The Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts hosted renowned jazz artists of the Jeff Hamilton Trio for a solo set and a performance in accompaniment of the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble.
The ensemble performed their Jack Rudin Jazz Championship competition set. Members of the almost entirely undergraduate ensemble were recognized in categories of trumpet, saxophone, and original composition.
The Jeff Hamilton trio has been performing together for three decades, showcasing their talents across the world and with legends of the jazz genre including Peggy Lee, Diana Krall, Barbara Streisand, and Natalie Cole.
Jeff Hamilton, mentored by Ray Brown, is considered a master percussionist and bandleader. Together with bassist John Clayton and brother, the recently deceased Saxophonist Jeff Clayton, Hamilton leads one of the last remaining big band Jazz orchestras, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.
The Trio performed a set of nine songs including american standards, original compositions, and tributes to byegone friends. With only three instruments in use at any one time, the three masters of their art held the large crowd captive, proving a point made by UW Department of Music Associate Professor Ben Markley and Wyoming Jazz Ensemble conductor, that
“There is still an audience for this kind of music.”
The Jeff Hamilton Trio opened with Poinciana (The Song of the Tree), made famous by the Ahmad Jamal Trio in the late 50s. They then went on to perhaps their most known original; Catch Me If You Can.
“It was brought into our recording session without a title.” Said Jeff Hamilton when he introduced the song which is written by pianist Tamir Hendelman.
“I took it home and played it for my wife after the session and she said, wow, what’s the name of that? It’s really fast! And I said it doesn’t have a title yet. And he goes, Man, catch me if you can, if you can. So I told that to Tamir, and he said, “Yeah, that’s it.”
This composition is an incredibly fast paced, technical piece which features keys and explores multiple octaves. They followed this up with another original by bassist and professor of music at Tennessee University, Jon Hamar.
The piece, entitled Bucket of Fat, is a melodic, Southern blues influenced bass number that featured bowing as well as picking, with only the upright bass and drums in play.
Next was Rhythemining, another more experimental fast paced piece which took the trio three tries to get started. Hamilton said to the audience,
“I hope you brought your helmets and seatbelts.”
In this song, Hamilton explored percussion as melody. The evening then took a sentimental turn with the trio performing an extremely gentle rendition of I Have Dreamed from Broadway’s classic The King and I.
Second to last was Helen’s Song, a work by George Cables celebrating in understated repetitions stylistically similar to a breezy bossa nova, Helen, a dear recently passed friend of the Trio. They then closed with their signature Blues for Stephanie.
“This is exactly why we do this for a living: to play for people who enjoy this music, appreciate what we do, what goes into it, and appreciate what it takes to listen to it,” Jeff Hamilton said. “We hope we can play for you again some time and share some ideas with the students. We learned as much, maybe more than [the students] do through these sessions. So, we look forward to doing this again.”
