At Pizza Express Live (PX Records)
Scott Hamilton Quartet
Released April 2023
Jazzwise Top 50 Albums of the Year 2023
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https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mFUypPPOXyTZcEzlRBvQaVRCXzB_w3as4
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About:
Marking 40 years since his first appearance at PizaExpress Live in London, the revered US saxophonist Scott Hamilton is to release a new live album, the first release on the newly formed PizzaExpress label PX Records. Having appeared at the club in Dean Street, Soho, across six different decades, Hamilton is very much part of the fabric of PizzaExpress Live and this new live album, which features Scott’s UK-based quartet of John Pearce (piano), Dave Green (bass) and Steve Brown (drums), captures a 7-track set featuring an array of classic standards including The Girl From Ipanema and Pure Imagination.
Track Listing:
1. The Breeze & I 08:52
2. Black Velvet 09:22
3. Poinciana 12:47
4. Blue ‘n’ Boogie 12:19
5. The Girl From Ipanema 11:30
6. Pure Imagination 05:13
7. The Summer Wind 07:29
8. The More I See You 10:20
9. Tin Tin Deo 13:29
Personnel:
Scott Hamilton: tenor saxophone
Dave Green: bass
Steve Brown: drums
John Pearce: piano
Recorded Live at PizzaExpress Jazz Club London April 15-16th 2022
Review:
PX Records is the new recording imprint for the Pizza Express Live set-up, headquartered at Dean Street.
Logically and sensibly, it is to Scott Hamilton that the label has turned for its debut release. It marks a continuous 40-year association between Dean Street and the ever-popular American, this continuing to the present day. And it’s 20 years since he began working regularly with his British accompanists, who appear with him for his twice-yearly seasons at the club and who are with him here. So, multiple hurrahs all round then.
Hamilton opens with ‘The Breeze and I’, his relaxed phrasemaking and warm, honeyed tone undimmed by time, the live atmosphere well caught, the recorded quality quite exceptional, Green’s firm lines especially noteworthy. Having heard this tenorist on a multiplicity of occasions, it’s pertinent to point out that he seldom disappoints, always able, seemingly, to find new things to say on what must be largely familiar material. That said, Pearce is cut from the same cloth; invariably unruffled and succinct, qualities shared by Green and Brown, too. The drummer follows the Jamal rhythmic template on ‘Poinciana’, Hamilton deeper-voiced as he opens up on this lovely piece, inspired and happy to run on for 13 minutes.
Indeed, most of these pieces receive extended treatments, with Pearce up for everything, notably on the bop specialties like ‘Blue ‘N’ Boogie; and ‘Tin Tin Deo‘, the tenorist marginally more adventurous in his improvisations. Ballads follow with ‘The Summer Wind’ the standout, Hamilton raising the temperature a tad, his companions with him all the way. The Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings cited Pearce, Green and Brown as ‘attentive, assured and completely across the material’ on their previous Live in London outing in 2002 on Concord, and they still are, Then again so is Hamilton. Superb music.
Peter Vacher (Jazzwise)
