{"id":679,"date":"2012-04-04T14:08:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T14:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/?p=679"},"modified":"2012-04-04T14:08:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T14:08:57","slug":"the-amazing-life-of-brum-jazzman-andy-hamilton-who-played-for-errol-flynn-noel-coward-and-ian-fleming-and-has-just-turned-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quiliby.com\/all\/the-amazing-life-of-brum-jazzman-andy-hamilton-who-played-for-errol-flynn-noel-coward-and-ian-fleming-and-has-just-turned-94.html","title":{"rendered":"The amazing life of Brum jazzman Andy Hamilton, who played for Errol Flynn, Noel Coward and Ian Fleming and has just turned 94"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following feature on Jamaican-born jazz legend, Andy Hamilton, was written by Steve Bradley and published in the Birmingham Mail<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cI GET quite angry \u2013 he should be given the freedom of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

So says Birmingham historian Prof Carl Chinn about jazz saxophonist Andy Hamilton \u2013 still going strong at 94.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who arrived in Britain in the first wave of West Indian immigrants in 1949, came with a real pedigree as musical director on Hollywood legend Errol Flynn\u2019s yacht Zaca.<\/p>\n

But he has experienced some crushing \u2018downs\u2019 sprinkled with a few significant career \u2018ups\u2019.<\/p>\n

Despite earning an MBE in 2008 for services to music and young people in Birmingham, he has endured racism, sometimes accompanied with violence, and had to battle to win regular gigs for himself and his band The Blue Notes.<\/p>\n

Born in 1918 in Port Maria, Jamaica, Hamilton heard early US radio broadcasts and was exposed to the music of the Jazz Age in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

Displaying a rare talent, he came to the attention of heartthrob Flynn, who owned the Titchfield Hotel in Jamaica\u2019s Port Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was 1946 and I was playing there with my band on the terrace,\u201d Hamilton recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlynn had just come back from Hollywood and danced real close with his wife for a couple of numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next morning a car and chauffeur arrived outside my house and the man said \u2018Robin Hood wants to see you\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went down to the harbour where he was on Zaca. Flynn said he liked my music and offered me a regular spot at his hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Titchfield was the best hotel in Port Antonio so it was a good day for me and my band.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sure liked a good time. He had bought a small island called Navy Island and he used to have big parties there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time he invited the whole crew of an American Navy cruiser, my band would play by the beach and there was a lot of dancing and people having a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like Noel Coward and Ian Fleming lived close by and there would be lots of late-night parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlynn was a real good dancer and dressed real sharp. We became good friends and he kept saying I should go back and play in America but I came to England instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Docking at Southampton, Hamilton took a train to London, then travelled to Manchester, but in little over a week chose Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Hamilton made his base at a house in Trafalgar Road, Moseley, owned by Prof Chinn\u2019s aunt Violet and Jamaican uncle Johnny Brown. \u201cIt was real tough at times, some places would not let us in and sometimes there was trouble but most people were friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going to a jazz club with my sax and got invited up on stage and did a couple of numbers which went down real well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy but when I went back the next week they just ignored me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went home real sad and decided the best thing to do was organise my own band and find places to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gigs followed at venues like the Tower Ballroom, Rum Runner, Chaplins, Cedar Club, plus nightspots in Coventry and Wolverhampton.<\/p>\n

But in the 1950s he was attacked by fascists at a gig he had organised, losing his front teeth.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who married a white woman, Mary, said: \u201cI had started a night and it had got popular, then one night a group of young guys came in and you could see they were looking for trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a break one of them walked onto the stage and picked up my sax.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went up to him, real cool, and asked him to give it back but he was drunk and punched me in the face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police came, I was arrested and had to go to court.<\/p>\n

\u201cA policeman who knew me spoke up for me and the case was dismissed \u2013 I am not sure what happened to the guy but I never saw him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

After decades of performing, Hamilton\u2019s big break came when an article by renowned jazz journalist Val Wilmer earned him a slot at the Soho Jazz Festival in London.<\/p>\n

From there he won a record contract with the World Circuit label to make his first-ever recording, aged 72.
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