Edmund Jenkins

Who was Edmund Jenkins?

Edmund Jenkins was an African American composer during the Harlem Renaissance. He spent the most of his life abroad.

Jenkins studied music at Morehouse College in Atlanta with Kemper Herrald, and played and directed the bands of his father's Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. He went to England with the band in 1914 and remained there studying at the Royal Academy of Music from 1914 to 1921.

A Holstein prize was awarded for his piece, African War Dance and also for his Sonata in A minor for violoncello, in 1925. In 1925 in Belgium, his work Carlestonia, a rhapsody for orchestra—noted for its "Negro" themes—was performed. In London, Charlestonia: Negro Symphony was performed in 1919. His career which included jazz/dance band recordings and in Europe was ended by an early death in Paris where he had settled in 1924.