Scott Hamilton & Jan Lundgren Quartet

Scott Hamilton needs no introduction. The celebrated American tenor icon is instantly recognisable with his timeless sound, impeccable taste and flawless decision making.

Hamilton's sound - equal parts breathy fog and meaty girth - harkens back to another era while remaining relevant and refreshing. He's calmed and collected in his musical choices, like Ben Webster or Zoot Sims at the height of their prowess.

As so many before him, he became acquainted with the jazz greats by listening to his father’s extensive record collection. He tried out several instruments, including drums at about the age of five, piano at six and mouthorgan. He had some clarinet lessons when he was about eight years of age, but that was the only formal music tuition he has ever had. Even at that age he was attracted to the sound of Johnny Hodges, but it was not until he was about sixteen that he started playing the saxophone seriously!

He moved to New York at the age of twenty-two where he got several gigs and played with many of the greats of the old New York scene. Although it was the tail-end of this era, a lot of the greats were still playing and he got to work and learn from people like Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet, Vic Dickenson and Jo Jones. Eldridge was Scott’s champion, but pulled no punches, and could be extremely critical, something for which Scott has always been grateful.

On the 20th of May in 2022 Scott Hamilton released his album “Classics” with Jan Lundgren on piano, Hans Backenroth on bass and Kristian Leth playing the drums. This ensemble is coming to play at Cosmopolite – and perform for us the delightful album with a creative programme of well-known themes from the classical repertoire - reimagined and repurposed for jazz quartet.

Jazzsensibilities writes about the album: The classical material the group has selected for this session has been so tastefully renovated (and cleverly retitled) that it might fool even advanced jazz listeners into thinking they've somehow missed a couple of timeless standards.

Some are easy to 'decode' (My Reveries, based on Claude Debussy's Rverie), while others are delightfully playful in their rebranding: Moon Love (based on Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony) and Homoresque (Antonin Dvorak).

In Classics, Hamilton demonstrates he can give his fans what they want while gently stretching their angles and experiences. Hamilton and his quartet manage to do that on this album in a manner that has elegance and is still deeply rooted in jazz.

Line-up:
Scott Hamilton – tenor
Jan Lundgren – piano
Hans Backenroth – bass
Kristian Leth - drums