Hamilton & Hamilton Live in Bern
Al Dubin and Harry WARREN September in the Rain [4:54]
Cole PORTER All through the Night [5:45]
Michel LEGRAND Watch What Happens [5:15]
Mal WALDRON Soul Eyes [4:48]
Richard ROGERS This can’t be Love [5:10]
W Benton OVERSTREET There’ll be some changes made [3:50]
Jeff HAMILTON Sybille’s Day [5:22]
Benny CARTER Key Largo [6:23]
Dizzy GILLESPIE Woody ’n You [7:19]
Alan HENSHAW The Champ [4:20]
Billy STRAYHORN Ballad for very tired and very sad Lotus Eaters
[3:58]
Arthur SCHWARTZ You and the Night and the Music [5:22]
Harry EDISON Centerpiece [6:24]
Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophonist)
Jeff Hamilton Trio (Jeff Hamilton [drummer], Christof Lufty [bassist]
and Tamir Hendelman [piano])
rec. Marians Jazzroom, Bern, 18 May 2014.
CAPRI RECORDS 74139-2 [67:49] – subscribers stream from Qobuz.
I don’t often venture outside the classical sphere in reviewing for
MusicWeb-International and when I do recommend a jazz recording it’s
usually something tried and tested, though occasionally I branch out
to make a ‘discovery’ as a tailpiece to Download News.
In a sense this album is a discovery since it represents the first
time that Scott Hamilton has come together with the Jeff Hamilton
Trio, though they have recorded for the same label. The recording
arose from a live session together at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, though
it’s something of a misnomer to include the word ‘live’ in the title:
I understand that the recording sessions took place several days after
the live concert.
The music is all straight and easy and that’s the way that I like
it – ideal for last night listening as a change from the likes of
Late Night Brubeck. (If that were an LP I’d have worn it out,
the number of times that my wife asks to play it.)
The programme is all from old favourite composers apart from Jeff
Hamilton’s own Sybille’s Day and that’s pretty straight and
easy, too – and very enjoyable. It’s the kind of music that the sax
was made for and I can’t imagine it being played any better. Scott
Hamilton is a most accomplished player and he’s very well supported
here all round. As Tony Augarde aptly put it in reviewing another
Scott Hamilton recording, he has perfected the art of playing with
the emphasis on melody and beauty of sound – review
– and that’s just right for me. If I have to nominate a favourite
number, I recommend that you sample Billy Strayhorn’s Ballad for
very tired and very sad Lotus Eaters (track 11).
The last thing that I want to suggest is that this album is predictable
but you won’t find anything here to shake you to your foundations.
One of the other offerings for review this month was the latest album
from Sun-Ra: A joyful Noise. Sorry, that’s not for me. Nor,
I have to say, is the very successful and critically hailed series
of recordings which Jan Garbarek made with the Hilliard Ensemble for
ECM, with solo sax winding its mournful way through renaissance vocal
music and folk music (Officium, Officium Novum – review
– and Mnemosyme). It’s very beautiful but it leaves me feeling
depressed whereas this new recording leaves me with a feeling of enjoyment
and content.
The recording is good – close but not too close. The streamed version
to which I listened, and even its download equivalent, come without
the booklet, so I can’t comment on that: the details that I’ve given
were all gleaned online. Even without the booklet, however, I shall
be listening to this album quite often.
Brian Wilson
See also review by Tony
Augarde and Stephen
Greenbank
CD Reviews
CAPRI #74139
