Dick Hafer

Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

Read "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" reviewed by Robert Spencer

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1997

Some Mingus albums are like a tremendous three-ring circus. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be struck with awe and delight. The music is absorbing, intense, harrowing, beautiful. Drop everything and run to the show, and don't expect to get anything else done at the same time: this is about as far from background music as it gets. A great Mingus album is a totally involving experience. This is especially true of one of the only jazz albums to have liner ...

Interview

Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 17, 2011

After tenor saxophonist Dick Hafer left Woody Herman's band in 1955, he spent eight years recording top-shelf albums as a sideman on other musicians' dates. From 1964 on, Dick played in the orchestras of Broadway musicals and television shows. What's interesting about his 1956-63 period is that all of the albums all terrific. Not a dud among them. What's more, the breadth of his work during this period ranged from big bands and Dixieland to small-group swing and the music of ...
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Interview

Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 16, 2011

When you speak with tenor saxophonist Dick Hafer, you notice that his voice is as cool and easy-going as his horn. It's a gentle voice, a voice that has a mellifluous sound that makes you want to keep him talking just to hear it. Because his voice putsyou at ease. Like many tenor saxophonists who came up in the late 40s, Dick was deeply influenced by Lester Young's linear, swinging style. Which made Dick an ideal section player, especially as ...
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Interview

Interview: Dick Hafer (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 15, 2011

Starting in the late 1940s, Dick Hafer (pronounced HAY-fer)was one of the finest big-band tenor saxophonists and soloists. Dick's sound rested somewhere between Lester Young's smooth linear delivery and Wardell Gray's eely bop attack. [Pictured: Dick Hafer in Woody Herman's 1952 band] As a result, Dick wound up in the sax sections of some of the finest bands ofthe period—Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Nat Pierce, Larry Sonn, Tommy Dorsey, Urbie Green and Benny Goodman. On small group sessions, Dick was featured ...
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