Salute To Charlie Parker – Jimmy Hamilton
Clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton swings this tribute to "The Bird." Shout chorus is notated in all editions.
- Recording: Jimmy Hamilton - Clarinet In HiFi
- Recorded on: October, 1954
- Label: Fresh Sound (SP) (SCD 889676)
- Concert Key: C
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Clarinet - Jimmy Hamilton
- Trumpet - Ernie Royal
- Tenor Sax - Lucky Thompson
- Piano - Earl Knight
- Guitar - Sidney Gross
- Bass - Oscar Pettiford
- Drums - Osie Johnson
All the "hip" jazz artists of the day were into Charlie Parker. In this composition, clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton is saluting Charlie Parker in his own swinging way. Our excerpt starts with the melody of the AABA section of the composition. The introduction on the recording has a tutti eight-measure shout that sets up a solo break for Jimmy, notated in the lead sheet. This intro is also used an interlude to set up the next soloist on the recording.
Jimmy Hamilton surrounded himself with some beboppers on this date. Both Lucky Thompson and Oscar Pettiford contributed greatly to the movement. Jimmy Hamilton had been recording since 1939, and continued to perform until 1990, so he had seen and played many styles of music. While he was one of the stalwart members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, he found time to do a Johnny Hodges session on August 5, 1954, before this session, and then he recorded on a Lucky Thompson session at the same time as "Clarinet In HiFi." Before the end of the year, Jimmy also did his own "Accent On Clarinet" session and was on the album "Harry Carney With Strings."
Jimmy Hamilton
May 25, 1917 – September 20, 1994
Jimmy Hamilton was born in Dillon, South Carolina, but grew up in Philadelphia, PA. At age seven he started studying trombone, then piano and then trumpet. In 1935, as a trumpet player, he became section mates with two other trumpet players, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Shavers, in the Frank Fairfax Orchestra. Read more...