Interview: Chico Hamilton

A living legend, Chico Hamilton has played with the likes of Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, and Sammy Davis Jr. and recently celebrated his 88th birthday with a show at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. I had a chance to speak to the NEA Jazz Master for a very, very brief talk about his illustrious career and found that his craft for conversation was not as developed as his skills on the drums. He was a bit like “mean grandpa jazz” calling my questions stupid but I did coax a few replies out of him before his nap or Matlock or whatever 87 year old Jazz musicians do when they aren’t onstage.

I asked Chico what it was like being a jazz musician coming up in the heart of the depression in California and he thought it was a stupid question but did relent to say that “at that time in jazz, you were considered a sinner and there was only one kind of music being played at that time which was swing music.” After brushing aside a few more questions with Andy Warhol like short answers, I inquired about his experience in teaching and why he wanted to work as an educator to which he replied that it was his way of giving something back because music has always been very good to him.

Mr. Hamilton has had a few choice parts in the world of film, such as his role playing in Fred Astaire’s backing band onscreen in the 1941 hit You’ll Never Get Rich (which featured Rita Hayworth’s first big starring role) so I asked him about how he ended up in the world of movies. He told me that he had been in films ever since he was a kid in L.A.- “I was in all the Tarzan movies- you know those natives running around the jungle, I was one of those kids.” When asked about his feeling about contemporary music Chico stated that “it takes all kind of music to make music- that’s my philosophy” going on to say that music was “God’s will and God’s will, will be done.” Finally as for his advice to young people who want to make it as musicians Chico said to “save your money” and with that nugget of sunshine we bid adieu and I looked back on our five minutes together and thought about all the good times we shared as a montage of dead silence and aggravated short answers played in my head to the hit “Through the Years.”

For: Short & Sweet NYC

Dave Brubeck at Brookhaven Amphitheater 8.22.2008

Last night I had the chance to see the Dave Brubeck Quartet perform live right down the road from my house at the Brookhaven Amphitheater. Brubeck is one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians and it was amazing finally getting a chance to see him play. Sure he's 88 years old now and needed to be helped onstage but the moment he began to play he sounded as good as he did on all those classics albums. The musical vibrancy of the old foursome made me wonder if they had gone swimming in the pool from Cocoon with Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn before the show.

The concert covered a range of material from special compositions Brubeck created for the Catholic Church based on ancient hymns to jazz classics such as "One Day My Prince Will Come" and of course their always famous "Take Five". Bobby Militello blew the crowd away on alto sax showing off his own virtuoso qualities while keeping true to Paul Desmond's classic sound sparring sonically with the unique bass sound of Michael Moore and Randy Jones on drums. Brubeck is a classic- I've always loved his experimentation with time signatures and musical styles and he put on an incredible show that will not be forgotten.