Our Hawaiian band, the Stowaways in Paradise lost our Hawaiian slide guitar player of many years over Memorial Day weekend. He was much more than a bandmate. He was a close friend and mentor, a marvelous player and teacher and I will miss him dearly. He had a great sense of humor and I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. He was also a better guitar player than me, and yet he never made a comment at rehearsals or at gigs that wasn't totally supportive.
He loved music in all its forms. He loved to play it and to share it. He was also a walking music history encyclopedia and a bottomless well of music trivia. Here is a very nice article by Scott Nygaard in Acoustic Guitar Magazine remembering Jack:
http://www.acousticguitarcommunity.com/profiles/blogs/jack-hansen-rip
Any Northwesterners who were here in the late 60s might remember Fat Jack:
Fat Jack [1966-1968]
http://pnwbands.com/fatjack.html
If you moved here after that you would likely have heard at least one of the many other bands he has been a part of since. He'd been at the center of the bluegrass community here for many years in Sockeye, Southfork, the Shoreline Ramblers and many others.
His last gig was a huge Beatles sing-along at the Northwest Folklife Festival on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. This year the crowd was huge and they sang along with great gusto! Jack enjoyed himself immensely but was very tired afterwards and went right home. He passed later that night in his sleep.
May he rest in peace.
