Lineage on Fire: Sarah Hanahan Stakes Her Claim Among Giants

Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan arrives at SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab with the urgency of a player who learned her craft on the bandstand and is unmistakably steering her own course.

“I’ve always been sure of my connection to the instrument,” she says. “Anyone who knows me knows my dad is a drummer and a great musician. He really got me hip to the music when I was a young kid… we’d watch his DVDs of Buddy Rich’s big band, and I loved how the saxophones were always taking the first solos and bringing the house down.”

“From third grade all the way till now, I’ve been playing alto,” she continues. “It wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school that I started getting very serious about jazz—studying and thinking, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Hanahan’s intensity is grounded in a historian’s ear. “The tradition of this music is so vast and so beautiful,” she says. “It’s been passed down from generation to generation not by books or anything online, but by being up on the bandstand and learning right there. In one way or another, you’re still being taught by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, or Louis Armstrong.” She lights up at the living chain: “People I love being around—someone like Eddie Henderson—his first trumpet lesson was with Louis Armstrong. It’s amazing. I love history, especially the history of this music. It’s really this country’s history, from the good to the bad.”

Her résumé backs up that reverence. Hanahan studied at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School and earned her master’s at Juilliard, working closely with mentors Nat Reeves and Marc Cary. Touring with the Mingus Big Band, Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y, the Diva Orchestra, and drummer Joe Farnsworth accelerated her rise, and her 2024 debut Among Giants—with Cary, Reeves, and Jeff “Tain” Watts—earned a rare five-star review from DownBeat.

Sarah Hanahan - courtesy photo provided

But the engine is daily work. “People ask what I do to warm up,” she says, laughing. “I’m always kind of warm—I’m always on my horn, whether it’s gigs or practicing. As musicians, we live this thing. Being with Joe Farnsworth the last three years really built my endurance because we play fast and we play long. It’s like being a marathon runner—you build it over time, but you have to run every day. For me, I get on the horn every day.”

 Among Giants came with a clear concept and a nod to rites of passage. “When I thought about doing my first record as a leader, I thought about the first records I love,” Hanahan explains. “Kenny Garrett is a real hero—his first record was with his heroes. That always stood out to me. Having great, legendary players you’ve spent time around is a kind of co-sign. It says publicly they believe in you.” Recruiting Reeves, Cary, and Watts wasn’t just star power; it was family. “Nat taught me how to play on the bandstand—bringing me up on gigs I wasn’t ready for and pushing me to grind harder. Marc plays the piano like no one else—he grounds me and makes me stop and listen. And Tain is the bomb—such a beautiful person and a force.”

Her writing channels that lineage without calcifying it. On “Resonance,” she says, “I wanted to create an arc from start to finish—play with a lot of love and fire. Of course, it’s inspired by the great John Coltrane. We had a lot of nice moments together as a band on that track, and I really love how it came out.”

Equally telling is her approach to the American songbook. “Choosing ‘Stardust’ was an easy choice and a hard choice because it’s a warhorse,” Hanahan admits. “My teacher, Abraham Burton—he produced Among Giants—challenged me to learn it through Nat King Cole, to learn the lyrics and phrases like a vocalist. It changed my perspective on ballads. You have to know the lyrics. All the greats say that. I wanted to be able to play a ballad like a vocalist and portray the meaning of the song.” She smiles at the homework: “Nat sings it in a different key, so I had to learn it and then transpose it. It helped me so much.”

Hanahan’s respect for elders doesn’t blunt her forward drive—it sharpens it. “My concept was to honor the tradition and the lineage, but also put my spin on things—my touch in the compositions,” she says. “I love mixing the old and the new.”

That mix is exactly what Bay Area listeners can expect when her quartet touches down at the Joe Henderson Lab for two sets on Saturday, September 20 (7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.). “I’m so excited to be coming out to the Bay—I love San Francisco,” she says. “The band is drummer Kyle Poole, who recently moved to California; my hometown guy Matt Wansink on bass and Miles Lennox on piano—young, hungry, and playing with a lot of fire.”

The set lists will stretch. “I’ve been writing new music, and we’ve been working it out—we’re having a blast,” Hanahan says. “You’ll definitely hear some new tunes, a couple from Among Giants, and some American songbook standards I love—Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie. A little bit of everything for everybody.”

And she relishes the Lab’s close-up sightlines. “I love an intimate room,” she says. “I love being able to connect with the crowd right up front. We’re still going to play really hard and give it our all and play our hearts out.”

For new listeners discovering Hanahan, the through-line is simple: devotion to sound, history, and the people in the room. “I’m always going back to Bird and Dizzy and even before, to Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet,” she says. “What they produced is incredible and genius. Studying that music every day is what keeps me moving.”

So bring open ears and a taste for velocity. Hanahan is already looking past debuts and accolades toward the next leap. “We’re going to play really hard,” she promises, “and I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody out in the Bay Area.”

Ticket Info

Sarah Hanahan Quartet, Joe Henderson Lab — two sets on Saturday, September 20 at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tickets and information at SFJAZZ.org.