Honoring guitarist Jack Wilkins (June 4, 1944-May 5, 2023)

Jazz Workshop sends our love and condolences to the friends and family of Jack Wilkins. He was friends with and played with Mingus himself, and on the Mingus-directed Atlantic recordings Me, Myself, an Eye and Something Like a Bird. In the mid-90s, he worked with Sue Mingus on the 5 Guitars Play Mingus project, performing with the group and arranging five Mingus pieces for publication with Hal Leonard (a guitar quintet plus piano, bass and drums.) He was a good-humored regular in the Mingus Orchestra and performed in Mingus’ Epitaph tour in 2007 and we are forever grateful for his contribution to the Mingus musical legacy.

Jack Wilkins with Gunther Schuller conducting Epitaph