Chico Hamilton - The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note [2014] (5 x CDs)

SUNDAY JAZZ

CHICO HAMILTON

Chico Hamilton - The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note [2014] (5 x CDs)

This collection captures a remarkable stretch in Chico Hamilton’s later career, a period where his imagination seemed to widen rather than settle. The Black Saint and Soul Note labels were natural homes for him, independent, artist‑driven, and open to hybrid forms. Across these sessions, originally issued between the early 1980s and mid‑1990s, you hear a drummer who never treated his legacy as a resting place. Instead, he kept reshaping his sound, favouring small ensembles, unusual timbres, and a chamber‑jazz sensibility that felt both modern and deeply personal.

The remastering brings clarity to Hamilton’s signature touch: the dry, precise snare; the cymbal work that feels more like brushstrokes than timekeeping; the subtle accents that guide a band without ever dominating it. His approach was always about contour and implication, and these recordings highlight how much narrative he could create with restraint. The instrumentation shifts from album to album, guitars, reeds, cello, electric textures, but the through‑line is his commitment to space. He builds environments where melody can drift, where rhythmic ideas unfold patiently, and where each musician contributes to a shared sense of motion.

What stands out is the consistency of his vision. Even as the personnel changes, the music keeps circling the same core principles: understatement, interplay, and a kind of cool‑school elegance reimagined for a new era. Themes emerge slowly, often from small motifs that the group turns over with quiet curiosity. There’s no nostalgia here; Hamilton isn’t revisiting old formulas. He’s refining his language, trusting younger collaborators, and exploring the edges of what his music could be.

For collectors, the box set offers a complete, well‑preserved view of a period that deserves far more attention. These albums reveal an artist still searching, still listening, and still committed to the craft of making jazz that breathes. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Chico Hamilton - I Want to Be Happy 1:50

02 Chico Hamilton - Delightful, Charming and Cool 5:30

03 Chico Hamilton - Brushing with B 6:52

04 Chico Hamilton - Ain't Nobody Calling Me 3:17

05 Chico Hamilton - Magali 4:34

06 Chico Hamilton - Shirley 4:15

07 Chico Hamilton - Conversation 5:17

08 Chico Hamilton - These Are the Dues 8:26

09 Chico Hamilton - Dreams of Youth 2:14

10 Chico Hamilton - Five Friends 7:54

11 Chico Hamilton - Reunion 4:37

CD2

01 Chico Hamilton - Alone Together 11:41

02 Chico Hamilton - The Dance We Didn't Have 5:38

03 Chico Hamilton - Stop 6:11

04 Chico Hamilton - Where's the Peace? 5:30

05 Chico Hamilton - Taunts of an Indian Maiden 5:31

06 Chico Hamilton - Tickle Toe 5:12

07 Chico Hamilton - Sorta New 5:21

08 Chico Hamilton - Cosa Succede? (What's Happening?) 4:08

CD3

01 Chico Hamilton - A Little After Twelve 10:19

02 Chico Hamilton - Around the Corner 5:41

03 Chico Hamilton - Sound Rising 6:28

04 Chico Hamilton - 29 6:10

05 Chico Hamilton - La Vie d'Amour 8:13

06 Chico Hamilton - C & C 6:25

07 Chico Hamilton - 10th Vision 12:23

08 Chico Hamilton - Song for Helen (Elsa's Theme) 7:56

09 Chico Hamilton - See Saw 6:22

CD4

01 Chico Hamilton - Eric's Time 0:32

02 Chico Hamilton - Miss Movement 5:35

03 Chico Hamilton - Serene 6:46

04 Chico Hamilton - Springtime 7:27

05 Chico Hamilton - South Street Exit 7:47

06 Chico Hamilton - Miss Ann 8:59

07 Chico Hamilton - Something Sweet, Something Tender 7:58

08 Chico Hamilton - Mandrake 9:44

09 Chico Hamilton - My Panamanian Friend 1:25

CD5

01 Chico Hamilton - In the Beginning 2:16

02 Chico Hamilton - Conquistadore Rides Again 4:24

03 Chico Hamilton - Tap Drums 4:22

04 Chico Hamilton - Dance of the Tympanies 6:22

05 Chico Hamilton - All Those Guys 4:40

06 Chico Hamilton - Mr. Jo Jones 2:23

07 Chico Hamilton - Cymbals of Love 3:10

08 Chico Hamilton - Waltz of the Mallets 3:16

09 Chico Hamilton - Universal Language of Man 5:54

10 Chico Hamilton - The Snare Drum 3:14

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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