CHRISTMAS

Chico Hamilton and his Quartet spread Christmas cheer on this week’s non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV – The Phantom Dancer – with Greg Poppleton.

LISTEN

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online after the 22 December 107.3 2SER Sydney live mix at 2ser.com.

CHICO HAMILTON

American jazz drummer and bandleader, Chico Hamilton came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne.

Hamilton became a bandleader with a quintet featuring the cello as a lead instrument, which you’ll hear on this Phantom Dancer from a 1958 broadcast. Later, he lead bands that performed cool jazz, post bop, and jazz fusion.

Hamilton started his career in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso before he had finished high school.

Engagements with Lionel Hampton, Slim & Slam, T-Bone Walker, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan and Lena Horne established his career.

He appeared in You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) as part of the backing group supporting Fred Astaire. Hamilton also performed on the soundtrack of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope film Road to Bali (1952).

ALBUMS

He recorded his first album as leader in 1955 with George Duvivier (double bass) and Howard Roberts (jazz guitar) for Pacific Jazz. In the same year Hamilton formed an unusual quintet in L.A. featuring cello, flute/saxes/clarinet, guitar, bass and drums. The quintet has been described as one of the last important West Coast jazz bands.

A version of the quintet including flutist Paul Horn was featured in the film Sweet Smell of Success in 1957 and one including Eric Dolphy appeared in the film Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1960), set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.

Hamilton revamped his group in 1961 with Charles Lloyd, Gabor Szabo, George Bohanon and Albert Stinson, playing what has been described as chamber jazz, with “a moderate avant-gardism.”

The group recorded for Columbia, Reprise and Impulse Records and also recorded the soundtrack for the industrial film Litho in 1962, the first American film to be shown behind the Iron Curtain. Hamilton formed a commercial and film production company in 1965, and went on to score the feature films Repulsion (1965), Mr. Ricco (1975), Coonskin (1975), By Design (1982), the television programs Portrait of Willie Mays and Gerald McBoing Boing, and scored hundreds of commercials for TV and radio.

In 1986 Hamilton formed his sextet Chico Hamilton and the Young Alto’s featuring Kenneth Lampl, Eric Person and Marc Bernstein. The group performed at the 1986 JVC Jazz Festival, the Apollo Theater, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

He released Twelve Tones of Love on Joyous Shout! in 2009. In March 2011, he had a long recording session, resulting in 28 new tracks with his Euphoria group. Following a health setback in 2010, he and the group began weekly rehearsals at Hamilton’s Penthouse A; which brought together the material which would comprise Revelation, an 11-track CD, released in 2011.

22 DECEMBER PLAY LIST

Make sure you come back to this blog, Greg Poppleton’s Radio Lounge, every Tuesday, for the newest Phantom Dancer play list and Video of the Week!

Thank you.