John Handy Quintet & Quartet - in the ver-nac'u-lar / No Coast Jazz

2011 European 2LPs on 1CD collection.

The two albums on this CD were the first John Handy recorded as a leader. This young alto saxophonist he also plays tenor on the first album -from Texas had gained exposure and experience working with Charles Mingus and Randy Weston in 1959. They taught me self-confidence, he said, and these recordings are full of it.

His flawlessly controlled playing is strong and inventively contemporary without succumbing to the tyranny of Bird. For his well-received leader debut, In the Vernacular, he shared the front line with the brilliant trumpeter Richard Williams supported by a near-perfect rhythm section with pianist Roland Hanna.

On the second album, No Coast Jazz, Handy is the consistent focal point of a quartet in which, like pianist Don Friedman, he uses a melodic, gentle style, building a singing, emotional quality saved from sentimentality by the cutting edge of his tone - at times he even recalls a more temperate Ornette Coleman as he slashes his way through piercingly angular passages.

Both albums stand as markers of a great, singular and stimulating jazz talent.