Hamilton Quintet, Chico / Buddy Collette: Chico Hamilton Quintet (Blue Note Tone Poet) LP
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A jewel of West Coast chamber jazz, this 1955 Pacific Jazz date documented drummer Chico Hamilton's extraordinary quintet featuring Buddy Collette on woodwinds, Jim Hall on guitar, Fred Katz on cello, and Carson Smith on bass. The ensemble created a singular sound with its unique instrumentation and poised, impassioned performances of nuanced, inventive arrangements of standards and bandmember originals. Side 1 consists of a set of introspective studio recordings including evocative pieces by Collette ("Blue Sands") and Katz ("The Sage") as well as a shadowy arrangement of "My Funny Valentine." Side 2 presents more of the quintet's fiery side with a set of live recordings captured at Strollers in Long Beach, California. The band swings mightily from the side opener "I Want to Be Happy" to the closer "Buddy Boo" with a detour into abstraction on the fully improvised piece "Free Form."