Jazz drummer Chico Hamilton has played with the greats from Count Basie to Duke Ellington, scored countless commercials and films including Roman Polanski's "Repulsion," and was one of the original faculty members of the New School University Jazz and Contemporary Music Program. Hamilton will turn 89 this September, but he shows no sign of slowing down his busy schedule. He continues to record, teach and tour. This Friday, April 9, Hamilton will perform with his band Euphoria.
You are coming up on the 89th year of your life and you still record, teach and tour including your date this weekend at Bay Street Theatre. Do you think you will retire from being a professional musician?
Retire . . . for what? What am I going to retire for? Why retire? Can you imagine this world without music? I don't know anything else to do. I have been doing this since I was eight years old. What do I want to slow down for? I am the last of the Mohicans. Who am I going to slow down for? Everyone else is gone.
When you first started playing as a young child, what attracted you to music?
When I was around eight-years-old my mother took me to the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles to see Duke Ellington. The band sat in a pyramid and at the top was the drummer. He was one of the first percussionists [I saw] and he had everything: chimes, bells. Everything he touched turned to music and I was so impressed with him. By the time I was 16 I was playing in Duke Ellington's band.
That must have taken a lot of dedication and work to be in his band at such a young age.
It wasn't without patience and fortitude. That is what it takes to make great music, not to play it but to make it. I consider myself blessed. I consider music to be God's will. He is letting me make music.
When you were a much younger man you formed a band with several schoolmates like Charles Mingus who would go on to become some of the most well known jazz musicians. How did you connect with them?
I went to high school with [musicians like] Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette. We went to the same high school. My brother-in-law played the trombone for the band. I met my wife when she was 16 and I was three years older and we stayed married for 67 years. Her brother played the trombone and we rehearsed in his house. When I came out of the service I went to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music for about six months on my G.I. Bill.
I read that in 1966 you formed a commercial and film production company. Why did you transition into the film industry?
What caused it was the money. I started doing commercials and made more money playing in commercials than I ever did playing. So that is why I got into the commercial business. I did it until I got bored and fed up with it.
You also composed the music for many films including Roman Polanski's psychological thriller "Repulsion," made in 1965. How did you go about scoring for film and how is it different than playing?
Roman Polanski was the only film director that understood why he hired me. All the rest of them didn't know. In other words, the producers or directors hired me to do the music and then they became the music director. Roman left me completely alone. He gave me cues to score the film. There were over 25 cues in ["Repulsion"]. As a matter of fact [while he was shooting in London] I was working with my group, and as a day job I would be on the set with Roman. I got a feeling for the film and I saw what kind of mood the film was in.
You still teach at the jazz program at New School University in New York City. Do you find that your students are still trying to change and evolve the jazz genre?
Let me explain something to you, there are only twelve tones in music. So those twelve tones have been played before somewhere by somebody. The only thing that is different is the rhythm and articulation.
Do you listen to contemporary jazz and new offerings in the genre?
I listen to all kinds of music. If it is good, I'll listen. There is a very fine line between music and noise.
The East End Arts Council presents an evening with jazz legend Chico Hamilton and Euphoria on Friday, April 9, at 8 p.m. Bay Street Theatre is located on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor. Tickets cost $25 in advance and $30 at the door. To purchase tickets call the East End Arts Council in Riverhead at 727-0900 or online at http://eastendartscouncil.ticketleap.com.
