Music / Craig Handy
Review: Craig Handy Quartet, Hen & Chicken
Another impressive billing at the Jazz at the Albert Autumn sessions sees US reedman Craig Handy blowing so naturally that his sax seems like an extension of his own body. He’s played with luminaries such as Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis amongst many others.
Opening with the breezy bop of Chick’s Tune by Chick Corea, the stage is set for some great interplay between the excellent musicians in his quartet for this UK tour. Not least UK pianist Jonathan Gee, a European jazz power in his own right, who currently works a lot with Cleveland Watkiss. His lovely piano break in Cedar Walton’s Holy Land is case in point, complementing the soft shuffle of Nicola Sabato’s double bass and the brushing of Rod Youngs drums.
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The subtly pliant Thelonius Monk’s Ask Me Now follows and then Dexter Gordon’s For Regulars Only with its ‘bye bye blackbird’ inclusion on Sabato’s bass creates a kind of svelte lounge bar mood with a wandering edge.
Handy’s self-penned It’s Up To You brings us firmly out of the lounge with a pointed urgency, skilful scale playing on his sax and some brilliant keyboards from Gee, ending with a mad flurry on drums by Youngs.
The cheerful bop of Without Song opens the second set. Youngs’ skilfully dexterous playfulness on the drums enlightens it and then the gorgeous stroll of Lexi’s Song goes from the exuberant to the meditative and back again with perfect intonation and beautiful individual breaks from all four players. The gently inventive drumming by Youngs – complete with dub effects! – plays off against Gee’s piano.
If there’s any criticism it’s that there’s a tendency to slip back into the lounge a bit too often, as they do on What’s New despite Handy’s soulful solo. Things are put to rights once again with a flourish of Gee’s keys and the sax intro to the infective bop of Chick Corea’s Humpty Dumpty, and the final number, the upbeat Cedar Walton number Firm Roots.
All in all, we witnessed one of the most accomplished tenor sax players out there combining technically challenging phrasing with seemingly effortless breath control, all laced with clever melodic interplay with Gee’s excellent piano playing.
All photos by Elfyn Griffith
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