For the darts player see Andy Hamilton (darts
player).
For the pop saxophonist see Andy Hamilton (pop
musician).
Andy Hamilton (b. 26 March 1918) is a Jamaican-born British
jazz saxophonist
and composer.
Hamilton was born in Port Maria, Jamaica, and learnt to play
saxophone on a bamboo
instrument. he formed his first band at the age of eighteen, influenced
by American
musicians such as Duke Ellington and Count
Basie and by the Kingston-based bands of Redver Cook and Roy Coburn.
He spent some time in the U.S., working as a cook and farm
labourer, but also having short jazz residencies in Buffalo
and Syracuse, New York. After
returning to Jamaica, he worked as musical arranger for Errol
Flynn on his yacht the Zaka.
Hamilton emigrated to the UK in 1949, living and working in Birmingham.
His day job was in a factory, while at night he played jazz — with his
own group, the Blue Notes, with visiting musicians such as Art Farmer
and David Murray, and with
his sons Graeme and Mark (trumpet and saxophones respectively).
At the age of seventy-three, Hamilton made his first album as leader, Silvershine
on World Circuit Records; it became the biggest selling UK Jazz Album
of the Year, The Times Jazz Album of the Year, and
one of the fifty Sony Recordings of the Year. It was followed three
years later in 1994 by a live album, Jamaica at Night.
He continues to play regularly at the Bearwood Corks Club in
Birmingham, appears on albums from World Circuit as guest musician, and
is working on a new album of his own compositions.
In 1996 Hamilton was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts degree
by Birmingham University, and in
1999 he received a Millennium Fellowship for his work in Community
Education (which has involved the establishment of The
Ladywood Community School of Music, supported by the Millennium
Commission).
Discography as leader
- 1991: Silvershine (World Circuit)
- 1994: Jamaica by Night (World Circuit)
Sources and external links
