Scott Hamilton - Looking Back - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Hamilton & Hamilton Live in Bern is the first recording of Scott Hamilton and Jeff Hamilton. They both recorded for the same record tag for many years but never recorded together. Both are masters of their respective instruments and are at the top of their game. This historic session pairing Scott with Jeff's outstanding trio with Tamir Hendelman and Christoph Luty was made at the famous International Jazzfestival in Bern Switzerland in a club called Marians Jazzroom. Other than Jeff Hamilton's original, Sybille's Day, all of the tunes are standards. The material ranges from evergreens like Harry Warren's September in the Rain to lesser heard pieces like Billy Stayhorn's Ballad for Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus Eaters.

This is a reissue of one of saxophonist Scott Hamilton's first albums as a leader featuring pianist John Bunch, bassist Michael Moore and drummer Butch Miles. Originally released by Famous Door in 1977.

Born in 1895, and having been an early blues innovator in the 1920s, Alberta Hunter became a living link to the jazz-age and stars like Bessie Smith, Paul Robeson and Ma Rainey. In the late '50s she started a second career as a nurse, and mostly retired from music, but by the mid-70s was lured back to live performance. In 1981, at age 85, she recorded this live set at a New York cabaret called The Cookery. Hunter was still sharp-as-a-tack; her sassy stage patter, interactions with the band and audience, and vocalizing are filled with percussive energy, knowing phrasings and deep experience and wisdom. Singing with accompaniment from Gerald Cook (piano, arrangements) and Jimmy Lewis (bass), Hunter covers standards that she wrote (and as she noted, was still collecting royalties on) as well as a selection of standards from other authors of the great American songbook