Scott Hamilton & Triology at Frankie's before the studio
Hamilton, turning 70 this year, has played with everyone from Rosemary Clooney to Benny Goodman
When Cory Weeds introduced saxophonist Scott Hamilton with Triology – the group of Miles Black, Bill Coon, and Jodi Proznick – for the second of two nights at Frankie's on June 28, 2024, he mentioned the occasion when he first heard Hamilton play. He heard him in 1990 at the Cultch; "My dad was forcing me to get into jazz [...] that was the first international concert I saw," he said. "I was completely blown away."
Hamilton, who will turn 70 later this year, has played with everyone from Rosemary Clooney to Benny Goodman. He has dozens of albums as a leader, and they don't make a tone like his anymore, sensitive like Lester Young as it falls down long, smooth lines. Here's a beautiful cut I found from around the time I was born that shows it:
This isn't the first time that Hamilton has played with Proznick and Black. While writing, when I was trying to figure out what my "first international concert" was, I searched for "2010 vancouver international jazz festival". I was wrong: it was actually the 2011 festival which was my first. But I found this about 2010:
I don't know who wrote this piece, but it claims that Hamilton appeared at the Cellar that year, playing with the Oliver Gannon quartet of the time which included Black and Proznick.
This bit also amused me:
'The last several tunes of the first night's late set featured saxophonist (and Cellar proprietor) Cory Weeds who this correspondent had heard and reported on earlier in the Festival when he led his own group at the club. Hamilton generously asked Weeds to choose what key he'd like to play "I Thought About You." Weeds nervously replied "Whatever key it's in." (Weeds at set's end when introducing Hamilton admitted to the crowd, "I can't tell you how difficult it is going to the school of Scott Hamilton... I just went!")'
As a Canadian piano-guitar-bass trio, Triology is inevitably downstream of the Oscar Peterson Trio. Looking at each player individually, however, makes the differences more apparent. Black's piano playing might be closer to Nat King Cole's from the Cole trios of this instrumentation than to Peterson's. The influence of Ray Brown – whom Hamilton played with – on Proznick was a frequent talking point in her Foundations quartet late-2000s era, though the last decade-and-a-half has seen her cover so much ground as one of our great bassists that to continue making the reference would be reductive. And Bill Coon on guitar: you definitely notice the dynamic playing he gets to do with today's technology versus the drummeresque Basie-band chord chunking on many Peterson Trio recordings.
A fun comparison record to this gig with the same instruments and mellow mood: Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, recorded 1957. Check out the guitar on "Bronx Blues" for a counterpoint to what I said about chunking above.
Hamilton joked that this listening-room crowd was "too quiet" and matched that reverence by leading a touching two sets of chilled-out balladry and expression, mixed in with some blowing that hearkened back to the transition between the swing era and bebop. Here's most of what he and Triology played a week ago tonight:
- "I've Never Been in Love Before", my personal go-to standard, at a slow-medium tempo
- "Luna", an original midtempo waltz by Proznick with colourful chords on the turn-around.
- "Moose the Mooche", which Hamilton said he would "fake through"; he did at first, but he got it all down just before the first solo. Great blues-forward soloing by Proznick!
- "Poinciana", extremely low-key with Black pacing the arrangement along via energetic piano chording.
- "When I Fall in Love", a breathy ballad like Ben Webster (who really is the first saxophonist in my mind when I think Oscar trio plus one).
- "Summer Wind": the guitar indeed did that chunking and made for a heavy swing groove.
- "I've Just Seen Her": I didn't know this tune, a request from Cory according to Hamilton. Here's a version by Bill Charlap.
- "Slow Road", an original by Bill Coon that felt Basie-ish.
- "Cherokee" at a downright reasonable tempo. When Proznick soloed, you could hear her foot tapping quite audibly – that's how attentive the audience was and how sensitive the band's default volume stayed during the gig. It was actually nice to hear that the foot-tapping wasn't perfectly metronomic and instead pulsed with the movement of the band.
- "Mack the Knife" as an encore of sorts, a funny choice but in keeping with the gig's vintage vibe.
The ensemble entered Monarch Studios on Sunday, June 30 after the two-nighter to record a forthcoming album for Cellar Music. Who knows how many of these tunes, and other material from night one like "After You've Gone" or "Pure Imagination", will make the album.
In the original email version of this story, I said that only Miles Black and not Jodi Proznick had played with Scott Hamilton.
