Let's face it, Billy's an unreconstructed
pub rocker), but there's plenty of spirited blues and R&B. Sir Cliff
comes in for a subtle bit of mockery (he said "Hi", by the way) and also
inspires some tasty rhythm guitar work from Rick Bolton which lies in a
thick haze of vibrato and distortion.
All the writing is apparently Billy's,
and juicy bits of Allisonian wit pop out at various intervals. We hear
the Badlands grafted to south London "just down the road from you" and
during Bate's violin solo on "The Duke And Me" an exhortation to "give
me some Vanessa Mae". There's not a whole lot of mileage for the jazz critic
in these simple blues forms (despite dedications to Ellington, Carney and
Stuff Smith), but the combination of tough guitar playing, clean, punchy
production and canny lyrics is a potent package. British popular culture
might be a constant irritant to BJ, but it does us all a service in provoking
pearls such as this.
Mark Gilbert
© 2000 Jazz Review/Mark Gilbert |
| THE
WIRE
November 2000
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
sadtimes.co.uk (VOTP VOCD002) £12
Talking James Carter up a storm - contrasting
the saxophonist's approach to the stale procedures of jazz neo-classicism
- Cecil Taylor hit the nail on the head: "When Carter walked on stage he
stunned me with what he do!
He made one harmonic sound - eeerrrrgh!
- and then he walked off the f***ing stage! And he comes back and makes
another sound. When he had to deal with that rhythm and blues shit [i.e.
bass 'n' drum supreme team Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Calvin Weston], it wasn't
about notes. And when James did this obbligato, man, it wasn't just technical,
it was passionate!"
Taylor could have been describing guitarist
Billy Jenkins. Listen to him explode on "Resting On My Bed Of Blues": his
phrases smash through the iron bars laid down by Thad Kelly (bass) and
Mike Pickering (drums) - eeerrrrgh! - with a gestural panache that has
NEVER heretofore been achieved by British electric guitarists. Jeff Beck
nearly got there, but only in fusion contexts that were too spacy to allow
his licks to burst the seams; maybe Steve Marriott had it - for half a
minute - back in 1966. Jenkins packs the 'icepick in the forehead', 'right
note in the wrong place' R&B attitude that Zappa admired in Gatemouth
Brown, Guitar Slim and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson. It's like a barbed wire
fence swearing at you. The notes jump out like they're possessed. It's
astonishing.
But - born too late for the platinum
escape hatch that popped open for Jimi Hendrix and Cream - what can Jenkins
do with his outrageous talent? His answer is to wrap his guitarism in lyrics
that trash Mississippi clichés, a suburban surrealism derived from
pantomime, The Beano, Sid James, punk, street furniture and shopping centres
- any aspect of contemporary life allergenic to blues romance. Comedic
bathos repels superficial listening, tests your ability to discern exceptional
music. In Richard Bolton (rhythm guitar), Jenkins has a sophisticated harmonist;
in Dylan Bates (violin), a player who knows that without grit the notes
won't work (one day Jenkins will surely compose him a concerto of Sugarcane
Harris proportions). The opening of "Badlands" - a superb integration of
dub and guitar twang - could be an On-U Sound production: despite the jokes,
the music is that inspiring, that heavy.
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective:
a reproach to contemporary blandishments that'll be 'discovered' by arsehole
advertisers 20 years too late. Just like the blues.....
BEN WATSON
© 2000 Ben Watson/The Wire |
| SUNDAY
TIMES Culture
On Record 22.10.00
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
sadtimes.co.uk (VOTP VOCD002)
£12
IF CLAPTON is God then Jenkins is the
giant turtle upon whose back the entire universe stands. Ditching his more
esoteric jazz combo for a utilitarian blues band, Jenkins pebble-dashes
idiosyncratic guitar breaks over eight slices of south London delta sound.
Though Jenkins's Goonish sense of humour
betrays a black-comic world view, if he took himself more seriously, maybe
everyone else would. [Jenkins] hyperactive energy brings the blues alive.
sadtimes.co.uk is available
from the website of the same name (or 01653 668494).
Stewart Lee
see also EVENING
STANDARD LIVE REVIEW
see also GUARDIAN
UNLIMITED LIVE
REVIEW (Blue Elephant) |
| EVENING
STANDARD Hot Tickets
CD Choice 29.9.00
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
sadtimes.co.uk (VOTP VOCD002)
£12
Black humour can be a dangerous commodity,
something regarded with distaste by mainstream producers and promoters.
It's particularly unwelcome in British jazz, which generally takes itself
very seriously, and this might explain the marginalisation of the Bard
of Bromley, Billy Jenkins (photo).
His satirical songs are a bit too disturbing
to be good, clean fun, but he shouldn't give up yet. This new album could
be his big breakthrough - his composing, arranging and guitar-playing skills
have reached a level of professionalism that now matches the subversive
clout of his lyrics. He's also made the giant leap from spiky free-improv
to a more accessible blues format, projecting his bleak visions through
a cosy country-blues filter that leaves the sharp outlines intact.
Jenkins's relaxed vocal style cleverly
underplays messages that bristle with attitude. 'Badlands', for example,
is about graffiti, windblown garbage, homeless drinkers and permanently
shuttered shops, the sort of landscape millions of Londoners try to ignore
each day. 'The Duke And Me' extols jazz-listening pleasures and the panaceas
of 'fags, mags and Sainsbury - recommended wine' that help to ease this
urban angst, while 'Cliff Richard Spoke To Me' and 'Like John Lee Said'
recall the anti-showbiz larks of early Jenkins oeuvres such as Entertainment
USA. His group, meanwhile, plays with admirable crispness and restraint,
particularly violinist Dylan Bates, whose lazy, chorus-box-enhanced solos
convey the sour warmth of a triple bourbon on the rocks.
Recorded in the muddy heart of Greenwich
and marketed direct from Lewisham (£12.99 inc postage and VOTP, PO
Box 3162, London SE13 7BE, or via credit card hotline: 01653 668 494),
sadtimes.co.uk
isn't feelgood music, but as you can confirm at the Vortex, it's perceptive,
grimly amusing and as original as anything being played on either side
of the Thames this week.
JACK MASSARIK
see also EVENING
STANDARD LIVE REVIEW
see also GUARDIAN
UNLIMITED LIVE
REVIEW (Blue Elephant) |
| GUARDIAN
Friday
Review
15 September 2000
Billy Jenkins with the Blues Collective
<sadtimes.co.uk> £12
Championed by everyone from the Gogmagogs
to the Bath Poetry Festival, a Billy Jenkins knighthood can only be a formality
once Blair's second term kicks in. Sir Bill's sizzling performing group
dashes through a set of original blues compositions that makes a great
souvenir of their recent sell-out season at the Blues Elephant Theatre
in south London. Gerry Tighe and Dave Ramm add a little welcome seasoning.
Radio play favourite: The Duke and Me. Potential advertisement track: I
Love Your Smell.
John L Walters.
see also EVENING
STANDARD LIVE REVIEW (Vortex)
see also GUARDIAN
UNLIMITED LIVE
REVIEW (Blue Elelphant) |
BILLY'S
BLUES LYRICS
sadtimes.co.uk
buy online now for only £12
(incl.
p&p) from www.billyjenkins.com
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