Karl Jenkins

Jenkins was born and raised in Penclawdd, on the Gower penisula in Glamorgan, Wales. His mother was Swedish and his father was Welsh. Jenkins received his initial musical instruction from his father who was the local schoolteacher, chapel organist and choirmaster.

He attended Gowerton Grammar School and began his musical career as an oboist in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He went on to study music at Cardiff University, and then commenced postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, where he also met his wife and musical collaborator, Carol Barratt.

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 1972 he joined the progressive rock band Soft Machine until their very last performances in 1984.