Scott Hamilton brings 'splendid performance' to Wolverhampton - review with pictures
American tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton has one of the most beguiling, almost seductive, sounds in the history of the instrument.
Combined with a richly lyrical style, and a strong sense of swing, there’s no wonder that he is so much in demand internationally.
The Newhampton Arts Centre (NAC) and Jazz In Wolverhampton, therefore, achieved a real scoop by managing to book him to open the 2020 season of monthly concerts, and they were rewarded with a near sell-out house.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Scott has worked with a huge number of legendary jazz artists, among them bandleaders Benny Goodman and Woody Herman, singers Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, cornetist Ruby Braff and saxophonist Buddy Tate.
For many years he was based in London, but has since made Italy his home.
He usually opens his performances with low-key, at times even pedestrian, interpretations of standard songs - but then, somehow, a switch is flicked and his playing bursts into life, full of joy and musical colour.
This happened at the NAC with the ballad Pure Imagination, followed by a splendidly brisk and solidly swinging Sweet Georgia Brown.
The solid swing comes from his UK rhythm section - pianist John Pearce, bassist Dave Green and drummer Steve Brown - superb musicians with whom Scott has worked for 20 years.
His second set was full of gems, including a tenor-bass duet on the uptempo song Cherokee, a smoothly-paced version of saxophonist Benny Golson’s composition Along Came Betty, and a Duke Ellington ballad rarity, Tonight I Shall Sleep With A Smile On My Face.
A deliciously bluesy workout on the soulful pop song Sunny brought this splendid performance to a joyful conclusion.
