Jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, a linchpin of the West Coast jazz scene in the 1950s and ’60s, died yesterday evening of natural causes in New York City, according to his publicist April Thibeault. He was 92.
As a player, Hamilton’s subtle colors and sensitive accompaniments made him emblematic of the relaxed, “cool” approach to jazz. And as a bandleader, his groups experimented with unusual textures and became incubators for new talent like reedmen Eric Dolphy and Charles Lloyd.
Born Foreststorn Hamilton in 1921, his high school classmates included such other future jazz stars as Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon. He went on to become Lena Horne’s drummer, as he told NPR in 2006.
“I ended up … staying with Lena for over eight years,” he said. “I was in a different world. I was on a first name basis with everybody from Frank Sinatra to Tony Bennett. You name them, I was on a first name basis with them.”
As a 19-year-old, he had his first brush with Hollywood, featured in a scene with tapdancing Fred Astaire for the 1941 movie You’ll Never Get Rich.
He didn’t really dig the world of entertainment — he called it “a different side, man” — so he dove into jazz. He became the drummer for Gerry Mulligan’s famous pianoless quartet with Chet Baker, which raised his profile.
But it was with his own quintet, founded in 1955, that Hamilton made his mark. The first incarnation of the Chico Hamilton Quintet featured cello, guitar and flute — a sound which to be called “chamber jazz.” It was built on compositions by all the members of the group and on collective improvisation. Its first performance, however, was anything but hoity-toity.
Chico Hamilton poses for a portrait c. 1958 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Chico Hamilton poses for a portrait c. 1958 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
“Our first gig was in Long Beach, California, in a sort of unrestricted whorehouse,” he told NPR. “You couldn’t have been in a crappier place than that. And you come in there with a cello and a flute and a guitar and a bass and drum. Man, we stayed there about seven or eight months and sold out every night. You couldn’t move.”
The guitarist in that group was Jim Hall.
“He was fearless,” Hall said. “Nothing seemed to faze him. Chico had a combination of talent and — confidence isn’t the proper term. He felt secure in what he was doing and what we were doing and we were doing something that was a bit unusual in those days.”
The group made such a name for itself that it was featured in the 1957 film The Sweet Smell of Success, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Hamilton even had a small speaking part himself.
