Tuesday 23 September 2008

Chico Hamilton - El Exigente






CHICO HAMILTON
El Exigente
1970
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Flying Dutchman FDS-135



We complete our Give The Drummer Some! series on Chico Hamilton with this avant garde excursion into the fusion sound from 1970. At this point, Chico's abandoned his Quintet in favour of smaller, more transient combos. As if to offset the extremely commercial appeal inherent in his work creating jingles and theme songs, Hamilton spent this period exploring the avant garde, often in a very electrified fusion format. In the ensuing decade, he also returned to his experimentation with Eastern influences and even let loose with some funk once in while. He laid off recording and soundtrack work for quite a while in the 80s and just before the start of the last decade of that dead century he popped back on the scene and has been firing hard on all cylinders since.

Chico Hamilton - Drums
Arnie Lawrence - Sax (Alto)
Bob Mann - Guitar
Steve Swallow - Bass


1 As I Open My Eyes
2 Take Me There
3 I Came And Saw The Beauty Of Your Love
4 How 'Bout Bobby
5 Stomp, Stomp, Stomp
6 Swingin' On A Sitar
7 Up Front What Counts/On The Trail/Seat Belt/Volvo's/Gonna Get Some Right Now


I don't know who was timing the tracks on this LP but they must have been high on something 'cause the running times don't even kinda match most of the actual tracks. The second side is presented as a suite, which I've kept intact.

A fairly in-demand piece, if you can find a copy the rock bottom price is usually $30 but you'll probably have to shell out $50 or more. Soundological is not so demanding and offers it for considerably less HERE and HERE.


Discography as bandleader:

1955 Chico Hamilton Trio (10" LP)
1955 Spectacular!
c/o My Jazz World
1955 Chico Hamilton Quintet ft. Buddy Collette at JAZZY BLUES (FLAC)
1960 Original Chico Hamilton Quintet
1956 Chico Hamilton Quintet In Hi-Fi
1956 Chico Hamilton Trio (12" LP)
1957 Chico Hamilton Quintet
1957 Zen: The Music Of Fred Katz
1957 Sweet Smell Of Success OST
1958 South Pacific In Hi-Fi
at mohaoffbeat
1958 Chico Hamilton Trio intro. Freddy Gambrell
at mohaoffbeat
1958 The Original Ellington Suite ft Eric Dolphy at mohaoffbeat
1959 Ellington Suite ft Bud Collette at mohaoffbeat
1959 With Strings Attached
1959 Gongs East!
1959 The Three Faces Of Chico
1959 That Hamilton Man at mohaoffbeat
1960 Bye Bye Birdie/Irma La Douce
at mohaoffbeat
1960 Chico Hamilton Special
1962 Drumfusion at Music-a-k-o /My Jazz World (mp3) + JAZZY BLUES (FLAC)
1962 Litho
1962 Transfusion
at Soundological (via slsk)
1962 Passin' Thru at mohaoffbeat
1963 Man From Two Worlds at mohaoffbeat (ape) + Blue Eyed Knight's Place (mp3)
1963 A Different Journey at Musica Desde Las Anitpodas
1965 Easy Livin' at Soundological
1965 Chic Chic Chico at Soundological (via slsk) + Guitar and the Wind (mp3)
1966 El Chico c/o My Jazz World
1966 The Further Adventures Of El Chico
at Soundological (via slsk)
1966 The Dealer at Radiodada / Last Train To Cool (mp3) + Into The Rhythm (mp3/FLAC)
1967 The Best of Chico Hamilton at Soundological
1968 The Gamut
c/o My Jazz World
1969 The Head Hunters
1970 El Exigente/The Demanding One at Soundological
1973 The Master
c/o MyJazzWorld + at notas agudas
1974 Live At Montreux (w/Albert King & Little Milton)
1975 Peregrinations
at ?
1976 And The Players c/o My Jazz World
1977 Catwalk
1979 Reaching For The Top
1980 Nomad
1988 Euphoria
1991 Reunion
1992 Arroyo
1993 Trio!
1994 My Panamanian Friend (The Music Of Eric Dolphy)
1994 Dancing To A Different Drummer
1998 Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of the Chico Hamilton Quintet
1999 Timely
2001 Foreststorn
2002 Thoughts Of...
2006 Juniflip
2006 Believe
2006 6th Avenue Romp
2006 Heritage
2007 Hamiltonia
2008 It's About Time EP
2008 Alternative Dimensions of El Chico EP
2009 Twelve Tones of Love


The discography was cobbled together from Wikipedia, Chico's site and AMG. Each of them were missing items on at least one other list, so it may not be complete. As always, if you happen to have any additions (either info on recordings to be added or links to blogs/forums with any of the releases in question), please leave them in the comments.

