John Handy Quintet reunion

[Guy Berger]

Handy's Quintet is playing at the Iridium this week, along with Henry Grimes's group w/Andrew Cyrille and special guests.

I'm planning on going Wednesday night. (Gary Bartz will be playing with Grimes.) Anybody else planning on being there?

Guy

[kh1958]

I just wish I was going to be there.

What I didn't understand was why the club booked a double bill. No offense to the other group, but reforming the John Handy Quintet from 1965 is a rare event, so why force them to play shortened sets to accomodate a second group?

[BeBop]

I'll be there. Can't miss an opportunity to see my fellow McClymonds High alum.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I spent probably an hour sitting with Handy and his wife and saxophonist Robin Kenyatta. Handy is a talker! Some great stories.

The quintet was pretty sloppy the first set. Sound problems also. But the second set really took off. Jerry Hahn kicks ass. Even in the first set he was playing wonderful solos. Clarity, continuity - first set had a wonderful authentic blues that Hahn just ate up. Despite Handy's claim that they weren't going to do Spanish Lady that night without any rehearsal, they did it as the closer to the second set. A couple iffy points in the transitions but mostly absolute burning and the guys were so clearly loving it! The grins they had when the piece was done were evidence of the kick they got out of playing their "hit" from Monterery 1965 (and all subsequent gigs, twice a night, as Handy said) and pulling it off after not touching it for nearly 40 years.

Handy is 71 and looks (and plays) like he is 50. Wonderful altissimo, some amazing arpeggios. Michael White - mostly not impressed, particularly on the straight ahead tunes, but he cranked up the energy on Spanish Lady. Don Thompson and Terry Clarke locked in - they've worked together often.

I gotta check out some Hahn from the 1990s. I just know him from 1960s Handy and Gary Burton. This guy should be making his own records on a regular basis. Very individual style of articulation, a master blues player - adding blues/rock bends into the typical jazz style without seeming wrong, phenomenal velocity, and excellent line construction.

I agree the double bill idea wasn't so great - especially because the styles are very different. I dig both (and was there for Henry and Perry) but it wasn't a good match. But each group did 45+ minute sets and there were a lot of good sounds to be heard. Since Handy's group did no rehearsals, they may not have wanted to do longer sets anyway.

Mike

[relyles]

I am strongly considering going tonight (Wednesday) since I may have to be in NYC anyway, but I must confess my real interest is seeing Grimes, Robinson and Bartz. The double bill has me reluctant though. A while back I caught the Sam Rivers/Andrew Hill double bill at the Iridium and everything seemed rushed and in the end I was slightly disappointed.

Edited July 14, 2004 by relyles

[Guy Berger]

I am strongly considering going tonight (Wednesday) since I may have to be in NYC anyway, but I must confess my real interest is seeing Grimes, Robinson and Bartz. The double bill has me reluctant though. A while back I caught the Sam Rivers/Andrew Hill double bill at the Iridium and everything seemed rushed and in the end I was slightly disappointed.

On the other hand, I was at the David S Ware/Henry Grimes doubleheader last July and they played a lot of music. It was a great combo though Grimes's group only took off in the second set.

Anyway, if anyone wants to say hello, I'm a 20-something white dude with glasses. I'll be wearing a blue polo shirt and shorts.

Guy

[Д.Д.]

I gotta check out some Hahn from the 1990s.

Hahn's dis on Enja is very strong. YOu can get it directly from Enja's website: http://www.enjarecords.com/cd.php?nr=ENJ-9007

[Guest youmustbe]

Handy sounded great. I heard the first set. Would have liked to have heard more.

Grimes should have done a 25 minute solo. The other musicians with him were just noodling.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

The second sets have been better both nights. The first set Gary and Perry were late arriving (weather made traffic a nightmare). I'm still not convinced that Bartz was the best choice for this ensemble. He seemed to spend a good deal of his time quoting other tunes during the free improvisations. During the second set he played Greensleeves and was so unrelenting about it, that the tune turned into Greensleeves. I do think it would have been nice to have heard some tunes more like they did the first night (Doxy, Oleo, Dark Eyes).

The Handy group rehearsed during the day so they were mostly able to avoid playing the type of standards that were used on opening night (like a "no head" verison of Softly As In A Morning Sunrise). The 1966 Blues For A High-strung Guitar was wonderful, with that very "retro" rhythm feel and the second set opened with Spanish Lady that was much tighter than the first night. They finished the night by reading a new piece - Pleasure Power or something like that - very Indian-sounding with an arco C droning for long stretches, then a unison melody line. It was sloppy, to be sure, but quite interesting. Look for it to return.

I didn't find Jerry Hahn to be quite as impressive, maybe because of the lack of standards (or the element of surprise). But still wonderful.

BTW, the Handy group now sits while performing (except bass) just as they did back in the 1960s.

Folks in the house included bassists Ray Drummond (who as a college sophomore was an usher at the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival where Handy brought down the house) and Ratzo Harris.

Mike

[BeBop]

I won't offer a detailed show review, other than to say I found it enjoyable, especially the Handy portion. The opener definitely provided the 'heat' of the first set, though Softly cooked at a pretty good temp. Hahn was 'on' for the opener, but seemed a bit less inspired through the rest of the set, as if seeking with greater effort to avoid cliched playing.

[Guy Berger]

Too bad so many of us were there and we didn't meet up or anything. (Was one of you guys the dude getting his reunion CD autographed?)

