In the school of cool, there is no such thing as “mastery” – no graduate course, no paper degree and no valedictorian speech. You either got it or you don’t. Cool is a way of life – a way of being with your self and with others. Cool is the ability to thrive in any situation with a winning combination of calm and confidence – balls and humility. Cool is leadership by example – rollin’ through the punches to the rhythm of your own drummer.

For an amazing 85 years, world-class musician Chico Hamilton has represented cool to the fullest. From Hollywood to Broadway, Central Avenue to Madison Avenue, he leaves a calling card of cool wherever he travels. Mr. Hamilton is a self-taught musician (drummer specifically), composer, band leader, philosopher and college music professor at New York City’s The New School (with past students including future members of Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors). However, Professor Hamilton’s true calling is teaching things you don’t learn in school – a lil’ something he calls “The Church of Chico.” Respect for yourself, respect for all people (“black, white or chartreuse”), respect for the arts and respect for The Creator.

“I consider myself blessed to somehow always be in the right place at the right time,” Mr. Hamilton states. The ability to boast that the classic Gerry Mulligan Quartet (co-led by Chico and featuring trumpet legend Chet Baker) rehearsed in his living room speaks volumes of his good fortune. Young Chico learned his craft at the service of masters such as Nat “King” Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Lester Young, T. Bone Walker, Dexter Gordon and Billie “Lady Day” Holiday. Those lessons served him well when he went on to lead his own bands, shepherding in such greats such as saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Buddy Collette, and guitarists Gabor Szabo and Larry Coryell. Hamilton’s ubiquitous nature and openness to new challenges led him east where he finessed his way into choice gigs from writing commercial jingles to composing the score for Roman Polanski’s art house classic, Repulsion.

In commemoration of his 85th birthday (September 21, 2006), Chico Hamilton is reveling in what he does best: Make Music – four brimming CDs worth! “I kind of went on a binge,” he says with a sly chuckle. “School was out last summer, I had the time and the music was just flowing.”

Each CD is over 70 minutes long and loosely themed. The first one out of the gate is Juniflip (so named after Hamilton’s high school nickname): a reflection on his signature West Coast cool sound featuring Black rock pioneer Arthur Lee of the band Love. The second is Believe: joyful noise and spiritual meditations on God and brotherly love featuring R&B/Gospel great Fontella Bass. Third is 6th Avenue Romp: an elegy to `60s era L.A. which moves from Motown covers to a song entitled “Elevation” that sounds like Coltrane sitting in with WAR (guitarist Shuggie Otis, son of the great Johnny Otis, guests here). Finally, there is Heritage: paying homage to family, peers and mentors, including three songsfrom the pen of fellow jazz great, Gerald Wilson.

All four CDs feature Chico choppin’ it up with veterans like trumpeter Jon Faddis and Allman Brothers drummer Jaimoe, as well as his own band, Euphoria (consisting of the cream of young up-and-comers). Each CD contains a club “remix” of a Chico song produced by cutting-edge DJs and production crews such as SoulFeast, Joey Davis of Faith Massive and M.U.D.D. (a.k.a Paul N. Murphy from London-based Afro/Dance ensemble Akwaaba with whom Chico collaborated on the Rong Music 12” “Kerry’s Caravan”). The inclusion of these tracks marks Chico’s acknowledgement and gratitude to today’s club tastemakers reaching back to recognize his classic works, including Thievery Corporation (who, in 2002, included Chico’s 1968 Impulse! recording “For Mods Only” on their hit compilation Sounds From The Verve Hi-Fi) and DJ Mark De Clive-Lowe (who remixed Chico’s piece “El Toro” for the Impulsive! Remix Project).

Boasting a canon of over 50 albums as a leader, Hamilton has traversed the avant garde underground AND scored bona fide club hits. His composition “Conquistadors” (1966) made such a powerful impact that during Santana’s first tours they often included it in their live sets. And his Brazilian-influenced “Strut” (1979) was such a smash on the U.K.’s Northern Soul scene that it earned its own dance. When other band leaders were doing the sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums thing in the `50s, Chico turned heads leading a cello, flute, guitar, bass and drums thing. That band – the Chico Hamilton Quintet – was so incomparably hip, they were featured in the 1957 major motion picture, Sweet Smell of Success. So pervasive was Chico’s musical influence that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts took to calling himself “Chico Watts” as a lad practicing to Hamilton’s grooves.

