Maxwell Chandler is based out of California and (sometimes) Paris.
He seeks in both his columns and interviews to bring to light lesser-known jazz albums and players - the jazz underdogs. Not all the people he writes about are obscure, but the albums covered are not necessarily the first ones you think of when you think of that artist. The interviews strive to transcend the tradition of merely promoting the artist's latest work, while entertaining as they inform. His columns can also be found at winamop.com and jazzreview.com
In music an artist can be timeless in one of two ways. The first is to create a work in which time and repeated listenings do not diminish its power. Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue (Columbia 1959) and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (Impulse! 1965) immediately come to mind.
The other way is for the artist to be not ahead of the curve of trends, but completely outside of it all. Not solely embracing the ultra au courant or even being one of the progenitors of a new genre, but carefully marrying components from today's sonic vernacular with aspects of what already existed and appealed to them, to create their own distinctive voice.
NEA Jazz Master (2004) and Kennedy Center living legend (2007) Chico Hamilton is such an artist.
Hamiltonia
The opening track, "Chicano Heritage," has a groove created by the caffeinated bolero of the drums over which guitar and multi-horn voices trade off. It very much has the flavor of what one of jazz's founding fathers, Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), referred to as the Spanish tinge.
Recent recordings by some of Hamilton's peers tend to disappoint. Either they become too far removed from that of theirs which made people initially embrace their work, or the new work seems a tepid version, copied from better days.
With Chico's body of work, there is not a preferred label or era. His most recent recordings deliver with as much power as an older one. The fact that, from the earliest days of leading his own groups, Chico has used unique instrumentation in his ensembles combined with his ability to write for and use the group as an instrument itself has gone far towards making his oeuvre possess such a timeless quality.
He has seen many rising stars pass through his band (Charles Lloyd, Eric Dolphy, Gabor Szabo, Larry Coryell et al) but there is no "classic" lineup, it is all good as the saying goes. Here, Chico is backed by his working band Euphoria along with some guests (former bandmates George Bohanon, Jimmy Cheatham and vocalist Fontella Bass).
The track "Arroyo (8)" has a slow slinky march which is one part Ravel one part Ennio Morricone, devoid of all camp factor and containing an infectious melody.
Chico prefers to call his music not jazz, but just "music." This is an apt title as his work continues to resist being merely this or that. Such a broad overall classification may seem vague, but it is not evasive, being the closest thing fit to describe the freedom with which he continues to create his art.
With pristine sound and no weak tracks, this album is the perfect way for fans to celebrate the 85th year of a great artist or for one to be introduced to his work for the first time.
More information on Chico:
www.joyousshout.com/chico.html
Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.
– Charles Mingus
Q: What do you call a beautiful woman on a trombonist's arm?
A: A tattoo
