It's About Time

There is an inherent timelessness to Chico Hamilton's art. Not in the way one experiences the performance of a good standard, which has that tinge of nostalgia, but with a very much “here and now” sort of air. To look at his output since starting in the mid-50s, one sees not different eras or artistic phases but a continuous body of work, the earliest of which sounds as good today as it did then. Part of the appeal of listening to an album by Chico is the subtle realization that regardless of the decade, he managed to incorporate some of the sonic vernacular into the execution of his work; yet whether it's the summer of love or the fusion-filled 70s when that era is over, he is not left behind with its flavors. With his incorporation of what is current, there is never the odd fit or awkward feeling of gimmick.  

To mark his eighty-fifth birthday, his label Joyous Shout! began releasing a series of albums that find him in a wide variety of situations, all to good effect.  Aside from showing the various facets of Chico's art, what is nice about this honor/series is that there is no funerary aspect to it. It is truly a celebration of the man ready to remain still vitally among us and not a giving of the gold watch. 

With artists whom I admire, I always enjoy the chance to hear them solo or in some stripped-down setting. It serves as a way to sample their work at its most unadulterated.  In 1955 Chico cut a 10-inch LP for the Pacific Jazz label.  This was one of the first ever trio recordings to feature a front line of what was traditionally rhythm section. Fifty-three years later the rhythm/trio format is revisited on It's About Time. The album is made up of originals and covers and includes one song from the original Pacific date, “Nuttye.”  

“Cary,” the first track, starts out with Cary DeNigris's solo guitar, dreamy and introspective as a cloud. The guitar and bass duet with a strolling type of feel while Chico, courtesy of his cymbal play, provides a pulse that manages to propel the song but remains delicate. The guitar on this track has most of the solos. Here and throughout the album one can hear three voices singing different parts to create on unified whole, one larger voice.

Chico Hamilton

Paul Ramsey plays an electric bass throughout and although I am usually not a fan unless it is in fusion, here it works. Never does it feel out of place as if in the wrong stylistic neighborhood. “What If” has snappy brush work over which a bright sounding bass can be heard, sometimes doubling lead lines with guitar in what could almost be seen as a new take on what the first boppers would do with a melody line utilizing trumpet and saxophone. 

Throughout the album is great interplay that does not exhaust the listener with superfluous displays of virtuosity.  The album has pristine sound but also possesses a sort of intimacy. The guitar has a vintage hollow-body tone, never sounding like any studio wizardry was used. The bass despite being electric has an organic feel to it largely because of how it is played. One aspect of this trio date, which hit me the first time I heard their take on “Autumn in New York,” is that there are other drummers out there with power, some with technical brilliance as well, but very few who create the sort of rhythmic beauty found when Chico is at his kit.  

Technically, for lack of two more minutes, the album is considered an EP but it clocks in at twenty-eight minutes, which is far longer than a CD single, which many people now confuse with an EP. The duration of the tracks varies from two minutes to six, but because of the nuanced way the musicians utilize their respective sonic palettes, no track seems too long or short.  

The best way to honor any great artists is to continue to enjoy their output or to explore and discover their body of work, all of which these new recordings allow. 
 

It's About Time and The Alternate Dimensions of El Chico were released as EPs by Joyous Shout on April 29, 2008.

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