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The Scott Hamilton Trio: Live at Pyatt Hall
Even though the Swing Era vanished long ago into the mists of time, likely never to return, it continues to have its champions, especially on the tenor saxophone: masters such as Harry Allen, Ken Peplowski, Grant Stewart, Cory Weeds (who owns the Cellar Live label and produced this splendid album) and last but by no means least, the smooth-as-velvet and always-unflappable Scott Hamilton whose trio was recorded in July 2017 at Pyatt Hall in Vancouver, B.C., during that city's annual ...
read moreJan Lundgren: Swedish Ballads... & More... Quietly There
Are Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen, two American saxophonists playing technically accomplished and downright enjoyable jazz, the Zoot Sims and Al Cohn of our day? The answer must be Very Likely, to judge from an excellent two-album reissue by Danish company Stunt Records. Hamilton and Allen are featured playing with quartets headed by Swedish pianist Jan Lundgren. Hamilton plays seven Swedish ballads; Allen nine songs by Johnny Mandel. The emphasis is on respectful interpretation as opposed to ...
read moreScott Hamilton / Rein de Graaff Trio: Live at the JazzRoom
Scott Hamilton, whose enviable career has taken him around the world many times and ensured his appearance on more than a hundred notable recordings, is a throwback to an era in which tenor saxophonists could be readily identified by their sound, phrasing and singular approach to improvising. Not that Hamilton can be; he has instead incorporated many of the more admirable trademarks of his predecessors to become a sort of Everyman on his chosen instrument--not easily spotted in a lineup ...
read moreScott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live In Bern
Scheduled to play at the International Jazz Festival in the city of Bern, Switzerland in 2014, festival founder Hans Zurbrugg asked drummer Jeff Hamilton to bring his trio as the center-piece of the festivities that week. Also there the same week was saxophonist great Scott Hamilton adding another master of the jazz idiom to the lineup of jazz stars. Interestingly enough, the two Hamilton's had never recorded together and as fortune would have it, the saxophonist was not under a ...
read moreScott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio: Live In Bern
Saxophone master Scott Hamilton and drum maestro Jeff Hamilton have over four decades of experience each in the world of mainstream, swinging, jazz. Despite those many years on the scene Live In Bern is their first release together. It's been a long wait, but it's been worth it. Before the important discussion--about the music--a word about the band and the album title. This isn't an album by the “Scott Hamilton & Jeff Hamilton Trio"--to be accurate, it's Scott ...
read moreThe Jazz Coin: Scott Hamilton & John Escreet
Twenty-first century jazz has a greater breadth and depth than any time previously. Granularity in jazz genre has become so reduced that genre designations are almost meaningless. In jazz, we are approaching a time when jazz will no longer be “jazz" but music in the most liberal sense of the word. But, until that time, we will have contrasts like those heard from tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton and pianist John Escreet. Scott Hamilton Swedish Ballads...and ...
read moreScott Hamilton and Friends at Dinkelspiel Auditorium Stanford University, Stanford California
Scott Hamilton and Friends Stanford Jazz Festival--40th AnniversaryDinkelspiel AuditoriumStanford, CaliforniaFebruary 24, 2012As a part of the 40th anniversary of the Stanford Jazz Festival, Scott Hamilton took to the stage to a nearly sold out crowd for a powerful evening of jazz. Hamilton is one of the most highly respected and sought after tenor saxophonists in the world. The Larry Vuckovich Trio formed the core players for the event--pianist Larry Vuckovich, bassist Jeff Chambers, ...
read moreScott Hamilton: Live at Nefertiti
Jazz isn't always about breaking new ground in terms of sound and genre. It's just as important to preserve the music of the masters, and nobody carries the torch of tradition more elegantly than tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton. His heroes include Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young--in short, the founding fathers of swing saxophone playing.
Paradoxically, Hamilton was something of a rare bird when he first emerged on the scene back in the seventies because of his emphasis on ...
read moreScott Hamilton: Is Expatriatism on the Rise?
During my years as a jazz writer I have spent considerable time interviewing and writing about musicians who, for one reason or another, decided to pack up and establish permanent residency outside the United States. Many of the old beboppers (Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Ed Thigpen and others) whom I had encountered through the years were literally forced to leave (if they wanted to keep performing their art music) because of the rock n'roll juggernaut. During the period of the ...
read moreScott Hamilton & Friends: Across the Tracks
A tenor saxophonist standing foursquare and unreconstructed in the tradition established by Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Illinois Jacquet, Scott Hamilton is considered so uncool in some quarters that to admit you enjoy him is to risk being shunned by hip society.
Now in his mid-fifties and playing a brand of jazz that was at its peak before he was born, Hamilton hasn't deviated from his style since his debut album, Scott Hamilton Is A Good Wind Who ...
read moreScott Hamilton: Nocturnes & Serenades
Scott Hamilton doesn't fix a thing here, but then when nothing's broke, there's no need to make such an effort, especially when what he does instead is prove that he has spent decades becoming himself. There are here no more than residual echoes of all the tenor sax players who've mined this fertile musical seam in the past, and the results are nothing short of uplifting.
In the press release that accompanies this disc, Hamilton refers to the fact that ...
read moreScott Hamilton and Harry Allen: Heavy Juice
This CD has been a recording waiting to happen for twenty years. Back then, highschooler Harry Allen joined Scott Hamilton on stage at the Newport Jazz Festival for a cameo performance with the George Wein-led Newport All-Stars. Allen grew up in Rhode Island, which also claims Hamilton as a native son. And Hamilton certainly was a role model as Allen blossomed then--and fast became a welcome young player on the New York swing jazz scene. They've had occasional ...
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