The following message appeared today on the Jazz West Coast listserve.
With all the ink flowing about this being 25 years since John Lennon
bought the farm, I must tell you how I heard about it.
I was at Dante’s jazz club in the San Fernando Valley and the TV set
above the bar was on and showing the Monday night football game. The
band was on a break. Howard Cosell made his now-notable announcement
that Lennon had been shot and killed. It was silent. Then Jake Hanna
looked up at the screen from his bar seat and proclaimed firmly in his
best W.C. Fields voice, “One down, three to go.”
I love Jake.
Jack Tracy
Jack Tracy is a former editor of Down Beat.
Jake Hanna is a great drummer.