The timeless qualities of his artistic legacy have earned Hamilton a moniker of distinction: “The Consummate Modernist,” a badge of honor that stretches far beyond the music. It’s in the way he carries himself and gives of himself. It’s in his stylistic impulse being so sharp that bands from the 60’s Small Faces and The Who to the `90’s Incognito respectfully imitated his album cover art and publicity photographs. And it is on magnificent display in his impeccable sense of style – so much so that GQ magazine has recognized Mr. Hamilton among the world’s best dressed musicians.

“I came up in an era where dressing was all part of it,” he states, “equally as important as being able to do something. Fred Astaire was an unbelievable dresser. He was cool. Duke (Ellington) was cool. All the ladies men at that time were sharp!”

Pulling himself up from humble beginnings in Depression-era Los Angeles, Foreststorn “Chico” Hamilton sprang up like a wild and beautiful weed from a family of doers that includes actor Bernie Hamilton (famous for the role of “Capt. Dobey” in the `70s TV series Starsky & Hutch) and another brother Don Hamilton known for what one might call “the distribution of spirits.” From hustling extras work in Tarzan serials to becoming the first Black in-house musicians for the film studios, Chico has never forgotten his days of playing around south central L.A. for as little as seventy-five cents a gig.

“Where I grew up,” Chico reflects, “we had one thing in common – we were all poor – Italians, Chicanos, Chinese, all of us! I wasn’t afraid to talk to anybody. If I wanted something, I knew how to ask no matter who you were…including ‘authorities.’ Even when I went to the South I was cool. I didn’t let those people upset me.”

Chico passed that entrepreneurial strength of spirit on to his son, Forest Hamilton, who was a millionaire by the time he turned 21 from managing memorable musical acts such as Love, the Staple Singers and Bill Withers (Chico covers Bill’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” on 6th Avenue Romp). There’s a little of Forest in all of Chico’s music, for his son, gone too soon, owned the lion’s share of his heart. His passing was the toughest hurdle of Chico’s lifetime, but he’s dealt with it on a Zen-like level of acceptance.

“The way I look at it,” he says, “Forest did what he wanted to do…lived the way he wanted to live. I was very proud of him. He was a cool dude. Beyond father and son, we were friends.”

Chico found his heartbeat rhythm in the chic-chic-chic/chic-chic of stick and rim that all but calls out his name yet is better known as the bossa nova beat (check “Without Love” from Juniflip for a sample). Chico’s music is deep, but never cerebral and never far from something that’ll make you dance. Take the 12-minute “You Name It” (also from Juniflip). It opens with a floating figure that slides into bluesy brass lamentations over an insistent beat. Suddenly, things open up and the swingin’ begins. It’s like a metaphor for life. There will always be struggle. Chip away at it steady without fail and you will be victorious – swingin’ in honorably won victory.

Key to Mr. Hamilton’s continued presence on the scene is keeping stress at bay. A once avid swimmer before emphysema slowed him down, Mr. Hamilton still makes time to workout regularly. “I grew up in the YMCA and I’m STILL a member. I row, ride a bike or walk. The key is don’t kill yourself…just cool it, ya dig? You’ve got to stay in shape to play the instrument. If you don’t, that instrument will kick the shit out of you!”

The smoothest man on the planet has also been happily married to his wife, Helen Hamilton, for 63 years. “She’s dynamite,” he states. “We keep each other cool.”

Equally important, living legend Hamilton – a man who in 2004 was awarded the NEA Jazz Master Fellowship (presented to him by his drumming peer Roy Haynes) and in 2007 is scheduled to receive a Living Legacy Jazz Award as part of the Kennedy Center’s “Jazz in Our Time” festival – thrives on a state of being that places looking forward as priority one.

“There’s nothing wrong with living in the past,” Mr. Hamilton muses. “On the other hand, everything is wrong with living in the past. Nothing is the same. Those moments are gone and will never come back. The bottom line is all you’re gonna do is have a collection of memories. So you might as well have as many good memories as you possibly can. I’m always looking forward to the next good time.”

- A. Scott Galloway
Summer 2006