Leroy Jenkins at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay CA 1980s/Photo: Brian McMillen

From Dinah Washington to Nat King Cole, Bo Diddley, the recently passed Chicago jazz legend George Freeman and many more, the stories of musical creativity that emerged from Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood—and specifically “Captain” Walter Dyett’s classes at DuSable High School—are legion. But there are still many artists whose stories may not have been told. One of these is jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins, a great artist whose contributions are now being celebrated at the Eleventh Annual Chicago Jazz String Summit.

The three-day event, which has been dedicated to Jenkins, will take place at Constellation Chicago and The Hungry Brain from April 25-27. It will feature eleven different performers on a range of string instruments, including violin, viola, cello, acoustic “stand up” bass, as well as the pipa, a Chinese instrument that dates back to 202 BC and combines elements of the violin and lute.

The violin was first introduced to the jazz lexicon by Stéphane Grappelli, a Parisian who joined Django Reinhardt to form The Hot Club of France in the 1930s. Grappelli combined the low, minor-key wails of the European gypsies with faster jazz riffs, influencing artists as notable as Charlie Parker. But the musical lexicon of Jenkins that will be celebrated at the summit stray from even the “traditional” forms of bebop and gypsy jazz. While teaching music at the Chicago Public Schools, Jenkins heard the sounds of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or AACM. The music, whose artists included Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and harmonica player Lincoln “Chicago Beau” Beauchamp, was at the time revolutionary. It followed no traditional patterns of chords and melodic structure, but instead concentrated on totally free improvisation. It seemed to free something in Jenkins.

“I found out I could really soar,” Jenkins told Oxford University Press.

And soar he did. In the next twenty years Jenkins composed several operas, including “ Mother of Three Sons,” based on African mythology, and “ Fresh Faust,” a jazz rap opera. He played with The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The New York Opera and The Houston Grand Opera, and was awarded the title of composer in residence at Duke University, Amherst College an Harvard University. He received a Guggenheim fellowship. At the time of his death in 2007, he was composing the opera “Bronzeville,” a history of South Side Chicago.

The show at Constellation will pick up where he left off. It will feature Olula Negre, Cristal Sabbagh and Scott Rubin on strings, Min Xiao Fen on solo pipa and Ellie Weedon on solo cello. It will also feature Terry Jenoure’s Flame trio with Joe Fonda and Reggie Nicholson. Jenkins had an especially strong influence on Jenoure.

Terry Jenoure

“Leroy had an energetic, hopeful spirit,” Jenoure says. “He invested in me as a young composer when he invited me to join Sting, the band he was putting together. Playing alongside him over those years from 1980-1990 taught me so much about being brave while also being humble. A lot of times I’d have to take a solo after he took his. That was pretty intimidating. For a violinist, it was like being in school. Knowing and performing with him was life-changing.”

All these musicians will be continuing his legacy and that of improvised non-guitar, stringed music.

“The Chicago Jazz String Summit is truly a labor of love,” Tomeka Reid, the event’s founder, says. “I can’t believe it has been eleven years. The whole point of the event is highlighting the amazing contributions of specific violinists, cellists and strings of the diaspora that may not be thought of on playing jazz and improvised music festivals. So in the true spirit of the AACM and creating your own space, we will celebrate the wide spectrum of improvisation.”

Chicago Jazz String Summit runs Saturday, April 26-Sunday, April 27 at Constellation, 3111 North Western, 7pm; and an improv jam session is on Sunday, April 27 at Hungry Brain, 2319 West Belmont. Tickets required for Constellation shows: $20 advance ($25 at the door), available at chicagojazzstringsummit.com.