Duke Jenkins

Malvern/Cleveland, mid 1930s-2000s

Duke Jenkins, active from the 1930s until the 2000s. That is not a mistake, Herman "Duke" Jenkins was a working musician for nearly 80 years. He may have been the only musician in NE Ohio to witness first hand the emergence of every significant musical trend of the 20th century. 

Duke was born in Alabama but moved (with his family) to Malvern when he was an infant. He started playing piano as a boy and quickly exhibited great natural talent. He started playing in the Canton area as a teenager and formed a band with his brother Fred. The Jenkins Brothers played dances in the Canton area. There are also listings for the band with Herman as the leader.

1938 listing

1941 

Herman joined the army when the US entered World War II and played in Army bands. It was after the war ended that Herman became Duke (because he played piano and looked a bit like Duke Ellington, so it is claimed) and really started to make his impact on NE Ohio music. 

The sound of Jazz after the war was splitting into the modern genres of R&B, Be-Bop, Cool, Swing, standards , etc, Duke's style lay somewhere between the R&B and traditional (like pre-war swing) sounds. He assembled a small combo with Fred and two-three other players as the small combo was the sound of post war jazz. Duke did a fair amount of the vocals, when they were used, but from 1947 to 1950 his featured singer (and drummer) was Count Demon. The Count, whose real name was William Evans, was from the Canton area. He led his own local group from 1950 through 1954, and then moved to Champaign/Urbana, Illinois. While based in IL he recorded a few fabulous R&B shouters.

The group also had radio shows on WRBC and other stations. (at different times). The clubs they played in Canton were 'black and tan' which in the late 1940s meant a mix of races clientele was expected. One of the clubs was named the Zebra Room, if there was any further definition required.

The group recorded a number of records from about 1947 through the mid 1950s. Duke's first recording was done while they had a club gig in Chicago. They recorded for Aristocrat Records, a jazz/R&B label that was the foundation for Chess records and released the first recording by Muddy Waters and other R&B/blues legends. The band was a five piece with Duke, Freddy on sax, Count Demon on drums, Lil Roy Clark on trumpet, and Waymon "Punchy" Atkinson (from Akron) on tenor sax. They were a couple other members as the band was listed as 7 members in the newspapers a couple times. One of those members was Wallich Dean on bass, according to a 1992 interview of Duke by Galen Gart.

This 1951 bit from the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentions Decca, a record company that to our knowledge never had a connection with Duke, wishful thinking maybe?

In 1952 the group moved up to Cleveland to establish a residency at the Rose Room of the Majestic Hotel. They had played Cleveland a few times in late 1951, but the Rose Room gig was the start of Duke's time living in Cleveland, where he stayed for his whole life except for some touring.

Later in 1952, a middle aged woman from Ravenna, Eleanor Gless, got the song-poem bug and started writing words in collaboration with music composers, some local and some from out of town. Eleanor collaborated with another Ravenna-ite, Katie Allen, and a local dance teacher, Bill Franklin. Their big would-be hit was titled "Ravenna Rock Boogie" - a very early reference to 'Rock' that was produced about the same time as the Moondog Coronation Ball occured. Bill choreographed a dance for some of his students. The trio solicted Duke Jenkins and his group to record it, and play it live with Bill's dancers.

The Duke's recording of Ravenna Rock Boogie was released with another Gless/Allen/Franklin song on 78, using the Tick Tock label. The songwriting team seems to have backed the release of the record also but there is no confirmation. A second 78 was released, likely together, with "Taxation Blues". This song was credited on the record to Gless/Allen/Franklin but the copyright was Gless, Allen, and Jenkins. The flip side "Love Peddler" was copyrighted by Katie Allen only. These two recordings were not mentioned in the 1992 interview nor in other accounts of Duke's life we could find. The record labels mention Cleveland Recording Company.

The members of Duke's band changed occasionally in the early 1950s. An August 1952 story mentions Junior Raglan joining on bass. In August 1953 the members were Duke, Fred, Roy Clark, John Brown, and Curtis Wilder, who replaced Junior Raglan.

