Leroy Jenkins

LP version. Urban Blues is the live record of Leroy Jenkins' band Sting, taped at Sweet Basil in New York on January 2, 1984 and released that year by Black Saint. Jenkins, a violinist who had come out of the AACM in Chicago, put the group together in June 1982. It was built mostly on strings: two violins, two guitars, electric bass and drums, with Terry Jenoure singing as well as playing. In March 1983 Amy Duncan wrote in The Christian Science Monitor that the band's music "swings, even stomps at times". All seven pieces on the record are Jenkins compositions.

Jenkins and Jenoure play violin, Brandon Ross and James Emery guitar, Alonzo Gardner bass and Kamal Sabir drums. Jenkins produced the recording, with Giovanni Bonandrini as executive producer, Kazunori Sugiyama as engineer and notes by Art Lange. Static In The Attic opens the set at about six and a half minutes. Looking For The Blues, close to ten minutes, is the longest track. Come On Home, Baby lasts under three minutes, and Why Can't I Fly and O.W. Fredrick follow at five and a half and seven. No Banks River and Through The Ages, Jehova close the album in four and under three minutes. Duncan noted at the time that the music "could hardly be described as 'avant-garde' or 'esoteric'".

Black Saint LP BSR 0083 from 1984: CAM Jazz describes these copies as the original 140 gram vinyl edition, found again in the label's own stock.