Bill Jenning's sound has been compared to Tiny Grimes with a hint of early Charlie Christian. A peer of Billy Butler, Jennings (1919-1978) played with Louis Jordan in the late '40s and early '50s. He also recorded R&B sides with Leo Parker and Bill Doggett.

Like many musicians who weren't pure jazz players but had to earn a living in the 1950s, guitarist Bill Jennings spent much of his all-too-brief career in R&B bands. When he did drift into jazz, it was often with groove crossover artists like organist Brother Jack McDuff and tenor saxophonist Willis "Gator" Jackson.

Guitarists like Jennings were solid riff-'n'-pickin' players who could keep swinging time and solo with pronounced lines. Many R&B guitarists like Carl Hogan and Floyd Smith saw minimal jazz recording work in the LP era due to the wealth of studio players like Barry Galbraith, Mundell Lowe, Kenny Burrell and Chuck Wayne and heavy-lifter headliners like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green.

Many of Jennings' '50s recordings were made for Cincinnati's King label, often accompanying high-profile R&B players like Leo Parker, Wild Bill Davis, Bill Doggett and Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five. Unlike Grimes, a straight-up blues player, Jennings had more hip soul and wry wit in his inventive lines. A left-handed picker who also could play while holding the guitar upside down, Jennings was an R&B showman with an earthy sound and urgent attack. Late in his career, he lost a finger on his fretting hand and had to switch to the bass. His last known recording was in 1968.

In August 1959, Jennings recorded Enough Said for Prestige with Brother Jack McDuff, Wendell Marshall, and Alvin Johnson. Jennings made several albums with McDuff, including Glide On (1960) and Brother Jack (1960), as well as others with McDuff and vocalist Betty Roche and with Willis Jackson [...]

Jennings was a favorite of B.B. King's. Like many Prestige albums of the period that documented R&B crossovers to jazz, Jennings had a chance to show his jazz-blues roots, with Jack McDuff serving as the perfect provocateur.

Marc Myers
http://www.jazzwax.com