Craig Handy

From the time he arrived in New York at age 23 in 1986, saxophonist Craig Handy was acknowledged as a musician with big, burly tenor sound, sharp wit, and above all, individuality. Labeled “a young star,” by New York Times jazz critic Peter Watrous at the tender age of 27, Handy breathed life into these accolades through a number of important associations. Tapped almost immediately by the pioneering and profoundly influential drummer Art Blakey, Handy went on to hold his own on the front line of legendary bebop drummer Roy Haynes’ band, work with South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and weave sensuous obbligati behind Betty Carter on the kind of tunes most young artists are presumed not to understand. Since his early time with Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Handy has contributed his lyrical, arresting, intensely passionate and uncompromising improvisations to ensembles led by Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Ray Drummond, Elvin Jones, George Adams, Kenny Barron, John Hicks, and David Weiss, among many others. Most recently, he’s received rave reviews for his performances with vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, leading Stephen Holden of the New York Times to comment: “Mr. Handy was the other key player. Throughout the show he exhibited a combination of sensitivity and audacity that suggested a telepathic connection to Ms. Bridgewater, as he explored the timbral limits of the flute and saxophones in much the same way that she used her voice.” Delivering a Mingus-like brash and confident tone to the Mingus Dynasty, Big Band, and Orchestra for over 20 years, Handy also served as musical director for much of this time. A multi-instrumentalist and reedist, the prolific and always solicited Handy has four albums under his own name (including two New York Times albums of the year) and has recorded on hundreds of albums as a sideman. An extraordinary body of work already behind him, Handy’s ability to inhabit the emotional dimensions of a song, delivering his own striking and elegant interpretations make him a musician to watch out for.