 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-26 23:21
When I was a teenager, I had the good fortune to get to know Jimmy Hamilton, the great clarinstist of the Duke Ellington Orchestra for some 25 years. I still have the clarinet that he played for 10 years and which he used for so many wonderful recordings and performances: a Leblanc LL, which I keep in tip-top repair.
Jimmy Hamilton was Classically trained: a student of Leon Russianoff, who considered him one of his most gifted students. Besides playing the clarinet, he was an arranger and had the privilege of being one of the only arrangers Duke Ellington used on a regular basis, the other one being, of course, Billy Strayhorn.
Jimmy Hamilton spent the last 25 years of his life playing, teaching, doing instrument repairs, composing and arranging in the Virgin Islands, where he happily settled, after the rigors of being on the road for 30 years.
Question: is there anybody out there that studied with him? Also, I have been trying to get my hands-unsuccessfully-on compositions he wrote for clarinet trio and quartet. I played a couple with him, Harry Carney and Russel Procope when I was 16 years of age. These pieces seem to have disappeared. I would love to record and perform them as a tribute to him on his his 100th birthday. The famous "Pretty and the Wolf" with Ellington narrating, is by Jimmy Hamilton.
Thank you!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-05-27 01:14
You played a couple of quartets with Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney and Russell Procope when you were 16???! Sorry, I'm still picking up my jaw! :-)
Thanks for sharing your story and the info on Mr Hamilton. Any favourite recordings of his that you'd like to mention?
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-05-27 01:24
I know that for many years after leaving Duke Ellington, Jimmy Hamilton was in contact with some clarinetists in New Orleans. For 1987 to 1995 roughly, Hamilton was a part of the Clarinet Summit group that did several recordings, and New Orleans clarinetist Alvin Batiste played and promoted that group. Batiste is no longer with us, but I recall that Dr. Michael White said he knew Hamilton, and he may have been in contact with Hamilton then also. You could try White's email at Xavier University mwhite@xula.edu in New Orleans to see if he has any leads.
Post Edited (2017-05-27 04:44)
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-05-27 01:30
By the way- I love Jimmy Hamilton's playing on Johnny Hodges's album Creamy: "Don't Take Your Love From Me" in the ballad medley. So that's my tribute to him today!
Post Edited (2017-05-27 01:31)
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Author: Matt74
Date: 2017-05-27 02:35
Wow. I fell in love with the Ellington saxophone section when I was in middle school. I especially loved Hamilton, Hodges, and Carney. Hearing him was probably the reason I took up clarinet shortly after beginning saxophone, much to the ire of my teacher. Thank you for posting, this fills out my conception of him quite a bit.
- Matthew Simington
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Author: nbclarinet
Date: 2017-05-27 03:48
I absolutely love Jimmy Hamilton's playing. I actually completed an arranging project to honor him, about 2 months ago. The four tunes I arranged and performed were:
-Lightning bugs and frogs
-Sunset and the mockingbird
-The bluebird of Delhi
-Anitra's dance
Im actually trying to get my arrangement published so feel free to PM me if it's something you'd be interested in performing at some point.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-27 09:25
Actually, he had just written some clarinet trios and quartets and wanted to try them out. He had to be pretty desperate to use me! I was all that was available. I also remember that at one point, Harry Carney wasn't available and Chuck Connors, the bass tromobonist of the Ellington band, played the bass clarinet part.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-27 09:28
Dear Seabreeze,
Thanks for the tip! You are as resourceful as ever. I contacted the one surving member of Clarinet Summit: David Murray. He never answered me. I will certainly try Dr. White.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-27 09:31
Seabreeze, "Tenderly" is in Jimmy Hamilton's arrangement: I feel that needs pointing out. It must have been everybody's favorite! The Duke's acccompaniment on it is out of this world: so harmonically rich.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-27 09:37
Dear Matt, The players you mentioned, plus Russel Procope and Paul Gonsalves, were like the five fingers of the same hand. They breathed together; lived together. When the section first started breaking up, upon Jimmy's leaving at the end of 67 and Hodges' death in 1970, things were never the same in the band. It lost it's identity. I might add that Procope usually played lead alto, allowing Johnny Hodges to relax a bit and save his energy for solo work. Procope was also a great section man who could read anything. Hodges, on the other hand, could hardly read music. Not that this mattered!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-27 09:50
Nb: Thank you. Fantastic news! Could you e-mail me at my personal e-mail address so that I could arrange payment for your work, etc.? Tony Coe, the English clarinetist-still very active in his eighties, is also interested. Publishing is tricky: not easy dealing with the Ellington estate and I don't know who is in charge of Billy Strayhorn's. Any tune composed by Jimmy Hamilton himself, I can get probably have you get the rights to. I'm in touch with his granddaughter. Ellington's granddaughter (Mercedes?)-if I remember correctly- is also in charge of the Duke's estate. Long live granddaughters! Everybody should have one.
