(Press release)
Scottish pianist and keyboards player
Steve Hamilton has used the enforced
inactivity of lockdown to record his first solo album, Between the Lines, with friends including guitar virtuoso, Martin
Taylor MBE dropping by to guest on selected tracks.
The album’s release coincides with a
period of recuperation for Hamilton following surgery to remove his right
kidney after a tumour was found during a CT scan for another problem that has
since cleared up.
“I went into hospital on September 25th and had the kidney removed along with the tumour and hopefully any traces of it from my body,” he says. “It seems we found it early enough to hope for a clear outcome moving forward.”
As the Covid-19 pandemic began to
take its effect on live music, Hamilton had tours with his regular employer,
drumming legend Billy Cobham, as well as all his other bookings, cancelled.
Having appeared on more than forty recordings by luminaries including drummer
Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, saxophonists Peter King and Tommy Smith and
guitarist Tony Remy, he felt this was an ideal opportunity to release an album
of his own.
A hugely experienced musician who
studied at Berklee School of Music before amassing a CV that also includes work
with jazz legends Ray Charles, Freddie Hubbard and Pee Wee Ellis, Hamilton grew
up in a musical family. His father, Laurie was a professional guitarist and was
always on hand to share advice and musical discoveries.
Between
the Lines is dedicated to Laurie, who died in
2013, and features Martin Taylor MBE
and saxophonist Paul Booth, whose
quartet Hamilton plays in. Guitarists Don
Paterson and Davie Dunsmuir,
Hamilton’s colleague from the Billy Cobham Band, also made stellar
contributions.
Most of the material was written,
often on the spot, by Hamilton alone or with his guests. Opening track
Awakening explores the textures and tones available with the latest keyboard
technology. The ballad Ealasaid,
dedicated to Martin Taylor’s wife, Elizabeth, was created spontaneously by
Hamilton and Taylor. For the powerful, atmospheric In a Flash of Light, Hamilton invited Davie Dunsmuir to add
electric guitar to his keyboard and rhythm track, and Paul Booth’s tenor
saxophone brought out the yearning quality of From the Embers.
Long-time friend Don Paterson, who is
better known as one the UK’s leading poets, contributed his trademark filigree
guitar picking to Look Up. Paterson’s
evocative composition Nijinsky, which first appeared during his time with
Celtic-jazz group Lammas in the 1990s, has always fascinated Hamilton and
inspires a searching improvisation here. Paterson was also the source of the
arrangement of Robert Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss
which closes the album with a mood of poignancy.
“I really enjoyed the process of
making the album,” says Steve. “I didn’t set out with any particular aim or
sound in mind. Of course, I didn’t expect to be undergoing life-saving surgery
once the recording was finished but I’m beginning to do some exercise, like
slow walking, and I’m looking forward to getting back into some kind of musical
action again. I’m just so grateful to my NHS consultant and the whole team who
looked after me. They were all amazing.”
Between the Lines is available on Bandcamp.
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