CHICO HAMILTON (b. 1921)
Hamilton was born and raised in LA, growing up alongside the Central Avenue jazz scene. During the 1940s, he performed with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie, and appeared in the 1941 film You'll Never Get Rich backing Fred Astaire. He toured on and off with Lena Horne for six years and performed on the recording of Lady Sings the Blues with Billie Holiday. In the first part of the 1950s, he joined the Gerry Mulligan quartet as part of the original line-up before starting his own quintet in 1955, one of the last important West Coast Jazz bands. Hamilton pioneered a style sometimes called chamber jazz during this time. In addition to his many years of touring, he has also performed on the soundtracks for numerous films and composed the score for Repulsion, directed by Roman Polanski. Hamilton received the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music Program’s Beacons in Jazz Award in 1997; he is currently teaching at the New School and working on an autobiography. Hamilton on Nica "She was very important at that time. "
ROY HAYNES (b. 1926)
Haynes taught himself the drums in his hometown of Boston and started working as a musician in 1942. In 1945 he was recruited by the bandleader Luis Russell to play at the Savoy Ballroom in New York, where he spent his freetime on 52nd Street in Manhattan and became part of the growing bebop movement. It was through these venues and Minton's that he became Lester Young’s drummer from 1947 to 1949 and played with Bud Powell and Miles Davis. Haynes became Charlie Parker’s preferred drummer in 1949, collaborated with Thelonious Monk and joined the John Coltrane Quartet in 1963. Haynes has toured and recorded with numerous legends in his over 60-year career, from Sarah Vaughan to Stan Getz and Chick Corea. Haynes adapts his unique performance style to everything from swing to avant-garde. He received the Best Drummer Honours in 1996 from the Downbeat Readers Poll, and the French Chevalier des l’Ordres Artes et des Lettres the same year.
HAYNES ON NICA ". She was somebody that loved the artists and she would just show her respect like that, just hanging out with them and the whole thing and smiling again. You could tell she was enjoying being around it."
T.S. MONK (b. 1949)
"Toot" Monk was drawn to the drums before the age of ten when Max Roach gave him his first drum set. Son of Thelonious Monk, the young Monk joined his father's trio and toured until the elder Monk's retirement in 1975. T.S. Monk then became an R&B bandleader, composer and vocalist, recording the albums House Of Music and More Of The Good Life. He received the New York Jazz Awards First Annual "Recording of the Year" and 'Downbeat's' prestigious 63rd Reader's Poll Award for Monk On Monk, an all-star 80th-anniversary birthday tribute to his father. T.S. Monk formed and is chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute which supports music education across America, and he keeps performing with his much-praised jazz sextet.
TS on Nica 'She took no crap from Thelonious. She would tell me immediately what she thought he was, as she would say, full of shit. She would immediately say ‘Thelonious you’re completely full of shit’. And most often he would just smile because she was right you know.'
Freddie Gruber
Freddie Gruber is a jazz master drum teacher and musician who played with Charlie Parker, among others. Making fast friends with drumming icon Buddy Rich, he observed Rich's style and technique over a long period, and ended up basing his teaching method on what he assimilated.
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