Leroy Jenkins, Mixed Quintet (side A)

The breadth of Leroy Jenkins's violin playing was already obvious as early as Anthony Braxton's 1968 debut Three Compositions of New Jazz — Jenkins adds rapid runs to Braxton's spirited compositions and slower, airier lines to Leo Smith's piece "The Bell".  Jenkins's dexterity and skill grew ever more impressive in both areas, with both increasingly frenetic rhythmic moments and more lyrically complex and beautiful melodic lines growing evident on albums like 1977's Solo Concert.  On 1983's Mixed Quintet, Jenkins focused solely on the quietest, most introspective parts of his playing, and built a drummerless ensemble around them.  The title of the piece filling side A, "Shapes, Textures, Rhythms, Moods of Sound" nicely describes Jenkins's approach here — texture and mood are definitely central elements to his thinking, though I hear more melody and less rhythm than the title might indicate.  Lines (and some extended technique scrapes) from the clarinets, flute, and horn float past each other in space, frequently with some sense of key, but never emphasizing harmony.  The sidemen tend to play simpler lines, while Jenkins develops his more jagged tonal ideas alongside them — while he's not exactly assuming the role of front-man, and he's even panned all the way to the far side, he definitely contributes the richest and most developed lines to the field of sound.  While the piece filling side B is similar in style, it has a much less evocative title, "Quintet #3".  For a brief moment on side A, Jenkins speaks up — while it's nice as a personal touch to feel a bit of his personality, his speech adds little to the structure of the piece.  The recording is a bit bright and modern and sterile, relative to the rich personality of the piece.  The children's drawings bring personality to the cover, even as they don't easily reconcile with either Jenkins's methodical approach to the music or the careful photography and design that surround them.