DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170102

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   80 lines

PROTEGE REMEMBERS MARVIN GAYE BEACH MAN WILL SING A TRIBUTE AT AMPHITHEATER CONCERT

CECIL T. JENKINS JR., a forty-something living in Virginia Beach, calls himself Marvin Gaye's protege.

From 1978 to '81 Jenkins danced and sang backup for Gaye, the Motown artist famous for ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine.''

Jenkins even lived with Gaye and his family in California, having their share of literally high times together, before Gaye's death in 1984.

Jenkins, a Norfolk native whose stage name is Sesil J., will sing a tribute to Gaye, plus a few original songs, when he opens the program at MiniFest, a concert at the GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater on Friday.

The festival also includes performances by Sugar Hill Gang, Roger Trotman & Zapp, the Barkays and other groups.

A little weary of the Hollywood scene because of what he saw it do to Gaye, and himself, Jenkins says he's happy to work out of Hampton Roads. He's been singing at smaller gigs throughout Virginia and the Carolinas since 1986.

``This industry can turn you upside down, turn you over and spank you two or three times,'' he said. Since moving back to Hampton Roads, Jenkins has taken some young local performers and given them career experience.

The Chesapeake-based quintet Chalant will be his back-up singers. A Hampton-based band called Legacy will perform the instrumentals, and two high school teens will dance on stage.

Jenkins' own chance to work with Gaye was total luck, he admits. Chiefly because of his skill as a dancer growing up in Norfolk he was spotted by a friend of Gaye who knew the singer was looking for new talent.

In 1978, Jenkins, then in his 20s and an aspiring performer, got his opportunity to show Gaye his dancing talents and won him over.

``I was stargazing,'' he said. ``I was a kid. All I thought was, `This is Marvin Gaye.' It took me a month to come off my cloud.''

He was green at first, said Frankie Gaye, Marvin's brother, now a songwriter and producer in Santa Monica, Calif. ``He worked very hard,'' Frankie Gaye said in a telephone interview. ``That impressed me and Marvin the most. He was a great dancer. It was beauty to the eye to watch. . . . He even taught Marvin a few steps.''

``We liked him and felt like he was a member of the family. He was like my brother. . . . All other people'd say, `Listen to me,' and he'd say, `Teach me.' ''

These were the salad days for Jenkins, who in addition to his gig with Gaye, appeared as an occasional dancer on the television show ``Soul Train.''

He also got bit parts in movies such as ``Penitentiary'' (1979) and the Dan Aykroyd movie ``Doctor Detroit'' (1983).

During this time, he and Gaye often hung out and got high on pot and cocaine, which he said was practically a social custom then in Hollywood.

``We all got high,'' he said. ``I'm not afraid to say it. Thank God I'm not doing it today. . . . I stopped (in 1983) when I recognized Marvin was going off the deep end.''

Throughout his career, Jenkins, the oldest of six siblings, has struggled with his addictions, in part because of how he was raised.

His mother was a devout Jehovah's Witness, but his father, a truck driver, forced Jenkins, when he was 12, to work on the streets to show him the world was full of hustlers.

Until Gaye's death, his experience on the street was a greater influence than his mother's attempts to keep him religious.

It still is a wrestling match.

``I get this feeling all the time,'' Jenkins said. ``I feel like Paul in the Scriptures. Every time I want to do what's right, something wrong comes out of it.''

Jenkins, who now considers himself a Jehovah's Witness, has a teen-age son and daughter, both of whom live with his former wife in Hampton Roads.

Besides concerts such as Friday's, for which he will get 15 minutes to open the show, Jenkins sings with a trio called Sesil & Lujon and manages a company, Just Play It Productions, to promote his recordings. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Cecil t.[sic] Jenkins Jr. danced and sang backup for Marvin Gaye in

1978-81.

Graphic

CONCERT FACTS

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MUSIC

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