Biography
John Richard Handy, 3 February 1933, Dallas, Texas, USA. When Handy’s magnificent 1965 recording Live At The Monterey Jazz Festival hit the shops, many of the reviewers got carried away. Handy had been around for years, working with Charles Mingus from 1958-59 and again in 1964, appearing with the bass player’s band at Monterey as it happened. He had also had his own band from 1959-61, but it was with the creation of the 1965 band, comprising the leader’s alto, violin (Michael White), piano (Freddie Redd, replaced by the guitar of Jerry Hahn by the time of the Monterey concert), bass (Don Thompson) and drums (Terry Clarke) that the critics fastened on to him as the new Charlie Parker the jazz world had supposedly been waiting for. Handy’s music was exciting, musicianly and well-crafted but it was what it was not that caused the excitement. Here was an outstanding alto player who was not threatening in the way that Ornette Coleman was felt to...
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