PS: I suggest you publish your arrangements yourself. My royalties for 2016 amounted to the fabulous sum of...6 euros 40 centimes!! Publishers can tell me whatever they like. Unless its Universal Editions or something big like that, they do little to pay you or promote your work. PS: "The Bluebird of Delhi was played on a blindfold test for Michel Portal, the French Classical and jazz clarinetist. He said he thought the piece was by...Stravinsky!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-05-27 09:51
Yes, Hamilton did so many things that other clarinetists only dream of doing. He was a modern post-swing era clarinetist who could play with the cool elegance and understated romanticism of a Paul Desmond or Miles Davis. Many who dream of getting a "woody" sound achieve a muffled dull one that works only in the lower register; Hamilton got a compact, woody sound at all dynamic levels in all registers of the clarinet that was resonant and had great presence--not a hooting subtone. He was much aware of Goodman and Shaw but copied neither of them. He's been rather overlooked in the history of jazz clarinet and deserves a renewed appreciation for that contribution and as a arranger too.
Post Edited (2017-06-01 19:29)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-28 22:31
Elmo: Air-Conditioned Jungle should be part of the repertoire, along side with Bernstein's "Prelude, Fugue and Riffs."
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-05-29 00:50
Thanks for the song suggestions. Please keep them coming. I'm getting educated in Jimmy Hamilton and loving it!
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-05-29 04:27
Everything on the "Can't Help Swinging" album is a joy to hear. Especially the perfectly constructed one minute chorus on the title tune and the "Dancing on the Ceiling" take that is so beautiful it makes me want somebody to reissue the Leblanc LL! Once you've heard Artie Shaw's version of "Dancing on the Ceiling" it's hard to imagine anyone doing anything more with it other than copying Artie. But Hamilton just plays it his own sweet way in what I'd call a classic modern jazz clarinet performance. He surpasses Shaw's own late Gramercy Five style with a much more colorful and full-bodied tone on that one.
Ruben,
Is there anything special that you find in the tone and response of Hamilton's LL clarinet or was the magic entirely in the magician?
Post Edited (2017-05-29 23:19)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-29 08:07
Dear Seabreeze, Jimmy Hamilton switched to a Selmer Series 9 in 1966, at which time he "lent me" his Leblanc LL. It's been on loan to me for 51 years! I really should start thinking of giving it back. I wouldn't say that Jimmy sounded very different on his Selmer. As for his mouthpiece, he didn't even know what he was playing. When I asked him, he looked at it; looking for the brand! I imagine it was the stock Leblanc 4L that came with the instrument (not a bad mouthpiece, I might add). Thank you all for your interest in this clarinet great.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-29 08:11
Dear Liquorice, I imagine you are a Classical player, and I suspect a top one at that. Jimmy Hamilton is admired by Classical players (Michel Portal and Philippe Cuper here in France), and I should think his Classical training and refined tone and technique have something to to do with it. He played Mozart, Debussy, the repertoire his whole life long, but never in public.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-29 23:35
YouTube: Duke Ellington-Stompin' at the Savoy (Ellington 55). Listen to Jimmy Hamilton's fantastic command of the altissimo register in the first solo. He isn't given credit for the arrangement, but it can only be by Jimmy. The very "boppish" tutti writing is a give-away. The influence of the Dizzy Gillespie band is much in evidence here.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2017-05-30 00:25
Beautiful!
Yes- I'm a classical player and an avid jazz listener. Can't believe that I haven't really discovered Jimmy Hamilton until now! Thanks for starting this thread.
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2017-05-30 03:26
Just saw this thread after being away from my computer a few days out of town...
Thank you, Ruben, for drawing our attention to Jimmy Hamilton on his 100th birthday, even if I did miss the party--and thanks to everyone who suggested listening.
My small contribution, too far after the fact: "Ad Lib on Nippon", from the Far East Suite album (it's not officially a part of the Suite, but to me seems like the necessary ending). That entire album is pretty much my favorite Ellington, and Hamilton's playing is essential on it.
Thanks again, Ruben.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-05-30 17:35
Eric: Good to hear from you! I remember hearing Ad Lib On Nippon night after night; each time Jimmy Hamilton was impeccable. I seem to recall he slightly flubs a run near the end just before the band comes in! It's not his fault; it's the editing.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: anonrob
Date: 2017-06-02 21:58
If I may be so bold, his tenor sax playing was also individual and quite good. Of course, everyone in Duke's band was an individual.
He starts playing the tenor solo (where the passed out Paul Gonsalves should be playing) at about 2:42
forgot the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faOvAO4SRY8
Post Edited (2017-06-03 06:06)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-06-02 23:07
Dear Anon, He was actually Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when he would go from clarinet to tenor. His playing was suave and elegant on the clarinet; hard-driving and "dirty" on the tenor. There is the disc that brings together the Basie band and the Ellington band. Jimmy trades choruses with Paul Gonsalves and the great Basie tenor players. He does better than hold his own!
He also played the flute and would have loved to take a few solos and incorporate the flute into the Ellington Orchestra. Unfortunately, the Duke didn't go along with this idea, as he hated the flute!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: anonrob
Date: 2017-06-03 06:07
wow, I never knew Duke hated the flute. That explains a lot of orchestration things.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-06-03 09:34
Dear AnonRob, The Duke changed his mind about the flute at the end of his life, though. Norris Turney, who replaced Johnny Hodges after the latter died, played the flute and the Duke wrote several pieces for him. This was, however, too late for Jimmy Hamilton, who had always wanted to solo on the flute a bit. He would always travel with a flute, as this is the instrument he used when composing and arranging (while watching baseball games on television in his hotel rooms!)
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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