Karl Jenkins

Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins, His maternal grandfather was a Swedish sailor who settled in Wales after meeting his future wife at a local market. Between the ages of two and five, Jenkins lived in Gävle, Sweden, and continued to visit in subsequent years. Jenkins attended Gowerton Grammar School, studied music at Cardiff University, and then commenced postgraduate studies in London at the Royal Academy of Music. Early career: Graham Collier’s group and Nucleus For the bulk of his early career, Jenkins was known as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, playing baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards and oboe, an unusual instrument in a jazz context. He joined jazz composer Graham Collier’s group and later co-founded the jazz-rock group Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. In 1971, Jenkins collaborated with Linda Hoyle on her album Pieces of Me, co-writing 8 of the 11 tracks, playing piano and oboe, as well as arranging and conducting the orchestra. Soft Machine In 1972, Jenkins joined the Canterbury jazz fusion rock band Soft Machine, playing saxophone, oboe and flute along with keyboard instruments. The group played venues including The Proms, Carnegie