This edition of Jeff Hamilton’s well-integrated trio has recorded eight CDs since 2004. One personnel change occurred in 2019 when Jon Hamar replaced Christopher Luty on bass. Hamar had spent four years with Ernestine Anderson in Seattle, Washington and his big, propulsive sound adds considerably to the success of this release.
Apart from his work with the trio, the Israeli-born pianist Tamir Hendelman has also recorded three albums with the big band Hamilton co-leads with Jeff and John Clayton – Live At MCG, Dear Mr. Sinatra and The L.A. Treasures Project. His playing is clearly in the hard swinging, mainstream tradition of Oscar Peterson, Benny Green and Gene Harris and his impressive CV includes a European tour with Bill Holman’s big band and an engagement at New York’s Village Vanguard with Barbara Streisand. He also memorably contributed to Roberta Gambarini’s 2004 CD Easy To Love.
Whether using sticks or brushes the leader achieves maximum colour from his kit and after years of working with Oscar Peterson he knows exactly what is required in a small-group situation.
Merry & Bright immediately settles into a foot-tapping groove on the obscure It’s The Holiday Season. The only other Season recording I know is from the 2014 A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas! with Johnny Mathis, directed by Scotty Barnhart. Hendelman creates a dream-like almost rubato feel on Little Drummer Boy over Hamilton’s tasty double-time brush work. Santa Baby, with its delightfully suggestive lyric, was banned in some southern states when it was introduced by Eartha Kitt back in 1953. The group lock-in on yet another slowly burning groove here for an album highlight. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, along with Mel Torme’s Christmas Song (not heard here), is arguably the finest of all the Christmas songs and it receives a suitably tender reading from the trio.
Discography
It’s The Holiday Season; Caroling Caroling; The Little Drummer Boy; Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!; Bright Bright The Holly Berries; It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year; Here Comes Santa Claus; Santa Baby; O Tannenbaum; Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (46.26)
Tamir Hendelman (p); Jon Hamar (b); Hamilton (d). Glendale, California, 15 March 2021.
Capri Records 74167-2
