Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton is considered to be "one of the greatest saxophonists of all time" by the pianist Dave McKenna. McKenna described Hamilton's early work as similar to many of the masters of jazz while his later work incorporates them into his own style of playing, making his own style.

Hamilton was born in Providence, Rhode Island in the middle of the 1950's. His father, Robert Hamilton, taught painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) while his mother, Nancy Hamilton, taught art at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI).

When he was quite young, Hamilton started to play the clarinet, his first reed instrument. From his studies, he gained a familiarity with the difficult fingering associated with reed instruments. Also beginning when he was young, Hamilton liked to listen to his father's jazz records, especially those of the great saxophonists. Later in his life, when he would play the saxophone, Hamilton would emulate these saxophonists which included Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, and Ben Webster, as well as others. It was this emulation that allowed Hamilton to be easily accepted amongst older jazz musicians.

Although he greatly enjoyed music, Hamilton did not continue to play the clarinet for long. He switched to the harmonica. When he was in his early teens, he started to hang out with blues players from the Westerly, Rhode Island area. He started to work for Duke Robillard, the guitar player and singer's, band "Roomful of Blues."

Although Hamilton enjoyed working with the band, he soon decided that he wanted his own saxophone. His parents ended up getting him his first saxophone for his 14th birthday. Very quickly, he taught himself how to finger the instrument from his past clarinet training and how to get a decent sound out of the instrument.

From there, Hamilton went on to start his own band with some of his high school colleagues. Originally the band, which they called "The Blue Flames," consisted of Fred Bates (guitar), Chuck Riggs (drums), and Preston Hubbard (bass). Soon, they added the singer Sue Melikkian and replaced Bates with Chris Flory and Hubbard with Phil Flanagan.

Hamilton then headed out to New York City in 1976. He visited Roy Eldridge, who he had earlier met and who had encouraged him to move to New York. From there he went with the band and began to work with the soprano saxophonist Bob Wilber. He then started to make records. He ended up joining with Concord Records, whom he has continued to record with to this date. He has currently released around 40 records with Concord.