scott hamilton

[zootsaxenberger]

what a player!

beautiful tone, wonderful phrasing a plays the way the old masters did getz,simms young etc.
and he cant read music! must just be a natural.

 

[visionari1]

Yes…I agree about Scott, but even naturals have to work at it, Charlie Parker is said to have practiced 15 hours a day and Coltrane only had it out of his mouth when eating or sleeping, would even practice between sets. Actually I don't think Coltrane was a natural he worked at it in addictive mode!
Cheers
Jimu

 

[Mikec]

I agree totally. I've seen him several times. He plays such nice long melodic lines.

 

[zootsaxenberger]

Yes…I agree about Scott, but even naturals have to work at it, Charlie Parker is said to have practiced 15 hours a day and Coltrane only had it out of his mouth when eating or sleeping, would even practice between sets. Actually I don't think Coltrane was a natural he worked at it in addictive mode!
Cheers
Jimu

yes indeed! i did not mean that practice was unimportant, indeed for some of us it is essential, but i think that some are born with a innate ability, and i know that Scott has said that his only regret is that he cannot read music, but i still feel that to be able to do what he does IS A GREAT GIFT

 

[zootsaxenberger]

I agree totally. I've seen him several times. He plays such nice long melodic lines.

Yes someone said it was like listening to a really interesting conversation, he plays in a manner that to me is really lyrical also i like the fact that he isn't the kind of artist that will only play stadiums or large venues he bring his music to anyplace that will give him an audience and a chance to conect.

 

[Mikec]

Yes someone said it was like listening to a really interesting conversation, he plays in a manner that to me is really lyrical also i like the fact that he isn't the kind of artist that will only play stadiums or large venues he bring his music to anyplace that will give him an audience and a chance to conect.

Yes, that describes it well. I've only ever seen him in small venues and he is very approachable, and seems a really nice guy.

 

[rhysonsax]

I've got two great LPs from fairly early in his career where Scott is playing with Buddy Tate. Superb communication and friendly jousting with the two men playing their own thing in the mainstream.

I think the albums were on the Concord label, and one of them may have been called "Scott's Buddy" - I've looked but haven't seen them on CD or download. They had a top rhythm section too - strongly recommended.

Rhys

 

[zootsaxenberger]

thanks for that Rhys i will try to find them, i only "discovered" Scott eight or nine years ago when a pro bass player friend of mine played at a local gig with him and raved about his playing,so i apart from what is on you tube i havent heard much of his early stuff

 

[rhysonsax]

One of the LPs was "Scott's Buddy" and the other was "Back to Back" (same title as the fabulous album by Ellington and Hodges).

Having checked on the internet, they don't seem to have made it onto CD but the details were:

Back to Back
Concord CJ-85 1978
Scott Hamilton, Buddy Tate, Nat Pierce (p), Monty Budwig (b), Chuck Riggs (dms)

Scott's Buddy
Concord CJ-148 1981
Scott Hamilton, Buddy Tate, Cal Collins (g), Nat Pierce (p), Bob Maize (b), Jake Hanna (dms)

I saw him and Buddy Tate playing in London a few times in the 80s but never together. Any of Scott's albums from around that time is likley to be good. I particularly like the ones with Dave McKenna on piano and there's a cracker with Gene Harris too.

Rhys

PS When I tried out Morgan Fry's "Floridated Link" tenor mouthpiece, it seemed to be very much in a Scott Hamilton vein and it was great.

 

[zootsaxenberger]

One of the LPs was "Scott's Buddy" and the other was "Back to Back" (same title as the fabulous album by Ellington and Hodges).

Having checked on the internet, they don't seem to have made it onto CD but the details were:

Back to Back
Concord CJ-85 1978
Scott Hamilton, Buddy Tate, Nat Pierce (p), Monty Budwig (b), Chuck Riggs (dms)

Scott's Buddy
Concord CJ-148 1981
Scott Hamilton, Buddy Tate, Cal Collins (g), Nat Pierce (p), Bob Maize (b), Jake Hanna (dms)

I saw him and Buddy Tate playing in London a few times in the 80s but never together. Any of Scott's albums from around that time is likley to be good. I particularly like the ones with Dave McKenna on piano and there's a cracker with Gene Harris too.

Rhys

PS When I tried out Morgan Fry's "Floridated Link" tenor mouthpiece, it seemed to be very much in a Scott Hamilton vein and it was great.

thanks again forthe info Rhys.
on the subject of mouthpieces, i use a metal Berg 100-1 SMS and a Claude Lakey 7*3 for straight ahead rock or modernish jazz and for old school jazz i use an old SelmerC** air flow mouthpiece which i came across many years ago,for Tenor sax and for Alto i use a claude Lakey 6*3, how about you?
i was interested in what you said about the"Floridated Links" i will have to check them out

 

[Saxlicker]

Saw Scott last night at the concorde club in Eastleigh.

First of all, what a fantastic close up experience! It's just so nice that so many of our heros play the smaller venues... you can keep your wembley gigs for girls aloud and have the pleasure of needing a big screen inside the venue!

My introduction to Scott was through this video which I thought was already posted in the Cafe somewhere.

