"She's surrounded herself with mentors, paid dues as a side player in creatively challenging settings, and built up a reputation as a composer and bandleader with an ear for the stand-out younger players coming up just behind her. After several four-night residencies at Black Cat, the Tenderloin jazz spot that's turned into an early-warning system for heat-seeking young musicians, she's back in the Bay Area to make her SFJAZZ Center debut with two shows at the Joe Henderson Lab Sept. 20 and a Sept. 21 performance at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay."
"I spent all of my early 20s being a sideman, Hanahan said. I was with Ulysses for three years, and I'm still playing with the great drummer Joe Farnsworth, as well as the Mingus Big Band and the Diva Orchestra, a long-running all-women jazz ensemble. She's soaked up knowledge from all of these situations, and not just about how to put a tune together. Hanahan has been thinking about the big picture when it comes to bandleading and presenting music effectively. Being a sideman, that's your job, focusing on playing that gig great, she said. You take a lot of nuggets of knowledge from each one, things you want to carry forward in your name. I like how we put that piece together. I like what he or she says on the mic, speaking to the crowd, really bringing people in. I'm a sponge. The goal of leading my own band was always in the front of my mind."
Sarah Hanahan is a New York alto saxophonist who progressed from sideman roles to a reputation as a composer and bandleader by learning from mentors and challenging performance settings. She completed multiple four-night residencies at Black Cat and returns to the Bay Area for an SFJAZZ Center debut with two Joe Henderson Lab shows on Sept. 20 and a Sept. 21 performance at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay. She played Bach Dancing & Dynamite in 2023 with Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y and spent her early 20s with Ulysses, Joe Farnsworth, the Mingus Big Band, and the Diva Orchestra, absorbing bandleading and presentation lessons.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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