Remembering Jack Wilkins
June 4, 1944 – May 5, 2023
A tribute to the underrated but brilliant jazz guitarist
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Guitarist Jack Wilkins passed away on May 5, 2023, at the age of 78.
He was born June 4, 1944, in Brooklyn where he started playing guitar when he was 13.
Always attracted to jazz guitarists (including the playing of Johnny Smith, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, and Tal Farlow), as a teenager Wilkins gained experience playing in big dance bands led by Les Elgart, Larry Elgart, and Warren Covington.
For a time in his twenties, Wilkins worked as a vibraphonist including in a group that included Barry Manilow as a jazz pianist.
After recording his first album (1973’s Windows), Wilkins became a member of the Buddy Rich Septet and began working with the who’s who of jazz including Kenny Barron, Frank Foster, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Zoot Sims, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods and the Brecker Brothers.
Wilkins led 15 albums of his own during 1973-2004 and also recorded along the way with Nancy Harrow, Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, Jay Clayton, Chris Connor, Sonny Fortune, Earl Hines, the Julius Hemphill Big Band, Charles Mingus and many others.
He also was an important educator (including at the Manhattan School Of Music and the New School) and encouraged many guitarist and singers through the years.
From 1983, here is the 38-year old Jack Wilkins playing some very impressive unaccompanied guitar on his version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “No More Blues.”
-Scott Yanow
