Thursday, September 21, 2006

Chico Hamilton- Another Time For the Blues



















Time has passed.

I was delighted by this morning's wonderful NPR feature on drummer Chico Hamilton. He turns 85 years old today. Even though he's seemingly done everything and played with everybody in the jazz world, he's too often overlooked. An extended Hamilton solo sets the off-kilter tone for this piece from 1999's Timely before Eric Person gets a chance to impress his boss.

---
Have you seen this this surreal footage of Tom Jones goofing around with Sly Stone? It's a mind-bendingly bad trip.

---
St. Louis bluesman Bennie Smith has died.

1 comment:

bgo said...

I, too, heard this fine tribute to Foreststorn Hamilton on NPR while driving to work downtown at the library. I should check our holdings and make sure that some Chico is added if I find it lacking.

Back in my last year of high school (1970), El Exigente came out on The Flying Dutchman label. What an eye opening record it was for me at the time. Arnie Lawrence's distorted electric alto saxophone blew me away. And Bob Mann and Steve Swallow were mighty impressive too. But it was Chico who really knocked me out, especially when he played with brushes.

I've heard most of Chico's output, including his recent recordings, and was pleasantly surprised that he invited the late Arthur Lee to sing with his current band.

At 85, Chico Hamilton is an American treasure to behold.

m&s