Todd S. Jenkins (born August 13, 1968 in Decatur, Georgia) is a jazz author and journalist based in Southern California. He is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association.
A graduate of California State University, San Bernardino, Jenkins began his writing career in 1992, contributing to the tabloid-style montly magazine Marge Hofacre's Jazz News in Idyllwild, California. That same year he became a board member of the American Jazz Symposium, conducting concerts and educational events in the Inland Empire region. In 1998 Jenkins began contributing record reviews and articles to All About Jazz,[1] and the following year he became a contributor to Down Beat. His writings have subsequently appeared in Signal To Noise, Route 66 Magazine, American Songwriter and Inland Empire Weekly. In 2007 he became one of the founding contributors of Jazz.com.[2]
In 2004 Jenkins completed his first book, Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press, 2 volumes), an extensive overview of the history and performance of improvised music from the 1950s into the 21st century. It was followed by I Know What I Know: The Music of Charles Mingus (Praeger, 2006), a layman listener's guide to the recordings of jazz bassist and bandleader Mingus. In 2005 Jenkins contributed the sections on 1960s jazz and 1970s blues in The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Watson-Guptill).
In addition to his books and magazine articles, Jenkins has written album liner notes for Jimmy and Stacy Rowles (Me and the Moon, AJS Recordings), Estelle Reiner (Paradise, Clear Productions), Mike Vax and Clark Terry (Creepin' With Clark, Summit Records), trumpeter Fred Forney (Into the Mist, Summit Records), and pianist Chuck Marohnic (White Men Can't Monk, Summit Records). Jenkins is also a composer of jazz and church-oriented music whose works have been performed across the United States and Europe.