The Living Theater is reviving Jack Gelber’s groundbreaking 1959 play The Connection, a study of drug addicts (some of them jazz musicians) pontificating on their lives and chemical loves. The cast includes saxophonist Rene McLean, whose father Jackie performed in the original version, and will be directed once again by Judith Malina, who will also play the role of Sister Salvation.
Handy talks about his troubled relationship with his first record label, his move back to California in the early 1960s, and the formation of his quintet.
The Connection was a groundbreaking 1959 off-Broadway play that cast jazz musicians as heroin addicts waiting for a score.