Perkins, a Chicago native, was one of Captain Walter Dyett’s beloved music students at DuSable High School during the late 1940s. Perkins was a gigging musician with Ahmal Jamal in the mid-50s. In 1957, Perkins founded his MJT 3 (“Modern Jazz Two Plus 3”), which featured Willie Thomas as trumpeter, Frank Strozier as altoist, Bob Cranshaw as bassist, and Muhal Richard Abrams, a young pianist (later replaced later by Harold Mabern). Perkins was a support act for Coleman Hawkins at the 1959 Playboy Jazz Festival and also recorded with Sonny Criss in that year. The MJT 3 moved en masse from New York to 1960 and recorded a self-titled record for Vee-Jay. However, they broke up in ’62. From www.jazzhouse.org
