The 2nd John Handy Album

 

Scheme #1

The 2nd John Handy Album

The John Handy Quintet

Produced by John Hammond

Columbia Records CS 9367

1966

John Handy - Alto and Tenor Saxophone

Jerry Hahn - Guitar

Mike White - Violin

Don Thompson - Bass

Terry Clarke - Drums, Glockenspiel

From the back cover: Art does not always blossom in the cultural hothouses built for it by well-meaning society. It has a habit of appearing in the most unlikely places, where the well-shod feet of the patrons of the arts never tread.

Thus, when poet Kenneth Rexroth and I tried to tell several members of the music establishment on a educational television program that the most important experimental music being played this year in San Francisco was not being heard at the traditional Opera House nor in the concert halls, but the dimly lit rendezvous for young people called The Both/And, they simply did not believe us.

The music we were referring to was that of the John Handy Quintet, and this album of that music proves the truth of what we were saying. The new, live, important American music has been coming from the jazz musicians for decades now, and who will deny it who can accept reality? What music will produce in the future is unpredictable, but the basic experimental bent of adventuresome jazz musicians such as Handy, combined with the incredible emotional intensity and control which is part of the best jazz music, is providing something that may outlast concert halls themselves.

What confuses some people, even genuine music listeners, is the assumption that some kinds of music are "better" than others, that jazz is entertainment, and it is astonishing that anything good comes out of it.

I submit to you the concept that John Handy's performance in this album of his composition Scheme #1 is important American music in any context, by any standards and, above all, by the standards set through the history of music itself by the great experimenter-composers. It seems to me it is a good thing that Handy does not play an entire program of this kind of music; we would not be able to stand up under it – the impact would be entirely too strong!

In the hard world of the music business in which jazz groups live, Handy's diversification is one of his greatest assets. No one conducts fund-raising campaigns to keep them working, no one organizes associations, grants, endowments or establishes foundation to subsidize jazz. It must exist on its own merit. This is one of the reasons why it has such strength. It has to have it!

When jazz music is produced by virtuoso musicians playing at their best, as in this album, they can successfully take an audience through such a variety of moods and feelings that there is something for almost everyone.

"We enjoyed making this album," John Handy says. "We played the tunes shorter and better in the recording studio. We were really exhausted by the long sets we were playing at Shelly's Manne Hole, where we were working, and it was satisfying to play them shorter in the studio.

"Dancy Dance was written in 1957 for my little boy, John Handy IV. When he heard it and was told it was for him, he was delighted. It's a simple little melody – I had never thought much about it and never thought we'd perform it, but when Jerry Hahn joined us, the rhythm section listened to it twice and wanted to play it, no lead sheet, just play it.

"Theme X is in 5/4 time – we've been playing this one for quite a while. I gave it its name for lack of something to call it. We're getting into the 5/4 time now without being conscious of where 1 is all the time. The song is in the same mode as 'If Only I Knew,' in our first album, and Jerry Hahn bends notes like a sitar – he plays quarter tones, and it's a great vehicle to improvise on. It's difficult to do this on a saxophone – to bend notes and play quarter notes – and I can only do it on certain notes.

"Blues For A Highstrung Guitar I wrote when we were working at The Both/And. I Wanted something people who would not ordinarily dig jazz would like to listen to but not so down home it would be only fort the Memphis Slim and Howlin' Wolf fans. It's the first time I wrote something with a definite purpose in mind. The tag on the end is perfect for Jerry Hahn to play!

"Dance For Carlo B I wrote for my first wife. It doesn't use the traditional Latin rhythms – I didn't want to follow any established formula. It's one of the more subtle tings we've done. We never rise much above a whisper, and yet it grabs you. The tension is in there and you get to it.

"Scheme #1 was written for a Carnegie Hall studio concert I gave on May 1, 1962. It was my own presentation, the way I thought jazz should be presented. I wrote six things for the concert. 'If Only We Knew' was in it, and it was a good concert Scheme #1 was my wildest venture with a small group. It was originally written for piano, bass and saxophone. There are more things I would like to do in this direction in the future, but that doesn't mean I want to abandon all the other things we do. I even like schmaltz! But this direction is where I want to go. There are a lot of arranged parts in it and it might have been easier to do with a conductor – it's hard to play and conduct at the same time."

In these words John Handy makes an interesting statement, "There are more things I would like to do in this direction," he says. I asked him to talk more about this. He thought a while and said, "All of this is in preparation for types of composition I want to do later. All of it will culminate in something I'm working toward."

There speaks the true artist. It is all part of the body of work, every piece, and it is all evidence of the surging vitality in the best of jazz.

If this should be your first meeting with the Handy Quintet, you should know that violinist Michael White does not play an amplified violin, but rather a regular violin held close to the microphone; guitarist Jerry Hahn has worked with rock bands, Country and Western groups and jazz units; bassist Terry Clarke numbers among his fans the entire Woody Herman band and Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones' drummer, whose one desire, on his last trip to the West Coast, was to find out where John Handy was playing so he could hear Terry Clarke. – Ralph J. Gleason

Dancy Dance

Theme X Blues For A HighStrung Guitar

Dance For Carlo B

Scheme #1