Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Edwin G. Hamilton: The Whole World Must Change

7

Edwin G. Hamilton: The Whole World Must Change

By

View read count
Track review of "First Time"

Edwin G. Hamilton: The Whole World Must Change
Edwin G. Hamilton plays drums, sings, covers organ, adds strings, writes, supplies percussion, provides piano, and includes some vibraphone work on this album. To say he's a musical jack-of-all-trades would be an understatement. But let us leave out the second part of the phrase, because he's actually quite accomplished in most of those categories.

The Whole World Must Change finds Hamilton putting his many and varied skills to good use. It's an album that's all over the map, containing gospel-based original music, loyal and stylistically-revised standards, pensive presentations, uplifting sounds, stellar guests in the form of pianist Eric Reed and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and even a drum solo patterned on Sonny Rollins' "St. Thomas."

The specific track under discussion here—"First Time," which opens the album—is both a pure and evolving representation of the blues. A peppy and punctuated head puts Hamilton's vocals front and center, but that only lasts for twelve bars. Then the full band enters with some NOLA-infused swagger, supporting the polyphonic overdubbed pursuits of saxophonist Scott Ferguson for one go round of the form. From there it's a shift to a swing feel, as guitarist Amos Hoffman, bassist Travis Shaw, and Hamilton (on drums) each take two choruses before the vocal-directed head returns to bring the song to a close. It's all said and done in less than two-and-a-half minutes—in the blink of an eye, in jazz time—but it gets a complete message across: It states that Edwin G. Hamilton is an optimistic soul with much to offer in his music. What follows is fourteen more tracks with many other memorable messages to impart. But where pure fun is concerned, "First Time" prevails.

Personnel

Edwin G. Hamilton: drums, washboard, tambourine, lead vocals, Scott Ferguson: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Amos Hoffman: guitar; Travis Shaw: acoustic bass.

Album information

Title: The Whole World Must Change | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.