Links checked and updated Aug 26, 2009
MyJazzWorld links replaced with Smooth's oiginal RS links Feb 6. 2010



24 comments:

E-mile said...

Cheeba: Awesome! THIS is how we like it...what a great start of the week, thanks a million! GREAT guitar and GREAT sax. Yummie.
peace, E-mile

cheeba said...

Bon appetit E-mile!

Solomon said...

I was just looking at getting some more Chico Hamilton! This sounds awesome. Thank you.

cheeba said...

Hi Solomon, I hope these LPs help you to make your decision!

ish said...

Thanks Cheeba. Downloading it now.

cheeba said...

hope you like it, ish! i think it's definitely up your alley

Reza said...

god doesn't he look cool , grabbing it now ta (maybe I should do flying dutchman discog)
I have Gongs East! if you want it

Anonymous said...

awesome.. thanks..

johnv said...

Thanks so much for this one and for the other links. It will be great to add them to the collection.

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

altro fantastico disco.
non mi aspettavo un sound così corposo ed intenso.
grazie!

thoth said...

thank you so much for finding all this hamilton and for sharing it.
i found el exigente for $15 in new york city...guess i got luky!

moha said...

Thank You very much-I've missed this!

You can also find the Gambrell album, and Passin' Thru on my blog.

best wishes

cheeba said...

Hi Moha!

You make a very good case for re-evaluating Mr Gambrell's career. Wish I had seen these posts earlier!

For anyone interested here are he links:

http://mohaoffbeat.blogspot.com/2008/10/introducing-freddie-gambrell.html

http://mohaoffbeat.blogspot.com/2008/10/introducing-freddie-gambrell.html

Great blog and thanks for the info Moha!

Anonymous said...

Wow, i wasn't aware that this discog is up here! Had i known this earlier it would have safed me a lot of time searching the blogs...
FANTASTIC work cheeba, many, many thanks.

1965: "Chic, Chic, Chic" is now up on my blog (flac):
http://guitarandthewind.blogspot.com/2009/09/chico-hamilton-chic-chic-chico-1965.html
as is
1965: "El Chico" (flac):
http://guitarandthewind.blogspot.com/2009/05/chico-hamilton-el-chico.html

Now here's a few additions and corrections:

The World Pacific/Pacifc Jazz part of Hamilton's discog is quite confusing. First of all there are four (!) albums entitled "The CH Quintet", recorded by two different Quintets (the Buddy Collette/Jim Hall group and the Paul Horn/John Pisano group).
They have all been reisued by Fresh Sound on CD. Instead of going with the original issues, Fresh Sound splitted albums into studio and live collections.

The "Quintet" albums on vinyl are:

1955: PJ-1209, "The Quintet feat. Buddy Collette"
the one with the famous yellow cover.
(Buddy Collette/Jim Hall group; half studio, half live)

1956: PJ-1216, "The Quintet in Hi-Fi"
Cover shows a b/w photo of an artist and his sculpture with the group in the background.
(Buddy Collette/Jim Hall group; studio)

1957: PJ-1225, "The Quintet" (also known as 'Quintet in Stereo')
Cover: an abstract painting in brown, green, grey
(Paul Horn/John Pisano group, studio)

1958: PJ-1238, "Plays South-Pacifc in Hi-Fi"
Cover: a Gauguin like painting
(Paul Horn/John Pisano group, studio)

1959: WP-1258, "The Ellington Suite"
Cover: abstract painting in red
(group: a reformed original quintet with Buddy Collette, Jim Hall plus Paul Horn)

