Chico Hamilton’s reputation rests primarily on the sequence of quintets he guided from 1955 to 1965 and on his consistent ability to identify emerging talent, rather than on his drumming alone, even though he was a player of notable subtlety and invention. He first took up the drums in high school, performing alongside the gifted young musicians then active in Los Angeles, among them Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet, and Charles Mingus. His initial recording appeared with Slim Gaillard; he later worked as house drummer at Billy Berg’s, toured with Lionel Hampton, and fulfilled military duties between 1942 and 1946. In 1946 he spent brief periods with Jimmy Mundy, Count Basie, and Lester Young, recording with the latter. Between 1948 and 1955 he served intermittently as Lena Horne’s drummer and received wider notice for his role in Gerry Mulligan’s original piano-less quartet of 1952–1953.
In 1955 Hamilton assembled his debut quintet, a chamber-jazz ensemble that featured reeds player Buddy Collette, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Carson Smith, and cellist Fred Katz. One of the final major West Coast jazz groups, the Chico Hamilton Quintet quickly gained popularity and was featured in a memorable segment of the 1958 documentary Jazz on a Summer’s Day as well as in the Hollywood film The Sweet Smell of Success. Although the personnel shifted in the following years—Paul Horn and Eric Dolphy passed through on reeds, Nate Gershman played cello, John Pisano and Dennis Budimir handled guitar duties, and several bassists appeared—the group preserved its singular texture. By 1961 Charles Lloyd had joined on tenor and flute, Gabor Szabo had become the guitarist, and the cello had been exchanged for trombone, first played by Garnett Brown and later by George Bohanon, moving the band into an advanced hard-bop idiom.
From 1966 onward Hamilton began writing music for commercials and motion pictures and dissolved the quintet. He nevertheless continued to lead a succession of ensembles whose repertoire extended from avant-garde explorations to unpredictable fusion and advanced hard bop. Younger musicians whose careers he advanced included Larry Coryell in 1966, Steve Potts in 1967, Arthur Blythe, Steve Turre (performing on bass), and Eric Person, a member of Hamilton’s 1990s group Euphoria. A recorded reunion with the original 1955 quintet members took place in 1989, with John Pisano replacing Jim Hall, and several albums for Soul Note appeared during the 1990s. Hamilton remained active through the 2000s, releasing four albums on Joyous Shout! in 2006 to celebrate his 85th birthday. He died in Manhattan on November 25, 2013, at the age of 92; his final recording, The Inquiring Mind, made shortly before his death, was issued in early 2014.
