Author: ruben
Date: 2013-03-13 16:17
Dear friends,
It is heart-warming for me to know that you are interested in Jimmy Hamilton. In answer to your question: he played a Leblanc LL until 1967, when I came into possession of it, and then switched to a Selmer Series 9. He left the Ellington Orchestra at the end of 1967; tired of being on the road. As for his mouthpiece, he himself didn't know what it was becuase when I asked him, he looked at it and he searched for the brand! I suspect it was the stock Leblanc mouthpiece, which at that point was a 4L. Not a bad mouthpiece, I might add. His reeds were Vandoren, but I had him playing an obscure French brand that I discovered: Beaumont. They were dirt cheap and you bought them by the hundred! Jimmy studied with Russianoff in the early 40s and until the end of his life, he practised the Mozart clarinet concerto, Rose études and the like on a daily basis. My favorite recording of him is "Tenderly" on the Ellington Indigos disc. He himself did the arrrangement of it and his playing on it is wondrously elegant. Shortly after leaving the Duke, he settled in the Virgin Islands, where he played in a hotel bar, taught and repaired instruments. He was also a professional-level photographer. Sorry for making this so long, but when you get me going on Jimmy Hamilton...
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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The Clarinet BBoard
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