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Terry Hanck Band

As a saxophonist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter, Terry Hanck is a rare breed these days. Anyone who's followed the tall, tan tenor man over the years around the San Francisco Bay Area with Grayson Street and the Rat Band, on the road for a decade with Elvin Bishop, and at clubs, festivals, and county and state fairs for the past 20 with his own hard-sockin' band knows that he's one of the most formidable saxophonists in the blues and soul business. He has a virile tone and attack and an uncanny command of upper-register notes never meant to be played on the Selmer Mark VI he's long favored. Unlike many early R&B honkers who hit squealing notes of indefinite pitch by biting down on their reeds, Hanck can climb to true pitches an octave above the instrument's intended register through the use of tricky fingering, much as his main tenor hero, the late, great Jr. Walker, once had. And Hanck's big tone and ability to sustain notes can be traced in part to the breath control he developed during his lifelong passion for free-diving.