1960: WP-1287 (recorded 1955), "The Original Quintet"
Cover: Group photo in front of a yellow background (also used by Fresh Sound for FSR 512)
(Buddy Collette/Jim Hall group; more live material from 1955)

The Fresh Sound CDs are:
FSR-CD 512: The Original Quintet: Complete Studio Recordings (side A of PJ-1209 and all of PJ-1216)
FSR 2245: The Original Quintet: Live at Strollers (side B of PJ-1209 and all of WP-1287)
FSR-CD 513: Chico Hamilton Quintet: Complete Studio Sessions (PJ-1225 and PJ-1238)

All the Quintet albums are included in the Mosaic Box "Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings by..."
The box adds Fred Katz: "Zen - The Music of Fred Katz" which was recorded by the Paul Horn/John Pisano group in 1956
The box is here: http://bloomysunday.blogspot.com/2009/02/chico-hamilton_23.html

Fresh Sound reissued The Chico Hamilton Trio, too (FSR-CD 471). It's here:
http://bloomysunday.blogspot.com/2008/11/chico-hamilton-trio.html

FSR-CD 512 is here:
http://bloomysunday.blogspot.com/2008/10/chico-hamilton.html

1955 "Spectacular" and "Quintet feat. Buddy Collette" are identical, with "Spectacular" being the reissue (and not the other way round like smooth writes in his post of Spectacular)

You mixed up the Ellington suites:

1958 "Ellington Suite" with Dolphy is here:
http://bloomysunday.blogspot.com/2009/02/chico-hamilton.html

1959 "Ellngton Suite" with Collette is the one at moha's blog

Phew, your confused now?

Anonymous said...

P.S.:
Sorry for this monster comment. It's just that i was going to prepare a Hamilton discog for my blog and while collectiong links i find yours.
Since i'm such a Jim Hall nerd i wanted to clarify which Quintet albums feature Mr. Hall and how they have been reissued. Having all that info already together i thought it would make a helpful addition to your post.

cheeba said...

Hi porco rosso! No apologies necessary at all!!! In fact, I'm always happy to get more information on these discogs and am glad you took the time to clarify some of these discrepancies.

I'm not confused now... I was a little bit at first then I was totally confused and then finally you explained it so clearly. I'm usually thrown off by the WP/PJ portions of discographies, not just Chico's.

Your timing is great too because I'm hoping to go through all the posts tagged "discography" and try to update links, etc over the coming weeks so I'll make Chico's the next one up for revision.

Thanks again for your help porco!

Greg P said...

Wow, this is an extraordinary record, so totally unlike any other Chico recording from any other peiod. It's really good - I actually played it at least five times yesterday, and it's never far from another go 'round. This really is surprising and exciting stuff.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Hanoi Sessions said...

Thanks Cheeba for Peregrinations, heard the Abdullah and Abrahams track on a mix and spent hours tracking down who it was by. Is this representative of Chico's work in general, or was that a funky one-off album?

cameosis said...

absolutely!

try "the master" -- 1973 on exnterprise/stax, together with members of little feat. one of his best album, really funky as well yet smooth.

"the head hunters" from 1969 on solid states is also awesome -- i haven't heard a bad record from him, to be honest -- my favorite jazz drummer.

"the further adventures of el chico" contains a cover of "got my mojo working" -- a very groovy piece of uptempo jazz-funk.

thanks for the uploads!

Hanoi Sessions said...

Thanks to both the original ripper, yourself and Cameosis, I'll check them out :)

Anonymous said...

Great ! Thanks 'm back in years when I was listening to Chico non stop and very loud after school !

Franco said...

Cheeba ...incase your interested...and maybe a Link
I've never found anywhere else...

Chico Hamilton - Reaching For The Top

FLAC and Mp3@320 Vinyl Rip

Regards,

Franco

Franco said...

Cheeba...I meant a link on your Chico Discography if poss.

Thanks,

Franco

Here is Chico Hamilton - Reaching For The Top Mp3 @ 320 & FLAC

http://cosmicechoesechoes.blogspot.com/2011/09/chico-hamilton-reaching-for-top.html