Stuart Hamer (born 1934) is a British jazz trumpeter. Following an illness in the late 1980s, he switched to the piano and concentrated on composition.
The brother of musicians George and Ian Hamer, [1] the three sons of legendary Grafton Rooms’ 1930s bandleader Wilf Hamer would all play later in the same band, then led by their mother. [2]
In 1957 he started playing regularly in Germany, first with Lars Werner and then later with Putte Wickman, Povel Ramel and George Russell’s Emanon Big Band. In 1959, he was in the trumpet section with Benny Bailey and George Ernzst in Oscar Pettiford's All Stars band, which also featured Albert Mangelsdorff and drummer Joe Harris. [3]
Back in the UK, in the early 1960s Hamer led a quintet featuring Tony Archer and Harold McNair.
In 1966, he was in the Ronnie Ross Big Band which was recorded live for NDR. [4]
In 1968, he played in the trumpet sections, alongside Dizzy Reece, of two line-ups led by Dizzy Gillespie, the Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band in Berlin, and Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra. [4] Around that time he was also a member of the Joe Harriott Quintet, with Pat Smythe, Coleridge Goode, and Phil Seamen.
He later focused on African music, living for some time in Africa and performing in London with African musicians including Ghanaian (UK based) band Hi-Life International.
Jerome Richardson was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Kenny Burrell, and later with Earl Hines' small band.
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.
Ronnie Scott OBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London's Soho district, one of the world's most popular jazz clubs, in 1959.
Tom Harrell is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger. Voted Trumpeter of the Year of 2018 by Jazz Journalists Association, Harrell has won awards and grants throughout his career, including multiple Trumpeter of the Year awards from Down Beat magazine, SESAC Jazz Award, BMI Composers Award, and Prix Oscar du Jazz. He received a Grammy Award nomination for his big band album, Time's Mirror.
Joseph Arthurlin Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone.
Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece is a Jamaican-born hard bop jazz trumpeter. Reece is among a group of jazz musicians born in Jamaica which includes Bertie King, Joe Harriott, Roland Alphonso, Wilton Gaynair, Sonny Bradshaw, saxophonists Winston Whyte and Tommy McCook, trombonist Don Drummond, pianists Wynton Kelly, Monty Alexander, bassist Coleridge Goode, guitarist Ernest Ranglin and percussionists Count Ossie and Lloyd Knibb.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz disc jockey Jimmy Lyons.
Allan Anthony Ganley was an English jazz drummer and arranger.
Al Grey was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called Plunger Techniques.
Julius Watkins was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the Down Beat critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for Miscellaneous Instrument.
Ernest Andrew Royal was a jazz trumpeter. His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big band recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).
Philip William Seamen was an English jazz drummer.
Sahib Shihab was an American jazz and hard bop saxophonist and flautist. He variously worked with Luther Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Fletcher Henderson, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, John Coltrane and Quincy Jones among others.
Robert Orr was a Scottish jazz drummer and session musician.
Harry Percy South was an English jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who moved into work for film and television.
Ian Wilfred Hamer was a British jazz trumpeter.
Michael "Spike" Wells is an English jazz drummer and priest.
Frank Holder was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist. He was a member of bands led by Jiver Hutchinson, Johnny Dankworth and Joe Harriott.
James Theodore Powell was an American jazz saxophonist who played alto sax.