Secondly, The Concorde club is nice, from what I understand it's the only remaining venue like it in the country and needs all the help it can get to keep great artists coming to perform and ultimately remain in business. Other recent ventures (non jazz related) have brought finance to the club but if you want a venue like this for Jazz and can possibly get there, its worthwhile all round. I will definitely be making it a habit even though at 44 I was the youngest paying male by 15 years +
So if there are any other whipper snappers out there its time to support and strengthen the scene.
Tickets for non members were £18 surely thats more than reasonable.
You can dine or just watch.
I'm not affiliated in any way, I just think places like this need to be recognised for what they bring and its so often a case of use it or lose it.

http://www.theconcordeclub.com/

 

[zootsaxenberger]

I am really envious, i have not yet managed to see scott live,

 

[Young Col]

Thanks for this thread which I have followed. Scott Hamilton is not someone I have given great attention to over the years, except that whenever I have heard him on CD I've always thought he was relaxed and lyrical, in the Lester Young style (which is always OK by me). Perhaps I should dig into him a bit more.

But two other things come up for me. One is the Concorde Club. I was thinking about the Hamilton gig, but its about an hour and half drive from here down the M25 and A3. Knowing there is dining certainly helps for the future. So thanks for the info. We did make the Anvil, Basingstoke in April, which is just as far, but I have friends there.

Also mention of Buddy Tate. I saw Earl Hines at the Central Hall Westminster back in about 1974. Buddy was in the audience and came up to play with Earl It made a great night. Nobody, even Humph who was MC I recall, cared that the hall is TT (methodist owned) or that it had a supposedly strict finishing time! Great night.
Cheers for all that.
YC

 

[zootsaxenberger]

Glad you like the thread Col, I think S.H. has flown under the radar because his style is kinda " old school" but then I don't think that good,tasteful playing ever really dates, fashions change but skill cant be disputed. any way that's what I think

 

[visionari1]

Saw Scott last night at the concorde club in Eastleigh.

First of all, what a fantastic close up experience! It's just so nice that so many of our heros play the smaller venues...

Couldn't agree more, I saw SH in the late 90's in San Fransico. Even now I still remember the experience of watching his embroshure move around, and how often he changed reeds, sometimes during a tune! Don't remember him using a mic either...... This was dinner or after dinner music, laidback and soperific, perfect for tenors and I still can't get enough of this style of sax playing.

I think he came to sax playing via the guitar, and took to it very quickly.

Ciao
Jimu

 

[Young Col]

Yes, you're right, good, tastefull playing never dates. I shall look out for some of the recommended SH CDs.
BTW ZootSB, did you ever come across a jazz piano player called Mike Jefferson? Someone I used to know, played around the Medway area.

Further and coincidental accolade re the Concorde club. We were at a wedding near Andover yesterday (bride was my wife's god-daughter). Bride's younger brother, in his 20s, was a good trumpeter and had played in something like the Hampshire Youth Jazz orchestra. I asked if he knew the Concorde club. He'd done two gigs there and said what a nice place it was. Small World.
YC

 

[zootsaxenberger]

Couldn't agree more, I saw SH in the late 90's in San Fransico. Even now I still remember the experience of watching his embroshure move around, and how often he changed reeds, sometimes during a tune! Don't remember him using a mic either...... This was dinner or after dinner music, laidback and soperific, perfect for tenors and I still can't get enough of this style of sax playing.

I think he came to sax playing via the guitar, and took to it very quickly.

Ciao
Jimu

I seem to remember reading that he originally started on harmonica, he may well also have played guitar, or maybe I am remembering wrongly (is that a word or did i make it up?)

 

[zootsaxenberger]

Yes, you're right, good, tastefull playing never dates. I shall look out for some of the recommended SH CDs.
BTW ZootSB, did you ever come across a jazz piano player called Mike Jefferson? Someone I used to know, played around the Medway area.

Further and coincidental accolade re the Concorde club. We were at a wedding near Andover yesterday (bride was my wife's god-daughter). Bride's younger brother, in his 20s, was a good trumpeter and had played in something like the Hampshire Youth Jazz orchestra. I asked if he knew the Concorde club. He'd done two gigs there and said what a nice place it was. Small World.
YC

Hello Col, I don't think I have met the gent you mentioned,is he still playing do you know?
on the subject of what a small world it is , i am constantly surprised when i meet musician that I have never met or worked with before, and then i find that we know the same groups of people. i think the world shrinks as we grow older.

 

[zootsaxenberger]

Hi Col I don't think i know the gent you mentioned,
is he still playing do you know?
on the subject of what a small world it is , I am constantly surprised when I meet musicians that I have never worked with, or met before and then I find that we know the same groups of people I think the world shrinks as we grow older

 

[Young Col]

Hi Zoot, thanks for the response. I think Mike must be late 60's now. He was a bit older than me. I think he lived in Smarden. I knew him from work in London, but my wife's parents used to live in Chart Sutton and we used to go and see Mike and his band at the Great Danes Hotel, Hollingbourne in the early 1980s (not sure if it's still there, got by-passed by the M20 extension). Good enough player to have gone pro. He came over to see us one evening when we we were down there and I had to lend him my Basie and Zoot (Sims) album as he was knocked out by it - hardly surprising, it's a cracker!
Cheers
YC