Already a noted bandleader after logging time as a sideman for
Count Basie, Lester Young, Lena Horne and others, drummer Chico Hamilton found
himself at the crossroads of stylistic expansion on 1966's El Chico.
The album came at a time when the sound of bossa nova galvanized jazz
listeners, and Hamilton reacted in his own unique way, incorporating the sound
of the genre alongside his own avant-garde touches. Hamilton's line-up — Jimmy
Cheatham on trombone, Sadao Watanabe on alto saxophone, guitarist Gábor
Szabó, bassist Albert Stinson, and Willie Bobo and Victor
Pantoja augmenting Hamilton on percussion — gives the album its vivid
character, combining melodic openness with richly layered rhythm and texture.
The mix of originals ("El Moors," "Helena," the
group-written "Conquistadores") and outside material (Barbra
Streisand's "People," "This Dream," "Marcheta")
underscore the group’s adventurous, cross-cultural approach, as well as
Hamilton's embrace of global influences for a more exploratory, rhythm-driven sound.
The Verve Vault series is all-analog, cut from the original master
tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
