The "freak-folk-jazz" collective, Uncivilized, helmed by guitarist, composer and environmentalist Tom Csatari, has been playing Chico Hamilton's music in different iterations since 2015 (first at the now-shuttered Cornelia St Cafe in Greenwich Village, and twice at the experimental world music venue, Barbès, in Brooklyn). Chico grew up in LA and cut his teeth playing in big bands and with singers like Lena Horne and Billie Holiday before co-founding the famous Gerry Mulligan quartet: a pianoless Cool-Jazz group with Chet Baker. Eventually, he made his way to New York, formed a successful trio of his own, and in the 60s created The Chico Hamilton Quintet which featured guitar as the main chordal instrument alongside variations combinations of flute, cello, and trombone—this group bridged the gap between chamber jazz and the avant-garde in a way previously unheard of. The group was featured in the noir film Sweet Smell of Success and featured a number of relatively unknown players who Chico, like Miles Davis, handpicked for the ensemble, discovering, mentoring and sharing their genius with the world (for instance, the horn players Eric Dolphy and Charles Lloyd, as well as the guitarists Gabor Szabo and Jim Hall were featured in the quintet long before they began their own careers.) Anyways, this music has always been a natural fit for Uncivilized because it lives in that odd space between groove, experimentalism, and classical-tinged subtlety. Maybe what Uncivilized brings to Chico's sonic world is more of a noise, musique concrète flair, with some electronic effects and imploding drones set into their arrangements of his music. All told, Uncivilized's arrangements are true to their original versions, like some sort of twisted museum piece.
Recorded and mixed by Tom Miritello (tommiritello.com) at The Music Building in New York, NY on 26 July 2021. Additional help from Gabe Kirchheimer at Studio Chill (www.gabekphoto.com).
Funded in part by Imran Mirza at Blue In Green Radio (blueingreenradio.com).
1. Conquistadores (Willie Bobo, Chico Hamilton, Albert Stinson, Gábor Szabó, Bob Thiele)
This is a reworking of a Chico Hamilton Quintet studio jam. That sounds like an oxymoron! All hands on deck with a signature Uncivilized drone devolution to boot!!
2. El Moors (Chico Hamilton)
A dizzying drum feature, with a modal, eastern-tinged main theme. Chico wrote great melodies, and he had a successful jingle-writing business for many years. His melodies were simple but evocative: check out the bass lines played here by the tuba—hip & modern.
3. Helena (Chico Hamilton)
This Chico original feels like the soundtrack to a dance sequence in a Polanski film. Chico and his quintet starred in the 1957 crime drama Sweet Smell of Success and scored it as well. This tune has that cinematic vibe but it’s also chock full of bossa-nova groove and group interplay.
4. El Chico (Chico Hamilton)
A quick triplet number with a gorgeous melodic theme reminiscent of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” but more outré and bizarro. We took it Hendrix-meets-Twin Peaks with gauzy feedback and reverse tape delay to wash everything out. Cello + Flute bringing it to those poignant uppers while the tuba and drums stir the pot. Is that cello playing bebop?
5. Marcheta Feat. Kevin Sun (Victor Schertzinger)
“Marcheta” was written as a Mexican Love Song for a Hollywood film by one of Johnny Mercer’s favorite collaborators, Victor Schertzinger. It showcases Chico’s arranging skills and orchestrational genius: he always had unique groups of instruments in his bands. Our version features the amazing tenor saxophone playing of Kevin Sun, who is a great composer in his own right, and who brings some momentous solo lines on this take which are full of joy, bop, and wonderment.
Rachel Housle—drums & percussion; Ben Stapp—tuba; Nick Jozwiak—cello; Kevin Sun—tenor sax & flute and “Uncivilized Tom” Csatari—guitar & effects
TRACKLIST
1. Helena [Excerpt] (C. Hamilton)
2. Conquistadores (C. Hamilton)
3. Group Improvisation [D Drone] (Uncivilized)
4. Strange (M. Fisher, arr. C. Hamilton)
5. El Moors Feat. Rachel Housle (C. Hamilton)
6. Escarpments (Uncivilized)
7. BrandCore™ (Uncivilized)
8. El Chico (C. Hamilton)
9. Group Improvisation (Uncivilized)
10. Stupid Gurus (Uncivilized)
11. Marcheta (V. Schertzinger, arr. C. Hamilton)
12. This Dream (L.Bricusse/A. Newley, arr. C. Hamilton)
13. ScoJaVel® (Uncivilized)
14. Homeward (C. Hamilton)
15. Blues (Uncivilized)
VIDEO
Excerpt from Chico Hamilton’s “Strut” performed by Uncivilized’s 2017 Barbès residency (covered in The New York Times: https://nyti.ms/2sMdTth) feat. Tom Csatari (guitar, arrangement) Julian Cubillos (guitar) Ben Chapoteau-Katz (bass clarinet) Casey Bermen (bass clarinet) Levon Henry (tenor sax) Tristan Cooley (flute) Dominic Mekky (sound design) Rachel Housle (percussion) Jason Burger (percussion) Coleman Bartels (percussion) Caleb Brown (percussion) [https://youtu.be/n_-tUSki6QE]:
In an event sponsored by Blue-in-Green:RADIO, Uncivilized, deemed “The Bernie Sanders Jazz Band” by Impose Magazine, and operating “its own fuzzy, folky, big-hearted thing” (New York Times), played Chico Hamilton's 1965 album El Chico at Barbès on July 27th in Brooklyn, New York [https://youtu.be/TNLv2bMKBF8]:
You know Chico Hamilton and you don’t; he’s upfront with purpose but the mystery is preserved. (we overheard someone say something about his writing the jingle tune to Jello, but it’s unconfirmed.)
There was always a wide variety of instrumentation in Chico’s ensembles (featuring unorthodox Jazz instruments like cellos, guitars, and trombones), and, as would make sense from an award-winning drummer, rhythm was always at the forefront of the rearrangements and reimaginings. