Roland Hanna recommendations?

[loughtenty]

Having heard Sir Roland Hanna playing some beautiful piano on "Concierto de Aranjuez" on Jim Hall's CTI LP "Concierto", i really wanted to hear some more of his work... can anyone recommend any of his recordings? Is "Apres un reve" any good? I need your expert opinions!
Thanks for your help people!

[jlhoots]

Apres Un Reve is excellent.
So (also on Venus) is Paris, Milano, New York.
Everything I Love (solo) & Three Black Kings are also superb.

[duaneiac]

I second that recommendation of "Everything I Love" and would add "Perugia", recorded at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival, and "Swing Me No Waltzes", a Storyville CD that has tracks from 1973 & 1979.

[bvy]

Chalk up another one for Everything I Love. I thought I didn't like Stephen Sondheim's work -- until I heard Hanna take it on. Of the older stuff, Consummation or anything else he did with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra.

[OnyaBirri]

I've never passed up a solo piano LP by him. I love his Alec Wilder album best of the solo stuff.

[jazzcritic]

I've never run across a bad album by Sir Roland Hanna. Look for the out of print At Maybeck, or the obscure but excellent 'Round Midnight, a solo piano date on Town Crier.

[HutchFan]

I've been poking around on the web, reading about Sir Roland. Thought I'd bump this thread and share some of what I've found.

Below is an article by Mark Tucker that was published in 2000. (You can also find the article on the web at http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/tucker00.html).

Seven Steps to Piano Heaven: The Artistry of Sir Roland Hanna
by Mark Tucker

My favorite living jazz pianist is Sir Roland Hanna. I don’t understand why that’s not so for everybody. He has all the requisite qualities: swing, technique, sound, taste, imagination, heart, soul. Somehow, though, Hanna has never run away with critical laurels, or developed into a high-profile player even though he is respected among musicians and knowledgeable fans. True, he is no progressive innovator like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Cecil Taylor, or Keith Jarrett. But even among solid, mainstream pianists—including such veterans as Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Dave McKenna, Marian McPartland, Kenny Barron—Hanna doesn’t occupy a front-rank position. His recording history confirms this: lacking a major-label contract, or even affiliation with one of the leading jazz independents, Hanna has turned to one company after another over the past thirty years. Of the thirteen discs surveyed in this article, each was released by a different label. Without a publicity machine grinding away for him, Hanna has forged ahead on his own. He has formed his own company, Rahanna Music Inc., to publish his compositions and issue recordings. Meanwhile, he has sustained himself and kept growing over the years, an outstanding if underrated jazz artist.

My aim in this article is to sing the praises of Roland Hanna. I’m not going to play the role of judicious critic, weighing this and that, splitting hairs, making judgment calls. No, I just want to enthuse about an extraordinary musician. I already know he won’t be to everyone’s taste. He has two tendencies that some jazz piano fans don’t relish: a preference for thick, full-bodied textures and a profound influence from Romantic and early twentieth-century concert-music composers (e.g., Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel). But as you will see, he also has other stylistic modes that make up his keyboard identity.

Born in 1932, son of a preacher in the black sanctified church, Hanna was part of the efflorescence of talented pianists whose careers began in Detroit in the later 1940s and 1950s. “I came up amongst so many fantastic piano players,” he told Marian McPartland on a Piano Jazz radio appearance. “Detroit was just rife with brilliant people: Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Terry Pollard, Ted Sheely, Abe Woodley, even ‘Bags’ [vibraphonist Milt Jackson] played piano back in those days.” Hanna shared with some of these pianists—notably Flanagan, Harris, and Jones—certain traits that might define a post-war Detroit “school” of keyboard players: advanced harmonic knowledge, a strong relationship with bebop, a percussively accented touch, economy, elegance, and unfailing swing. But unlike these others, Hanna was also drawn to studying and playing the classical repertory, and later attended both the Eastman School of Music and Juilliard.

After brief associations with Benny Goodman (1958), Charles Mingus (1959), Sarah Vaughan (1960), and Carmen McRae (1965), Hanna landed his first long-term job with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, holding down the piano chair in that adventurous ensemble from 1966 to 1974. Hanna served an important apprenticeship there, finding ways to accommodate a fully formed solo style to the challenges of fellow Michigander Thad Jones’s tricky charts. Hanna’s later mastery of shifting textures must have developed during this stint. Though he made his first recording as a leader in 1959, Hanna’s independent career didn’t begin to take off until 1971, when he formed the New York Jazz Quartet, a cooperative ensemble that gigged into the 1980s. After a benefit tour of Liberia in 1969, he was knighted by the country’s president William Tubman and has worn the honorific “Sir” proudly ever since.

In recent decades Hanna has become involved with jazz repertory both through playing in the Broadway show Black and Blue and with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He has also settled into teaching in the jazz program at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY. Still active as a performer both at home and abroad, he has maintained a busy recording schedule, both with his own projects and on dates led by others.

Though I think it’s fair to place Hanna in the post-war Detroit school mentioned above, he also has traits that set him apart from that group. One is a predilection for thick chordal textures that make the piano ring out like an orchestra, as it did in the 1920s and 1930s. Many modern pianists (since Bud Powell, really) tend to favor single-note lines in the right hand and spare, clipped chords in the left; Hanna uses this approach in combos but never for long stretches of time, preferring to introduce richer, more deep-reaching textures for variety. Hanna also loves to construct arrangements for everything he plays—there is consistently a composer’s touch in his performances, whether those of his own originals or familiar tunes by Gershwin or Monk. A third signature of Hanna is a rhapsodic, classically influenced persona that flavors just about everything he does. His arrangement of “Fascinating Rhythm,” for example (on the Maybeck Recital Hall disc), takes the main motive of the tune and relates it to Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a clever bit of transcultural signifying. Finally there is Hanna’s vast stylistic range. Critic Grover Sales has come up with a helpful list: “the sanctified church, rhythm ’n’ blues, classic piano literature, the grand Romantic tradition of the nineteenth century, French Impressionism, ragtime, Harlem stride, Tatum, bebop, Garner, the blues, funk, avant-garde, and the explosion of songwriting genius that blessed America in the Twenties and Thirties.”


As a window on the artistry of Roland Hanna, I’ve selected seven essential recordings that add up to a rich composite portrait of the pianist. My personal preference for hearing Hanna is in a solo context, so choices are weighted in that direction.

1. Sir Roland Hanna: Maybeck Recital Hall Series, vol. 32 (Concord CCD-4604, 1994).
This solo recital shows Hanna at a peak, with heroic technique, imaginative arrangements devised for pop songs, and love of the lyrical line. It’s a set devoted mostly to Gershwin, a composer for whom Hanna has a special affinity. Sonny Rollins’s “Oleo”—based on Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”—is a flagwaving tour de force, taken at a breakneck speed and featuring audacious runs, motoric patches of stride, and unfailingly crisp execution. Another high point is Hanna’s reading of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” an oasis of calm that shimmers with antique harmonies recalling Debussy and Satie. Recorded live, this set also reveals Hanna as bold risk-taker, willing to embrace technical challenges that push him into territory avoided by lesser pianists.

2. Roland Hanna and George Mraz Play for Monk (Musical Heritage Society MHS 512192H, [1978] 1988).
A jazz repertory player long before the movement became widespread, Hanna has made a number of discs devoted to individual artists. This Monk tribute stands out as one of the finest, partly because of the chemistry between the pianist and bassist Mraz but also due to the way Hanna retains his own identity in the interpretations, avoiding the temptation to emulate Monk’s sound and style. Highlights include the playful wit of “Rhythm-A-Ning,” the steamrolling drive of “In Walked Bud,” the tender and not-so-melancholy reading of “Ruby, My Dear,” and the gently rocking version of Monk’s ballad “Reflections.” Throughout Hanna treats Monk’s pieces as frameworks for new arrangements and as vehicles for soloing—he is not intimidated by the reputation of these works as compositions.

3. Roland Hanna: Bird Tracks, Remembering Charlie Parker (Progressive Records PCD-7031, [1978] 1989).
Another tribute album recorded the same year as the Monk set. Despite the slightly inferior recording quality, Hanna’s takes on tunes written by and associated with Parker are fresh and memorable. Once again Hanna makes no attempt to emulate Parker’s signature traits—his brilliant single-note runs, for example, or formidable speed. Nor does he borrow from Parker’s distinctive vocabulary of licks and arpeggiated figures, but features his own embellishing patterns derived from a European school of virtuosity. He turns the Latin-styled “Barbados” into a stately pavane. “Dear Old Stockholm” becomes a pensive study in blue, and he wraps “Pastel” in lush textures that conjure up wistful images of 1940s urban romance.

4. Roland Hanna: Perugia Live at Montreux ’74 (Arista-Freedom 1010, LP, 1975).
Now you’re ready for the more robust, expansive, concert-hall version of Hanna. From the opening “Take the ‘A’ Train” Hanna brings all his musical energies to the foreground, ignited by an aggressive spark in this live performance before a European jazz festival audience. The title tune, “Perugia,” gives the sense of embarking on a journey at the outset, then a sinuous cantabile melody appears out of the anticipation, pedal points undergird patches of ambiguous tonality, and the piece takes on a processional quality. There is also an expansive version of Thad Jones’s “A Child is Born,” one of Hanna’s feature pieces when he was with the Jones-Lewis orchestra. Hanna’s virtuosic technique is evident throughout, as he suddenly flies into miniature Tatum-like cadenzas, unleashes strings of ornate Chopinesque runs, or moves into a melodious block-chord style.

5. Sir Roland Hanna: Round Midnight (Town Crier TCD 513, 1987).
This is possibly the most classically oriented and least improvised-sounding of all Hanna’s discs. Despite the album’s title, all but three of the eleven compositions are his own, and most tend toward large-scale, ruminating statements cloaked in thick, chordal textures and featuring rhapsodic sections of passage work. Monk’s “Round Midnight,” for example, is awash in heavy pedal, closer in spirit to a Chopin nocturne than to the familiar jazz anthem. Hanna’s “Century Rag” is a good-humored update of that old form, conjuring up all at once Scott Joplin, Kurt Weill, William Bolcom, and Brahms. For more straightlaced jazz listeners this album will prove a stretch, but it contains some gorgeous performances and the piano sound is warm and embracing.

6. Roland Hanna Plays the Music of Alec Wilder (Inner City IC 1072, LP, 1980).
Now we arrive at the zenith of Hanna’s musical art, and I’m only sorry that this disc and the next have yet to be reissued on compact disc. The Hanna-Wilder pairing is a natural, with both men straddling the popular-classical divide and drawn to emotional territory that touches on the world of gentle regrets, lost childhood, whispered intimacies, and tender affirmation. Beyond these links, Hanna apparently discovered that “Wilder used some of the same compositional devices I have employed in my own writing.”

As a long-time Wilder admirer, I find Hanna’s set of song interpretations perfection itself. For each, he crafts an individual setting or arrangement that sets it apart from the rest. He is particularly effective with the children’s songs “The Starlighter” and “The Star Wish,” which convey a sense of comfort and security even as they kindle a spirit of magic that points to the unknown. What comes across powerfully on this album is Hanna’s deep love and profound understanding of Wilder’s music. It’s as though he has found a way to transfer these vocal pieces to the keyboard idiom and turn them into luminous works intended for that instrument alone.

7. Sir Roland Hanna: A Gift from the Magi (West 54 WLW 8003, LP, 1979).
Hanna’s masterpiece, a solo piano set of eight original compositions (plus one by Charlie Haden), which takes on the character of a suite. Steeped in French Impressionism and nineteenth-century Romanticism, Hanna finds a seamless way to integrate such keyboard styles with the vocabulary of mid-century jazz. He accomplishes a new fusion in which classical idioms and jazz morph into one another rather than standing apart to announce their differences. As he acknowledges his roots on the album’s liner notes, “Chopin is my favorite composer and there’s Scriabin and Bartók but while growing up I was crazy about Satie and Debussy. I heard Ravel later. The music I can really express myself in most easily is the French. It’s the third relation harmonic progression . . . more than perfect fourths and fifths or chromaticism.”

The titles of individual numbers—“Treasures Lost,” “My Secret Wish,” “Silence,” “Afterglow”—evoke the quiet, lyrical atmosphere that pervades the album. Unfortunately the disc’s sound quality doesn’t do Hanna justice—but his voice and spirit come through, nonetheless. This recording is a refreshing tonic. I am grateful to Bob O’Meally for first introducing it to me; he in turn learned of it from Rae Linda Brown.

These seven albums provide a view of Roland Hanna in the round. After sampling them, be sure to continue exploring the rest of his discography, a portion of which is annotated below.

If this is your first voyage with Hanna, welcome to a pleasant and sensuous listening journey. His music brims with life and soul, and you will find yourself expanded and enriched in getting to know it.


Other Roland Hanna Recordings

LP: Roland Hanna: Sir Elf (Choice CRS 1003, 1973). Despite a somewhat harsh piano sound, this first solo album is worth acquiring, mixing more straightforward jazz treatments (“You Took Advantage of Me,” “Walkin’”) with classically influenced excursions (“Morning”) . . . . CDs: The Piano of Roland Hanna: Easy to Love (Koch Jazz CD 8529, [1963] 1999). His second album finds Hanna in a trio setting with tight, proficient performances. Some of Hanna’s influences—Tommy Flanagan, Wynton Kelly, Ahmad Jamal, George Shearing, Errol Garner, Art Tatum (i.e., the introduction to “Yesterdays”)—emerge clearly here, but on “It Never Entered My Mind” you can also hear the crisp touch he developed early on and the signature trait of thick, keyboard-spanning chords. . . . The Complete Solid State Recordings of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (Mosaic 151, [1966-1970] 1994). The best way to sample Hanna with the Jones-Lewis organization. Listen to his delicate, spare, two-handed unison solo on “Consummation” from 1970, also to the sweet lyricism he brings to Thad Jones’s lovely ballad “A Child is Born.” . . . Sir Roland Hanna: Duke Ellington Piano Solos (MusicMasters 5045-2-C, 1991). Strangely unsatisfying and oddly subdued, as though he felt weighted down by the material rather than liberated by it. There are a few welcome exceptions (the laconic “Portrait of Bert Williams” and poetic “Isfahan”), but overall this disc shows neither Hanna nor Ellington in their best lights. . . . Sir Roland Hanna Quartet Plays Gershwin (LaserLight, 1993). A straightahead program of Gershwin standards in which Hanna shares soloing honors with saxophonist Bill Easley. . . . Sir Roland Hanna Presents Yoshio Aomori with Chris Roselli: I Love Bebop (Rahanna Music Inc. RMI 901, 1998). Hanna teams up with two much younger players (bassist Aomori and drummer Roselli) for a high-spirited, at times downright exuberant set of tunes by some of the chief figures in Hanna’s musical orbit: Thad Jones, Jimmy Heath, Billy Strayhorn, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell.

[HutchFan]

One Hanna LP that Tucker didn't mention: Sir Elf Plus 1 with George Mraz. I'd put it at or near the top of my list of favorite recordings by Sir Roland.

Tucker also didn't mention Hanna's recordings with the New York Jazz Quartet. They're also well worth exploring.

Incidentally, I strongly disagree with Tucker's assessment of Hanna's Duke Ellington Piano Solos record. I love it. Also, I haven't found a strong foothold on Hanna's A Gift from the Magi yet. So I wouldn't rank that particular one as high as Tucker does. ...Of course, we all hear with our own ears!

[HutchFan]

Here's a selected discography of Hanna's work as a leader, from his website *: http://www.rahannamusic.com/disco.html

Solo

Sir Roland Hanna, Colors from a Giant's Kit, IPO Recordings, IPO, 2011

Sir Roland Hanna, Tributaries: Reflections on Tommy Flanagan, IPO Recordings, IPO 1004, 2003

Sir Roland Hanna, Everything I Love, IPO Recordings, IPO 1002, 2002

Sir Roland Hanna, Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Volume 32, Concord Jazz CCD 4604, 1994

Sir Roland Hanna, Duke Ellington Piano Solos, MusicMasters 5045-2-C, 1991

Sir Roland Hanna, Round Midnight, Town Crier TCD 513, 1987

Roland Hanna, Manhattan Christmas, Fun House 35FD 1081, 1987

Sir Roland Hanna, Swing Me No Waltzes, Storyville Records SLP 4018, 1979

Sir Roland Hanna, Piano Soliloquy, L + R Records 40.003, 1979

Sir Roland Hanna, Spelman Fran Detroit, Sonet Records SLP-2646, 1979

Roland Hanna, Bird Tracks: Remembering Charlie Parker, Progressive PCD-7031, 1978

Sir Roland Hanna, A Gift From The Magi, West 54 WLW 8003, 1978

Roland Hanna Plays The Music Of Alec Wilder, Urban Voices TKCB-70072, 1978; also released on Inner City and Verve

Sir Roland Hanna, Informal Solo, Hi-Fly Records P 102, 1974; also released as Solo Piano, Storyville Records, 2005

Roland Hanna, Perugia, Live at Montreux ‘74, Black Lion Records, 1974; also released on Arista-Freedom

Roland Hanna, Sir Elf, Choice Records SOHBI SHCJ-1002, 1973


Duo

Sir Roland Hanna & Carrie Smith, I've Got a Right to Sing The Blues: The Music of Harold Arlen, IPO Recordings, IPO 1003, 2002

Sir Roland Hanna & George Mraz, Ancestral Light, Red Earth Jazz REj001, 1999

Roland Hanna, Royal Essence: An Evening of Ellington, (Davey Yarborough, flute and saxophones), Jazzmont 01, 1999

Roland Hanna/Eiji Nakayama with Seiji Komatsu, Hush A Bye, What's New WN1001, 1996

Roland Hanna/Eiji Nakayama, Memoir, Century Records CECC 00130, 1990

Roland Hanna & George Mraz, Romanesque, Venus Records TKCZ 79524, 1982; also released on Blackhawk Records

Roland Hanna & George Mraz, Play For Monk, MHS 512192H, 1978; originally released on Artist House

Roland Hanna (George Mraz, bass), 24 Preludes Book 2, Salvation GP 3154, 1978

Roland Hanna with George Mraz, Sir Elf Plus 1, Choice Records CRS 1018, 1977

Roland Hanna & George Mraz, Porgy & Bess, KICJ 47, 1976

Sir Roland Hanna and George Mraz, Sunrise, Sunset, Super Duo, LOB LDC 1019, 1976

Roland Hanna (George Mraz, bass), 24 Preludes Book 1, Salvation GP 3072, 1976

Roland Hanna & George Mraz,1 X 1, Toho Records Co., Ltd.YX 8020, 1974


Trio

Sir Roland Hanna, Last Concert, (Eiji Nakayama, bass; Miboko Hazama, violin), What's New Records, WNCJ-2120, 2002

Roland Hanna Trio, Milano, Paris, New York: Finding John Lewis, (George Mraz, bass; Lewis Nash, drums), Venus Records, Inc. TKCV-35303, 2001

Roland Hanna Trio, Apres Un Reve (Ron Carter, bass; Grady Tate, drums), Venus Records, Inc. TKCV-35315, 2002

Roland Hanna Trio, Dream, (Paul West, bass; Eddie Locke, drums), Venus Records, Inc. TKCV-35094, 2001

Roland Hanna, The Three Black Kings, (Richard Davis, bass; Andrew Cyrille, drums), JFP 001, 1997

Jon Burr, Sir Roland Hanna, Bucky Pizzarelli, 3 for All, Cei Cymekob CYK 806.2, 1996

Dave Brubeck, Roland Hanna, Dick Hyman, Jazz Sonatas, Angel CDC 55061, 1994

Roland Hanna, When You Wish Upon a Star, (Ron Carter, George Mraz, bass; Ben Riley, drums), LOB, Inc. LFA-3057, 1989

Sir Roland Hanna, Clint Houston, Lewis Nash, The Bar, Fun House 35FD-1093, 1988

Richard Davis, Sir Roland Hanna, Frederick Waits, Persia My Dear, DIW 805, 1987

Roland Hanna, Hans Koller, Attila Zoller, Trinity, L+R Records LR 40.002, 1979

Roland Hanna, Rolandscape, (George Mraz, bass; Ben Riley, drums), Progressive KUX-85-G, 1978

Roland Hanna, This Must Be Love, (George Mraz, bass; Ben Riley, drums), Audiophile AP-157, 1978

Roland Hanna, Impressions, (Major Holley, George Duvivier, bass; Alan Dawson, Oliver Jackson, drums), Ahead 33.753, 1978

Roland Hanna Trio, Time For The Dancers, (George Mraz, bass; Richard Pratt, drums), Progressive Records 7012, 1977; also released as At Home With Friends, Progressive KUX27, 1977

Roland Hanna, Glove, (George Mraz, bass; Motohiko Hino, drums), BRJ-4018, 1977

The Roland Hanna Trio, Child of Gemini, (Dave Holland, bass; Daniel Humair, drums), BASF 21 20875-3, 1971

The Piano of Roland Hanna, Easy To Love, (Ben Tucker, bass; Roy Burns, drums), Atlantic 30XD-1042, 1959


Quartet

Sir Roland Hanna, Sir Roland Hanna Quartet Plays Gershwin, (Jon Burr, bass; Ronnie Burage, drums; Bill Easley, tenor/soprano sax), LRC LTD CDC 9073, 1993

McCoy Tyner, Sir Roland Hanna, Double Exposure, (Jon Burr, bass; Ronnie Burage, drums; Bill Easley, tenor/soprano sax), LRC, 1991; note: Tyner does not play on the tracks with Hanna's quartet

Sir Roland Hanna/Jesper Thilo Quartet, This Time It's Real, Storyville SLP 4145, 1987

The New York Jazz Quartet in Chicago, (Roland Hanna, piano; George Mraz, bass; Ben Riley, drums; Frank Wess, tenor sax/flute), Be Hive BH 7013, 1981

The New York Jazz Quartet: Oasis, (Roland Hanna, piano; George Mraz, bass; Ben Riley, drums; Frank Wess, sax/flute; Enja 3083, 1981

The New York Jazz Quartet: Blues For Sarka, (Roland Hanna, piano, George Mraz, bass; Grady Tate, drums; Frank Wess, flute, tenor sax), Enja 3025, 1978

The New York Jazz Quartet: Surge, (Roland Hanna, piano; George Mraz, bass; Richard Pratt, drums; Frank Wess, sax/flute), Enja CD 2094-2, 1977

The New York Jazz Quartet: Song of The Black Knight, (Roland Hanna, piano; George Mraz, bass; Richard Pratt, drums; Frank Wess flute/sax), Sonet SNTCD 753, 1977

The New York Jazz Quartet In Concert In Japan, (Ron Carter, bass; Roland Hanna, piano; Ben Riley, drums; Frank Wess, sax/flute), Salvation GP 3020, 1975

The Jazz Piano Quartet, Let It Happen, RCA, 1974 (Roland Hanna, Dick Hyman, Marian McPartland, & Hank Jones, pianos)

Roland Hanna, A Jazz Hour With Roland Hanna Walkin' (Stephane Grappelli, violin; George Mraz, bass; Mel Lewis, drums), JHR 73528, 1974

The New Heritage Keyboard Quartet, (Roland Hanna, Mickey Tucker, pianos; Richard Davis, bass; Eddie Gladden, drums), Blue Note, 1973

Stephane Grappelli Stephane Grappelli Meets the Rhythm Section, (Stephane Grappelli, violin; Roland Hanna, piano; George Mraz, bass; Mel Lewis, drums), Black Lion Records BLP 30183, 1973; also released as Parisian Thoroughfare on Black Lion

Roland Hanna, Roland Hanna Plays Harold Rome's Destry Rides Again, (George Duvivier, bass; Roy Burns, drums; Kenny Burrell, Guitar), ATCO Records 33 108, 1959



* I made a few minor edits, adding newer releases, etc.

[HutchFan]

Here's a link to an article about Sir Roland on Marc Myers' Jazz Wax website: http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/01/rolan...ys-wilder.html

[walkin]

Good info Hutchfan! thanks for posting that

I know a story about Roland that shows what a character he was.One of my mentors about learning jazz was a radio dj named Don Warner who did a jazz show on the radio here in Canada for decades.He made trips down to NYC and befriended many jazz folks.Sir Roland was one of them.Don told a story about around 1960 Roland was visiting his place and they were listening to Sketches Of Spain alot.At the dinner table they opened a bottle of wine.Roland made a toast to his wife.Later on he thought he should have a drink to his daughter or son and then to his other daughter or son Don got a kick out of how he was thinking up toasts so he can have another drink

[HutchFan]

Originally Posted by walkin

I know a story about Roland that shows what a character he was.One of my mentors about learning jazz was a radio dj named Don Warner who did a jazz show on the radio here in Canada for decades.He made trips down to NYC and befriended many jazz folks.Sir Roland was one of them.Don told a story about around 1960 Roland was visiting his place and they were listening to Sketches Of Spain alot.At the dinner table they opened a bottle of wine.Roland made a toast to his wife.Later on he thought he should have a drink to his daughter or son and then to his other daughter or son Don got a kick out of how he was thinking up toasts so he can have another drink

Ha, ha. Great story, walkin'. Thanks for sharing.