The veteran swing tenor joins up with a young European jazz group
Scott Hamilton has been a major tenor-saxophonist since he was in his early twenties nearly 50 years ago.
These days he is based in Italy and plays frequently on the European continent.
In 2015 he met up with a young quintet led by guitarist Joan Chamorro that also featured singer-trumpeter Andrea Motis, pianist Ignasi Terraza, bassist Pierre Boussaguet, and drummer Jean Pierre Derouard.
Hamilton, Motis and Chamooro are featured on a swinging version of George Shearing’s “Lullaby Of Birdland” but the show is largely stolen at its beginning as pianist Terraza performs a creative mixture of Shearing and Bach.
He began playing tenor when he was 16, working around New England including with his friend guitarist-singer Duke Robillard.
When Hamilton moved to New York in 1976, he toured and recorded with Benny Goodman, played with Roy Eldridge, and made a huge impression.
At a time when swing was mostly played by survivors of the big band era, the appearance of a young world-class saxophonist who chose to play mainstream jazz rather than fusion, r&b or avant-garde jazz was a major event, resulting in the comeback of small-group swing.
Hamilton, who developed his own style out of the influences of Zoot Sims and Ben Webster, signed with the Concord label, recorded a long string of satisfying jazz records of standards (some of the earlier ones co-starred cornetist Warren Vache), worked with Rosemary Clooney and toured the world.
A regular at jazz festivals, clubs, jazz parties, and cruises, Scott Hamilton has been very consistent throughout his career.
He has settled in Italy but still performs regularly in the U.S., Japan, and throughout Europe.
Here is Scott Hamilton on August 27, 2009, at Vienna’s Jazzland playing “East Of The Sun” in a quintet with pianist Herbert Swoboda, guitarist Martin Spitzer, bassist Hans Strasser, and drummer Walter Grossrubatscher.
-Scott Yanow
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