That Jake Hanna Story

Jack Tracy’s story about Jake Hanna’s reflexive quip the night he learned of John Lennon’s murder inspired an assortment of responses from readers of the Jazz West Coast listserve. Here is one exchange, courtesy of the JWC list:

From: Jeff Jansen
Subject: John Lennon Anecdote

Is this what jazz people consider humor: celebrating the murder of one musician and wishing for the murders of three more? Oh, yeah I forgot the jazz credo: if it's not jazz, it's not music; and if you don't play jazz you're not really a musician. I guess we can now add: if you're any other kind of musician, you deserve to die soon.

Jake Hanna is a bastard for making the joke, and Jack Tracy is a bastard for loving Jake for saying it, but neither deserves to die before his time.

Jeff Jansen | Portland, Oregon | USA

From: joseph lang
Subject: RE: John Lennon Anecdote

Jeff,

I do not know your age, but I have seen several comments about the Jake Hanna anecdote off-list that lead me to conclude that the reaction to Jake's comments might to be generational. I do not believe that Jake, or anyone, welcomed Lennon's death in any real sense. He was just smugly reacting to the effect that the advent of the Beatles had on musical tastes, and the concomitant effect that it had on the music business, especially for jazz players. The Beatles, and rock music in general, certainly did not help jazz musicians, except for those who benefitted from studio gigs on rock recordings. I can understand how one could be offended by reading Jake's comment in the abstract, but, given the kind of humor that is often a part of the jazz culture, Jake's comment does not seem any more insensitive than a lot of other comments by jazzmen that have been passed along through the years. To those who put Lennon on a pedistal as some kind of super cultural icon, a judgement that I do not share, I guess that they could never understand the whimsy of Jake's comment. I personally considered many of Lennon's positions, particularly his rather public acknowledgement of his involvement in the drug culture, to be as offensive to me as Jake's comment is to you. I guess that it is all a matter of perspective.

Joe Lang

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