Classics Scott Hamilton

• 1 I Think of You 07:03
• 2 The Lamp is Low 06:37
• 3 If You are but a Dream 04:43
• 4 Theme from Swan Lake 06:47
• 5 My Reverie 06:12
• 6 Yours is my Heart Alone 08:53
• 7 Moon Love 07:30
• 8 Humoresque 07:09
• 9 Skymning 05:07
• Total Runtime 01:00:01

Info for Classics

Scott Hamilton and a swinging rhythm section deliver a delightful and creative program of well-known themes from the classical repertoire – reimagined and repurposed for jazz quartet.

Scott Hamilton needs no introduction. The celebrated American tenor icon is instantly recognizable with his timeless sound, impeccable taste, and flawless decision-making. That perfect storm of ingredients is no happy accident – it’s all been honed and refined over decades of bringing joy to the musicians he plays with, and the audiences he plays for.

Hamilton’s sound – equal parts breathy fog and meaty girth – harkens back to another era while remaining relevant and refreshing. He’s calmed and collected in his musical choices, like Ben Webster or Zoot Sims at the height of their prowess. His warm, lush tonal language breathes new creative life into themes most people have only heard in their original classical contexts.

Observed from afar, his celebrated career, spanning decades, is beyond rare… It’s bordering on the stuff of legend. His playing is at the same time familiar and fascinatingly fresh, and his approach and musicianship are respected and treasured by generations of open ears. On this new album, he and an impossibly swinging rhythm section borrow themes from the classical repertoire – themes many listeners will recognize – and approach them from a new perspective, as a jazz quartet.

The history of jazz-meets-classical music is rich and nearly as old as Jazz music, itself. It’s appeared in almost every variation imaginable – turned backward, sideways, and upside-down. More often than not, it involves some combination of jazz soloist (and rhythm section) performing jazz material that’s been rearranged to include strings or symphonic instrumental accompaniment.

But as any creator or fan of music knows that there’s always another way! The classical material the group has selected for this session has been so tastefully renovated (and cleverly retitled) that it might fool even advanced jazz listeners into thinking they’ve somehow missed a couple of timeless standards. Some are easy to “decode” (My Reverie, based on Claude Debussy’s ‘Reverie’), while others are delightfully playful in their rebranding: Moon Love (based on Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony) and Humoresque (Antonin Dvorak). Scott and his team have incorporated the material into the spirit of jazz so elegantly that the other titles might as well be from Broadway shows: I Think of You, The Lamp Is Low, If You Are But A Dream, and Yours Is My Heart Alone.

He and his rhythm group – made up here of Jan Lundgren on piano, Hans Backenroth on bass, and Kristian Leth on drums – forge ahead in tandem, with a masterful demonstration of space and dynamics. The vision they all share is clear, the playing is clean, the production is both warm and crisp, and the whole concept is wonderfully creative.

Over time, artists get to know their audience and their expectations. The ability to give people what they want while gently stretching their perspectives and perceptions should be the goal of all artists. Scott Hamilton and his quartet manage to do just that on their new album, and one has to believe that some of the creators of the source material would be tickled to hear this take on it today!

Scott Hamilton, tenor saxophone
Jan Lundgren, piano
Hans Backenroth, bass
Kristian Leth, drums

Scott Hamilton
was born in 1954, in Providence, Rhode Island. During his early childhood he heard a lot of jazz through his father’s extensive record collection, and became acquainted with the jazz greats. He tried out several instruments, including drums at about the age of five, piano at six and mouth-organ. He had some clarinet lessons when he was about eight years of age, but that was the only formal music tuition he has ever had. Even at that age he was attracted to the sound of Johnny Hodges, but it was not until he was about sixteen that he started playing the saxophone seriously. From his playing mainly blues on mouth organ, his little band gradually became more of a jazz band.

He moved to New York in 1976 at the age of twenty-two, and through Roy Eldridge, with whom he had played a year previously in Boston, got a six-week gig at Michael’s Pub. Roy also paved the way for him to work with Anita O’Day and Hank Jones. Although it was the tail-end of the of old New York scene, a lot of the greats were still playing and he got to work and learn from people like Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet, Vic Dickenson and Jo Jones. Eldridge was Scott’s champion, but pulled no punches, and could be extremely critical, something for which Scott has always been grateful. In December of the same year John Bunch got Scott his first recording date, for Famous Door, and was also responsible for him joining Benny Goodman. He continued to work with Goodman at different times until the early 1980s.

In 1977 he formed his own quartet, which later became a quintet, with Bunch added to the group. The same year Carl Jefferson heard him, and began recording him for his Concord record label. More than forty albums later he is still recording for them, having made many under his own leadership, several with his regular British quartet of John Pearce, Dave Green and Steve Brown, including his latest, Nocturnes & Serenades. The Quartet plus two guests, Dave Cliff and Mark Nightingale recorded Our Delight! for Alan Barnes’ Woodville label. A new release, Across the Tracks on Concorde is due this May. Along the way he has made albums with Dave McKenna, Jake Hanna, Woody Herman, Tony Bennett, Gerry Mulligan, Flip Phillips, Maxine Sullivan, Buddy Tate, Warren Vache, many with Rosemary Clooney and a number with another of his mentors, Ruby Braff, with whom he played residencies at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, London in the mid-1980s. Over the years Scott has also performed and recorded with such touring bands as the Concord Jazz All Stars, the Concord Super Band and George Wein’s Newport Jazz Festival All Stars.

For some years he was based in London, where he first played in 1978, but now travels the world from Italy. Each year, in addition to two or three residencies with the quartet at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, British jazz club dates and festival work including Brecon, where he is one of the patrons, he regularly tours Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Japan, Spain and Italy. He returns to America three or four times a year to play at festivals, including in 2007, the New York JVC festival in June and Irvine, California in September, and in February 2008 for three nights at the Lincoln Centre New York.

His playing has best been described by fellow tenor saxophonist and writer, Dave Gelly: “Following a Scott Hamilton solo is like listening to a great conversationalist in full flow. First comes the voice, the inimitable, assured sound of his tenor saxophone, then the informal style and finally the amazing fluency and eloquent command of the jazz language.” Scott was awarded the ‘Ronnie’ for International Jazz Saxophonist of the Year in the 2007 inaugural Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Awards. It is no wonder that Scott Hamilton is in demand the world over.

This album contains no booklet.