“The tape had been essentially inaudible since the day I made it. AI finally heard what I couldn’t.”
As part of my dissertation research, I sat down with Hank in his basement and asked him about Don Ellis. I used a microcassette recorder and put it too far from our voices. When I played it back, it was essentially inaudible.
I kept it anyway. I archived it on SoundCloud and waited for AI to get sensitive enough to pull words out of the noise. That happened on October 10, 2026. The result isn’t 100% decipherable, but it’s good enough to hear Hank tell his stories again.
Machine draft, 02:19–02:47
“I’m doing some things in 5s and 7s and I want to do them as creatively as possible.”
Hank remembers his first conversation with Don, who had heard about him through lead trumpeter [Glenn Stuart]. In the draft, this is Hank recalling Don’s words. Don told him much of his information came from studying at UCLA and taking lessons with [Hari Har Rao].
Machine draft, 03:17–03:46
“I remember standing up in front of the band and not being able to find one, period.”
Hank had already tried putting a standard into five with his own band. Nobody has identified the tune, so I won’t guess. This story isn’t in my dissertation.
Hank says he didn’t meet Don or the band until about two years after that first call. He slipped into the back of a Boston rehearsal, then [Glenn Stuart] stood up, pointed at him, and the band applauded. The tour ended at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore. The exact itinerary is unverified.
Machine draft, 06:19–06:50
“If you want it to swing, what you have to do is take the three count and subdivide it into two.”
Hank says the first thing he wrote in seven was [A New Kind of Country]. Later he describes regrouping 2+2+3 as 3+2+2 to give the band “a little bit of a boost and lift.” You can hear that in the meter player.
Machine draft, 19:30–19:54
“A tune in five could be in five, and not four plus one… if you’re doing something in seven, it shouldn’t be eight minus one.”
He adds that in his own writing he never tried to fight the twos and threes inside a meter. He tried to enhance them.
My dissertation helped identify Glenn Stuart, “Passacaglia and Fugue,” Hari Har Rao, “A New Kind of Country,” Bonesville (the rehearsal spot) and Milcho Leviev, plus a likely “Bulgarian Bulge.” The new stories are the first phone call, the failed standard in five, and meeting the band in Boston before the Baltimore show.
Three dissertation footnotes cite this interview, on “Chain Reaction” as Hank’s finest piece for the Ellis band, the rushed Star Wars recording before Montreux, and Kenton’s critics. None of those passages came through clearly. The last eleven minutes still yield nothing reliable.
Hank, I kept the tape. Thank you.
