Live in Bern

Unlike a lot of his contemporaries, when Scott Hamilton burst onto the scene nearly 40 years ago, the then-22-year-old tenor saxophonist shied away from musical trends of the day and focused on the kind of jazz played by men like Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims and Ben Webster: full-bodied, muscular music that filled the gap between “Dixieland” and bebop. Since his first album came out in 1977, he's recorded nearly 80 more with like-minded souls in a variety of settings, most of them on the Bay Area's Concord Jazz label. On Live in Bern, he and drummer Jeff Hamilton join forces with pianist Tamir Hendelman and bassist Christoph Luty (the latter Hamilton's current sidemen) on a baker's dozen of delightful tunes that range from “September in the Rain” on through more “modern” fare such as Mal Waldron's elegant “Soul Eyes” and a rousing rendition of Dizzy Gillespie's “The Champ” (dig Hendelman's solo!) before ending with Harry “Sweets” Edison's “Centerpiece.” Medals all around!