Jeff Hamilton and Scott Hamilton: Live in Bern

Capri Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Live in Bern

Scott and Jeff aren’t related, except by a love of jazz and stellar abilities on their instruments of choice: Scott on the tenor sax, and Jeff on the drums.  They were born within a year of each other, Scott in 1954 and Jeff in ’53, during the latter stages of the swing era, and the early years of the bop revolution. Both worked with icons during their formative years: Benny Goodman for Scott, and Lionel Hampton and the Tommy Dorsey “ghost band” for Jeff.

Scott has been compared to Stan Getz and Zoot Sims but, as time has passed, has developed  a sound of his own: smooth, uncluttered, beautifully toned and always swinging. Most of his time is spent living and touring outside the United States.

Jeff is in demand by all sorts of A-list artists, both instrumentalists and vocalists. I’ve never heard a record of his that wasn’t top-drawer.

This release marks their first time together. Because both work constantly, and were scheduled to perform at the International Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland, they met there and made this album.

Scott joins Jeff’s trio in a sumptuous menu of tunes from the Great American Songbook, along with some jazz classics.  The lineup includes “September in the Rain,” “Watch What Happens,” “You and the Night and the Music,” Mal Waldren’s “Soul Eyes,” Benny Carter’s “Key Largo” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Ballad for the Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus Eaters.” Jeff Hamilton also features an original, “Sybille’s Day.” All are great tunes, and all handled superbly, as evidenced by the fact that the combo recorded everything in a single session.

The result? This is a marvelous, swinging album. The band also features Tamir Hendelman on piano, and Christoph Luty on bass, both on a grooving par with the two Hamiltons.

What’s not to like?

Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton: 'Round Midnight

Challenge Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: 'Round Midnight

We don’t hear true traditional jazz much these days. When bop came along, its influence changed almost everything: melodic lines, meter, chord structure and — most significantly — the way the instruments were played. But not everybody fell into the new ways. This album features a quintet of “traditionalists” who take us back to the pre-bop era, when swing was king. 

Surprise! These guys are younger than you might expect. Tenor sax player Harry Allen is in his mid-40s, while tenor cohort Scott Hamilton is in his 50s. Pianist Rossano Sportiello is just 40; bassist Joel Forbes is in his 50s; and drummer Chuck Riggs is the “elder statesman,” in his 60s. Hamilton is the best known of the group, probably because his early career included a stint with the Benny Goodman band. And while these five guys have played together for many years, they’ve also worked with today’s well-known musicians and vocalists.

Allen and Hamilton deliver some of the smoothest, most beautifully toned tenor sax you’ll ever hear ... and it’s hard to tell them apart at times. Their idols included the likes of Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz and Zoot Sims: four of the best at that instrument. 

The rhythm section also is a clone of the best who were heard during the Swing Era. You won’t be able to keep your feet from tapping, or your fingers from snapping.

The album menu matches that time period, as well. Most of the melodies will be familiar, and you’ll also know the lyrics: “My Melancholy Baby,” “Baubles, Bangles And Beads,” “Lover” and the album’s title tune, the lovely “ ’Round Midnight.” Everything is danceable: even less familiar jazz standards such as “Great Scott” and “Flight of the Foo Birds.”

This is great swing for at home, at a club, or in a dance hall. Whatever your generation, this music is a joy to experience.

Holiday Jazz 2000: ’Tis the season to be wary

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.14.00

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene since the late 1990s, with lengthy columns that just keep growing.]


I got word, a month back, that music labels would be considerably more cautious with holiday releases this year, because sales were “flat” in 1999. No surprise, really; after enjoying a level of modest popularity and producing smallish — but reliable — profits for several decades, seasonal releases exploded in 1998 and ’99. Everybody had to release a holiday album, and of course many didn’t find the listeners they deserved.

That’s what happens when the market gets flooded: We all drown, artist and fan alike.

This year’s seasonal music releases are fewer and further between, and that’s particularly true of holiday jazz, where a couple of labels have adopted the tactic employed by the U.S. Postal Service, which simply recycled last year’s reindeer stamps.

Thus, Concord has resurrected two 1997 releases, spruced ’em up with new cover art and new titles, and released them anew.

I call that pretty damn sneaky.

In fairness, both are worth adding to your library; just make sure you don’t already own them.

Piano fans can’t do better than Dave McKenna’s Christmas Party: Holiday Piano Spiked with Swing (Concord CCD 4923-2, previously issued as Christmas Ivory, CCD-4772-2), an ambitious, one-man collection of superb solo work: blues, stride, swing rag and anything else the then-67-year-old acoustic phenomenon set his mind to. It’s a grand series of cuts by a guy who knows he doesn’t need to impress listeners with needless flash; his renditions of “Silver Bells’’ and “Silent Night,’’ in particular, are poignant in their quiet clarity.

But this isn’t a sedate album by any means; McKenna swings and boogies his way through plenty of up-tempo covers of everything from “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” to “Sleigh Ride,” while including a perky original dubbed “An Eggnog, Some Mistletoe and You.” Good stuff.

Holiday Jazz 1997: Santa delivers a mixed bag

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.24.97

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — began surveying the annual holiday jazz scene with this column. Take note of its brevity, which resulted from space constraints that soon vanished, as the years continued. Subsequent columns threatened to devour the entire newspaper; in great contrast, this one is succinct to the point of being terse. Ah, well; we all have to start somewhere!]


It would seem that jazz artists continue to regard holiday tunes as a good bet, because quite a number of new releases have hit the bins during the past few weeks.

Piano fans can’t do better than Dave McKenna’s Christmas Ivory (Concord CCD-4772-2), an ambitious, one-man collection of superb solo work: blues, stride, swing rag and anything else the 67-year-old acoustic phenomenon sets his mind to.

It’s a grand series of cuts by a guy who knows he doesn’t need to impress listeners with needless flash; his renditions of “Silver Bells” and “Silent Night,” in particular, are poignant in their quiet clarity.

(By the way, if you like McKenna, do check out Butch Thompson’s solo piano work on Yulestride.)

Jim Brickman’s The Gift (Windham Hill 01934-11242-2) comes in somewhere near the lazy end of the piano spectrum: pleasant and undemanding instrumentals from a young talent who isn’t trying nearly as hard as he should. Brickman is becoming the Kenny G of the 88-string guitar, and the four vocals present on this collection are too sappy for words.

For my money, Brickman did much better work on 1996’s mini-CD, Christmas Memories, packaged with Windham Hill’s The Carols of Christmas.