Styles: Jazz, Mainstream Jazz
Year: 2007
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 75:54
Size: 180,1 MB
Art: Front
(3:04) 1. Rosetta
(4:29) 2. I Surrender Dear
(3:24) 3. If I Were You
(3:47) 4. Moon Country
(4:07) 5. I Wished On The Moon
(4:54) 6. No One Can Take Your Place
(3:14) 7. Liza
(3:14) 8. My Ideal
(3:49) 9. Don't Be That Way
(4:38) 10. Here's That Rainy Day
(4:10) 11. What Is This Thing Called Love?
(4:04) 12. Charmaine
(5:11) 13. B.C. Blues
(5:11) 14. If Dreams Come True
(5:03) 15. Till There Was You
(4:12) 16. My Silent Love
(4:04) 17. Exactly Like You
(5:11) 18. Isle Of Capri
One evening at Chautauqua, after the musical festivities had concluded, I found Hamilton and Barrett chatting around a piano. After the usual banter, Hamilton sat down on the bench, played a good chunk of an up-tempo rag and then turned to some expert, subtle classical playing. Both performances were light-hearted, but they revealed him as a highly accomplished pianist. His quirky sense of humor is best displayed on the second CD's cover picture, which I won't attempt to describe, and its subtitle: Jazz piano exclusively for solo synchronized swimming, an idea whose time may not have come.) I was greatly impressed with Hamilton's pianistic skills that night, but I had no opportunity to hear him improvise in a jazz context until now. Happily for all of us, If Dreams Come True would prove to anyone that he is as fine a jazz pianist as he is a drummer, and that's saying something.
His solo showpieces, Liza, and Rosetta, both pieces close to Teddy Wilson's heart, reveal an irrepressible swing, wonderfully steady tempos (solo piano is difficult for all but the finest players to keep their compass), a light touch, and an ability to invent dancing alternative melodies that make familiar material seem fresh. Hamilton's stride playing has a powerful onward momentum, but he isn't ever overbearing. He isn't copying the records, but improvising on the tradition and bringing his own flavorings to it. Fittingly, the notes to this CD are by that satisfyingly idiosyncratic pianist Ray Skjelbred. Perhaps the finest testimony to Hamilton's mastery is how he plays well with others: how his playing offers a feeling commentary on Becky Kilgore's creamy, melting My Ideal, creating one of those lovely miniatures that I wanted to play several times before moving on to the next track. His CD presents one stirring, understated but compelling performance after another, primarily duets between Hamilton and a horn player, as well as three trio outings. On one, Eddie Erickson, Dan Barrett and Jeff Hamilton do Till There Was You, with Erickson superbly wistful, crooning his heart out. It is more evidence that Erickson is our Sinatra; I wait for someone to record him with a string quartet. Barrett, Kilgore, and Hamilton create a jaunty If I Were You, with the true 1938 Vocalion spirit. Kilgore, Bobby Gordon and Hamilton take off on the title track, which perhaps should be called When, not If, because this CD succeeds so well. Special mention should go to Hamilton's stepfather, the clarinetist Bill Carter: on his blues, Carter creates a questing, worrying, sometimes querulous castle of sound -- not an imitation of Pee Wee Russell but worthy of him.
And, in the same breath, Bobby Gordon's walking Charmaine is a superb matching of materials and musician. (On this track and on My Silent Love, Hamilton's rubato opening chorus so tenderly defines the melodic line, something not easy to do.) RAG readers have had two decades to appreciate Dan Barrett's gifts, so I will say only that this CD finds him in plush form, with just the right emotional depth for each performance: a dark, melancholy Here's That Rainy Day, a clipped, witty cornet exploration of Don't Be That Way, and a version of No One Else Can Take Your Place, deep and simple at once. Both Hamilton CDs are delicious auditory evidence of the way the finest jazz musicians play when in front of small, sympathetic audiences. Or, perhaps this is the way they play for themselves: subtle, knowing, enthusiastic, and full of feeling. These discs contain extraordinarily gratifying examples of jazz that is rarely, if ever, captured in recording studios. . I hope Jeff Hamilton gets many more opportunities to make discs like this, on whatever instruments he chooses.
~ Mississippi Rag March 2008 by Michael Steinman ~ Editorial Reviews http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Come-True-Jeff-Hamilton/dp/B000R9RIUE