In 1995 Duke recorded his 4th record and the first to be released on a 45. The songs were "Mambo Blues" and "Sad Again". The record was released on the Pennant label, which was based in Birmingham, Alabama but featured mostly Ohio artists. A full description of the label and the Ohio connections will be posted in the labels section of this website. The A side Mambo Blues was supposedly banned from some radio stations, not sure it that is true, or for what reason. The song does use some call outs to 'stop' and 'mambo' that mimics the seminal "Pine Top Boogie Woogie" from nearly 30 years earlier and oft-repeated since. The record credits Mr. Jo-Jo Spoons, about which Jenkins recalls (in the Galen Gart interview) as a 'local character'. The only reference from the time we could find about him is that he took part in some Cincinnati talent shows in the late 1950s and was listed as living there. There is another Pennant/Cincinnati reference that will be covered in the label page. The Gart interview lists Bill 'Weasel' Parker on tenor sax, with the other members continuing from the 1953 lineup.

"Sad Again" may also have been a song-poem deal. Vulcan and Pennant were labels from the same company.

The group followed up with another 45 in 1956, a version of the standard "Since I Met You Baby". That recording was released on the Kent label, from Cleveland. The label seems to be a one off and not much is known about it. The label design resembles the Reserve label, which is probably die to the RCA custom pressing and not a direct connection.

The group recorded two more 45s in late 1956 or early 1957. They were recorded for Cobra records in Chicago and probably recorded there at the same time. The most familiar is "Shake It" which is almost the same as "Mambo Blues" adding a bluesy electric guitar. The guitarist was Clevelander Willie Lewis, according to Jenkins (from the Gart interview). The other 45, released first, was "The Duke Walks" a shuffle blues instro with a sax lead.

The drummer in 1956 was Archie Taylor, and Duke's band was described 12 members.

From  December 1955 through sometime in 1957 Duke was on Cleveland TV with a half-hour show, every Saturday. The show started on WEWS channel 5 and moved to KYW channel 3. 

Duke and the band stayed at the Rose Room for many years with occasional shows elsewhere locally, usually benefits or civic events. In October 1957, they ended their long continuous Rose Room schedule. One of Cleveland's best kept secrets was lured to the road. He had spent a month or away from the Rose Room earlier in 1957, but some gigs fell through and he came back. He was back for a month or so in May 1958 and returned for some short engagements during 1959 and 1960 He spent most of the next few years playing in South Florida. He was playing in Washington, DC during the winter of 1958, where his band included Fred, Archie Taylor, and Curtis Wilder. 

Story from the Washington Afro American newspaper from 1958.

Duke and Fred returned from south Florida to Cleveland and resumed their residencies at local clubs. Duke had been moving away from R&B and adopting more jazz and standards, and paired down to a trio of Duke, Fred, and a drummer. Ralph Jackson held the drum spot for many years.

Duke didn't make any more records until the 1970s, when he recorded a couple LPs in 1972-3 and another LP and 45 in the late 1970s. These records featured standards and some current/recent pop hits, with a few originals. The later LP has help from Marvin Jenkins, Duke and Fred's cousin who was an accomplished jazz and pop keyboardist. The 45 included included two songs from the LP. The label on the last two was Venus records and they had help from John Brinson and Eddie McGhee who were active in Cleveland's soul scene and those recordings were more in the soul style.

Duke and Fred played together until 2007, whem Duke retired. Fred, only a year or two younger, continued playing. Duke passed away in 2009.

Count Jenkins, Marvin's father, Duke and Fred's uncle, was also a recording artist.

Discography:-
Bercuese / Baby I'm Sick Of You - Aristocrat 811, 1949 (78 only)
A Lovestorm In My Heart / Ravenna Rock Boogie - Tick Tock 1, 1952 (78 only)

November 1948 ad with a guitarist, presumably Johnny Blaine. Count Demon is the drummer.

Taxation Blues / Love Peddler - Tick Tock 2, 1952 (78 only)
Mambo Blues / Sad Again - Pennant 331, 1955 (45 and 78)
Since I Met You Baby / How About That - Kent no #  (RCA master G08W-0124/5 (45 and 78)
Something Else / The Duke Walks - Cobra 5009, Feb 1957 (45 and 78)
Where Can My Loved One Be / Shake It - Cobra 5020, Sept 1957 (45 and 78)
LP - Melodies to Fit Your Mood - Lnaco no # (Musicol 101195/6) 1972
LP - Night Song - no label, no # (Musicol 101687/7) 1973
LP - Something New - Venus 3384, c. 1980
There's Nothing New / Super Man - Venus 338, c. 1980