Chico Hamilton: Jazz drummer and composer
1921-2013
CHICO Hamilton, who has died at the age of 92, was a jazz drummer, band leader and composer of film music whose long career was marked by a distinctive style and independent approach. The unconventional quintet that he led in the late 1950s brought him wide exposure and was the cause of much critical controversy.
Foreststorn “Chico” Hamilton was born in Los Angeles on September 21 1921 and took up playing the drums at Jefferson High School.
He began playing professionally on leaving school, and toured with Lionel Hampton’s band at the age of 19 before being drafted into the US Army. After the war, he worked briefly with the bands of Charlie Barnet and Count Basie before becoming a member of Lena Horne’s accompanying trio. With this group he toured Europe annually between 1948 and 1955 (with the exception of 1952).
The 1952 break in touring proved fortunate, because it left Hamilton free to take part in the first recordings by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, an experimental group consisting of baritone saxophone, trumpet, bass and drums. The absence of the customary piano gave the band a light, airy sound that caught the public ear.
The new Chico Hamilton Quintet made its debut in 1954. The quintet’s first album, released in late 1955, was an instant success, its light “chamber-jazz” sound catching the mood of the time.
In 1966 he moved to New York, where he established a production company and began to pursue a parallel career in film and television music and advertising jingles. In 2011, just before his 90th birthday, Hamilton reassembled his latest band, Euphoria, to record Revelation, in which he sought to encapsulate the various phases of his long career.
Hamilton is survived by his daughter; his wife predeceased him. — London