Jazz on 3 - Billy Jenkins in Session

Jez Nelson presents guitarist and vocalist Billy Jenkins, recorded in session exclusively for Jazz On 3 with an all-star band. A bluesman, fiery improviser and self styled musical subversive, Jenkins is a true original whose music inspired by the South-East London suburbs where he lives. The comedian Stewart Lee has said of Jenkins "There is a kind of genius on our doorstep, don't let him die in poverty". In this programme Lee interviews Jenkins in his South London home about this session and his life in music, including his early days performing "jazz and jokes" at The Comic Strip comedy club; his seminal band the Voice of God Collective; and how his recent work conducting Humanist funerals has influenced his music. Alongside Jenkins, this session features Oren Marshall on tuba, trombonist Gail Brand, saxophonist Nathaniel Facey, drummer Charles Hayward and violinist Dylan Bates. Presenter: Jez Nelson Producer: Kathryn Willgress & Peggy Sutton.