Memories of Ike

I first saw Ike Jenkins as simply a spectator. It was May 1992, and I was in the midst of the interview process for the music position at La Colina Junior High School, to replace the retiring legend, J.B. Vander Ark. I had done my first round of interviews, and Van said to me that if I really wanted to see what this job was all about, come and see him perform at the Santa Barbara High School Jazz Festival. So I did. I saw all the bands, I was blown away by Van’s La Colina band, and I stayed for the entire festival. After all the competing bands finished, it was time for the host band to perform. Out came the SBHS band and this man, this elegant man glided onto the stage in a maroon-colored shirt that moved and flowed with every gesture. And his movements had a line and a flow, and they were deliberate and understated, as if they were choreographed. I knew this was something special.

They had all the trimmings of a show band but they were a real jazz band. Solid, confident, prepared. They soloed, they played shout choruses, they swung. They had the craft and the style, and those were two things that I learned from Ike before I even got to meet him. And then this man strode to the microphone, and with a glint in his eye he spoke through a wide grin. The voice. It was captivating. Like Duke Ellington — suave and sophisticated. Three years into my La Colina tenure I saw his Independent spread as Local Hero and the impact he had on his students and the community — this was Mt. Everest and I was now a colleague. And with my move to Dos Pueblos in 2002, I got to see how he did it.

He was part-time by now, teaching jazz choir and orchestra at DP, so we would collaborate on projects. We combined our groups to play “An American in Paris.” I conducted, he played the double bass. Unforgettable. I saw how dedicated his students were both to him and the music. It was Zen like. All playing, with a few well-placed words of wisdom, and always asking for students to contribute their ideas. Symmetry. One day there was panic in the “P” wing. Counselors had come over. Ike was in deep distress. He had yelled at a student and was distraught about it. I’m thinking, he’s this upset about something I do all the time! There’s a lesson for me; there’s a chance to climb one more foot up that mountain.