[Foreststorn]
(b Los Angeles, Sept 21, 1921; d New York, Nov 25, 2013). American jazz drummer, bandleader, and commercial composer. He toured with Lionel Hampton and Lester Young, among others (1940–41), before serving in the US Army. From 1948 to 1955 he regularly accompanied Lena Horne and in 1952 he played in Gerry Mulligan’s original pianoless quartet. In 1955 Hamilton founded the first of a series of quintets which introduced such emerging jazz musicians as Eric Dolphy, Ron Carter, Jim Hall, and Charles Lloyd. The groups’ innovative instrumentation—winds, cello, guitar, double bass, and drums—and soft, controlled sounds became, by jazz standards, extremely popular; their performances were captured on film in The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1958). From 1960 Hamilton’s quintet adopted a gutsy blues and swing style, and Hamilton subsequently replaced the cello with a trumpet and then a trombone. In ...
