Karl Jenkins
|
Sir Karl Jenkins CBE |
|
|---|---|
Jenkins during a conference in
Arco, Trentino, 2016 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Karl William Pamp Jenkins |
| Born |
17 February 1944 Penclawdd, Gower, Wales, United Kingdom |
| Origin | Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom |
| Genres | jazz, rock, classical |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician |
| Instruments | Oboe, saxophone, keyboards |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels |
Virgin/EMI Records EMI Classics Deutsche Grammophon |
| Associated acts | Adiemus, Soft Machine |
| Website | karljenkins |
Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins, CBE (born 17 February 1944) is a Welsh musician, and composer of "Adiemus", The Armed Man and his Requiem.
Karl Jenkins was born and raised in Penclawdd, the Gower, Wales. His mother was Swedish and his father was Welsh. Jenkins received his initial musical instruction from his father who was the local schoolteacher, chapel organist and choirmaster. He attended Gowerton Grammar School.
Jenkins began his musical career as an oboist in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He went on to study music at Cardiff University, and then commenced postgraduate studies in London at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also met his wife and musical collaborator, Carol Barratt. He studied with Alun Hoddinott.
For the bulk of his early career Jenkins was known as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, playing baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards and oboe, an unusual instrument in a jazz context. He joined jazz composer Graham Collier's group and later co-founded the jazz-rock group Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970.
In 1972 he joined the Canterbury progressive rock band Soft Machine and co-led their very last performances in 1984. The group played venues including The Proms, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival. The album on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, Six, won the Melody Maker British Jazz Album of the Year award in 1973. Jenkins also won the miscellaneous musical instrument section (as he did the following year). Soft Machine was voted best small group in the Melody Maker jazz poll of 1974. The albums in which Jenkins performed and composed were Six, Seven (1973), Bundles (1975), Softs (1976) and Land of Cockayne (1981). Jenkins composed most of the tracks on Seven and nearly all of the tracks on the subsequent three albums.
...
Wikipedia