Jake Hanna made a name for himself as a big band drummer with Woody Herman, but when I first ran into him, he had rejoined Marian McPartland for a concert in Manassas, Virginia in 1968. He was then with Merv Griffin, but had worked with Marian over the years and she’d probably begged him to help her out for the Third Battle of Bull Run.

I remember a great deal about that jazz concert, probably because it was the first one I recorded from beginning to end, but there were two things I really remember. One was Bobby Hackett’s onstage diabetic seizure that got everyone’s attention, and the other was a long conversation with Jake about a peculiar incident when he was with Woody Herman.

Jake and I were introduced backstage and over the course of the weekend we talked about this and that. At some point he found out my parent lived in Jamestown, New York. He said he had fond memories of Jamestown, that he’d played a date there with Woody Herman a few years earlier and got into trouble. I told him I thought would be pretty hard, Jamestown isn’t exactly a place known for trouble or even where it could be found without making an effort.

The story was the band played a concert and afterwards some hot little number put the bite on him. Maybe there was a beer or two too many somewhere along the line, but whatever the reason, at some point Jake and the girl found themselves riding in a car, which was pulled over by a local policeman. “What caused him to pull you over,” I asked. Jake’s reply was that he was going the wrong way on a one-way street, and then added, sheepishly, on the sidewalk. Well, maybe it was more than a couple of beers.  It got better. It turned out the girl was the daughter of a local FBI agent and was not as old as he thought. I’m sure he told me, but I don’t remember how he talked his way out of that one.

Jake was not only irrepressible, he was an outstanding drummer who was an integral part of our Floating Jazz Festival on a half dozen occasions. In 1990 he was onboard once again, spending most of his time in the North Cape Lounge, with various trios, quartets and vocalists. This was also the year we created special drumheads, based on Paul Bacon’s 1985 Floating Jazz Festival logo design. I had a couple of extras made and asked all the drummers on board the sign them. When he was finished with the magic marker, Jake posed with the drumheads and this is the result.

Jake Hanna aboard the S/S Norway at sea, October 1990