Unlike the Grimes/Ware pairing of last year, this double bill didn't really work. The two styles didn't really mesh well and it didn't seem like there were good vibes between the bands. Also, I was expecting it to end by midnight, it didn't, and I was stuck taking the 1:30 AM train back to New Haven.

Anyway, I think Mike F's comments are more or less comprehensive. Hahn absolutely smoked on the 1st set's "Blues for a Highly Strung Guitar", was somewhat less impressive afterwards. They closed the first set with a brief "Dancy Dancy". Handy's playing is as impressive as on the records.

The second set's "Spanish Lady" was a scorcher, and I think this is the only number where Michael White really impressed me. Terry Clarke's drumming was superb on this one. The second set, as Mike says, was much better.

Despite some harsh comments I made last year, I actually think Grimes's group was not as good this time around with the exception of the superb Andrew Cyrille. Gary Bartz was a little out of place, though it was cool to hear him quoting John Coltrane's "Creation" in the 1st set.

Chit-chatted a little bit with Terry Clarke, very nice guy. Talked about Yoshi's, distribution of the group's CDs.

Guy

p.s. I don't think I've ever seen anybody as bored onstage as Don Thompson was during the 1st set. The guy looked miserable.

[Pete C]

I'll be there on Sunday.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I would disagree about any lack of "good vibes" between the bands. I witnessed and participated in several pleasant conversations involving various people in both bands on Tuesday and Wednesday. And while there were definitely people in the audience who did dig both styles, I think there were some who went for one but not the other, too.

Offstage there isn't any problem for the players. It just seems to me that musically there could have been better pairings for Henry & Co. - like next week's group: Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille - oh, damn - Cyrille's already taken......

Mike

[Pete C]

I caught the first show last night. I found the Grimes group really disappointing, lacking in both intensity and compelling collective discovery, the two things I look for in free jazz. Maupin did come up with one nice soprano solo with a nice groove from Grimes & Cyrille behind him.

The Handy Quintet was tight & cooking. These reunions have great potential for disappointment, so I was pleasantly surprised. The 2 Columbia albums by that group are among my all-time favorites.

They did 3 tunes: "My One and Only Love," "Spanish Lady" (amazing), and "Dancy Dancy" (played in the tempo of the Yoshi's reunion album, which is slower than the original). The weak link was Mike White, who seems to have lost his fire. The other 4 are in top form, and Terry Clarke was especially impressive.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Problem I had was that the Handy group was basically doing the same thing every set. Maybe not the same tunes (though they did repeat those over the course of the week), but there wasn't anything new or particularly challenging. And once you heard them, it was kind of a predictable rerun on subsequent evenings. You knew that Handy was going to milk that squawk of his. You knew he was going to do the altissimo and the arpeggios during his unaccompanied introductions. (You knew White was going to be the weak link, too.) It was very nice to hear once, but once was enough.

Having seen three nights of the engagement, I could definitely pull out an album's worth of great - really great - music by the Grimes band. It would combine the in and out stuff (and some sets had absolutely NO in stuff - sometimes it was just 45 minutes of out stuff) and would feature a bit from each of the guests. (BTW, I found Maupin to be the most at home of the three.) This group was much more of a wild card (or call them inconsistent but at least they weren't predictable). Sometimes it was lackluster, but sometimes it was wonderful. The Friday night second set had "Round Midnight" with Maupin on soprano and it was quite unexpected both for the band and the audience. The "Oleo" that followed was pretty good too.

BTW, though the announcements proclaimed that the Handy group hadn't played together in nearly 40 years, they reunited back in the 1990s - with the Yoshi's album documenting that, so that was a bit of false advertising. Of course, the reunion of Perry, Henry, and Bennie WAS nearly 40 years - last together on a 1966 gig led by Sunny Murray. But no one mentioned that.

Mike

[Guest youmustbe]

The conventions of acoustic jazz,...rhythm section, everybody solos, etc., is for me, becoming deadening. As boring as 'free' playing can be, when it clicks, something happens. I would rather have heard Handy play solo for 30 minutes, or with the drummer only, or something else, anything else. Not to be different, but to get out of this rut.

[Pete C]

The Grimes set on Sunday was all free. I think I might have found a more varied set more interesting.

Grimes with Crispell & Cyrille was one of the highlights of the Vision Festival.

[chris olivarez]

I was just curious why Michael White was perceived as the weak link for the Handy group. Pete C offered up one explanation. Are there any others?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Never (well, hardly ever) moved out of first position. No use of the bebop chromaticism, no use of blues slides. At times it seemed like I was listening to one of my elementary students. Listening back to the 1960s records he wasn't that bad back then. No Jean-Luc Ponty, but still....

But on Spanish Lady, he bowed up a frenzy. But it was all about energy, not about musicality.

Mike

[Guest youmustbe]

Michael White, an average musician, who made his 'name' because he played an instrument not usually asociated with Jazz (despite Grappelly, Smith, Nance), has gotten old. He basically can't play anymore.

That's another sad fact about the Jazz world. Musicans never retire! No matter how old, or unable to play their instrument, they soldier on. Brave, but sad.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Not without exception - J. J. Johnson and Benny Carter are two who hung their horns up - Artie Shaw, too.

Mike

[Pete C]

Michael White, an average musician, who made his 'name' because he played an instrument not usually asociated with Jazz (despite Grappelly, Smith, Nance), has gotten old.

Mike White wasn't really a "name," but to my ears he was great on recordings with Handy & Pharoah Sanders. He may not have had the technique of Grappelli or Nance, or Jenkins & Bang, but he had a real energy & swing and a sound you could sink your teeth into that worked wonderfully in those settings.