by Tyler Schmitz
On the latest edition of Scenes from the Saxophone Section, I featured a guy whose name would fit right in the yellow pages (they still have those, right?). Yes, John Handy, who sounds like he comes right out of a carpentry ad, was the feature. Specializing in the alto sax, he makes himself out as a proper bandleader. Catching his stride in the 1950s after playing for Charles Mingus, Handy was an accomplished player and bandleader who led a quintet of his own and was twice nominated for a Grammy award.
The first tune on my setlist was Handy’s own “Hard Work,” a funky sounding tune with an easygoing blues feel. If you didn’t know, Handy was a bit of a vocalist in his career, too, and I made sure to pick out this tune to get a few crumbs of that in the show. The tune has lyrics embedded into its composition, though very simple, as it’s only the title of the song that actually gets interjected, but interjections such as this make this blues tune a lot more fun to listen to. John takes the head of the piece and leaves the funky synth and percussive clapping underneath to get a new age (at least for the 70s) style of those funky blues I’ve been talking about.
The next tune was to show that while his sound can be bold and different, he still has a solid understanding of the fundamental roots of jazz. Quite a “meat and potatoes tune,” the song “Jive, Jive, Jive” is pretty simple to understand. It’s a super simple 120 bpm easygoing swing tune, with literally nothing fancy going on. Honestly, I’d call it a great warm up piece, maybe even a set opener in performance. John did this one with his quintet, but I’m sure you could probably bump it down to a four-man group, as Handy was doing most of the legwork, taking the lead for most of the piece anyway.
“Hi Number” rounded out the setlist, and it’s another cool sounding combo piece. With Handy on alto, the notes he gives emphasis are made to sound out, and the rest of them are played discreetly, creating a wave shape with his dynamics. He also likes the use of this rolling triplet eighth note pattern, hitting the same 3 ascending notes and repeating that pattern a few times in the tune. Coincidentally enough, not only does the shape on the score look like a wave, but it helps to add to such a dynamically influenced piece.
Tune in to Sunday Standards every week for more Scenes From the Saxophone Section.
