The album projects involved a variety of different concepts: composer projects involving the repertoire of a Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin or Johnny Mercer; individual projects of ballads, show tunes and the like and a couple of dedications, to Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday.
The Holiday project was a natural, not just for the songs but the concept. The small group recordings led either by Billie or Teddy Wilson featuring Holiday vocals in the pre-WWII years were a perfect example of how singer and jazz group could make meaningful music together. Those Rosemary Clooney albums have stood the test of time and sooner or later they will be recognized as some of the greatest jazz records of the time.
Scott Hamilton’s own projects have generally avoided dedications of that sort. His talent is so definitive that he needs to spread it around among ballads, blues, pop tunes and jazz originals. At this writing he is approaching his fifty-eighth birthday and has nothing left to prove. Perhaps the time has come to lend his imprimatur to the repertoire to certain artists. Certainly the performance of the Billie Holiday-associated material in this disc makes for memorable music. Only “Good Morning Heartache”, “Them There Eyes” and “God Bless The Child” were on the Clooney album.
Eight of the ten selections here are from that pre-WWII era when Billie’ work contained a lightness, great joy and a sense of fun. She made it sound so easy but then so does Scott Hamilton. But you know it cannot be easy or else all musicians would have that quality and very, very few actually do. This is timeless music played by one of the few masters of our time. Treasure it.
Bob Porter
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