Pedal Point Blues

John Handy (alto sax), Shafi Hadi and Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Jimmy Knepper (trombone), Horace Parlan (piano), Charles Mingus (bass and piano with Parlan) and Dannie Richmond (drums). From the album Mingus Ah Um (1959).

John Handy is an American alto saxophonist who also plays tenor and baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, oboe and sings. He is a powerful soloist who can play high notes well above the normal range of his instrument with ease. After moving to New York in 1958, he gained a reputation by playing with Charles Mingus for two years and recording several albums showing his originality. He also made recordings to his name and conducted his own bands from 1959 to 1964.

He played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964 with Mingus and in 1965 with his own quintet. Between 1966 and 1968 he recorded three excellent albums. Since then he has played world music, rhythm and blues and recorded with Mingus Dinasty. In the late 1980s he formed a group with three female violinists who also sang and worked on the Bebop & Beyond project, where albums were recorded in homage to Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. He currently teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The introduction is made by Parlan playing a phrase repeatedly and then joined by Hadi, Ervin and Knepper playing a different one also repeatedly. The theme is exposed by Handy and consists simply of a solo. Then Ervin comes in playing impetuously choppy sentences that fit like a puzzle. Afterwards, Parlan plays a gentle and pleasant solo, and Handy appears with a quick and stimulating speech. Richmond then intervenes with an impetuous and overwhelming solo, and finally the group returns to the music they had originally performed.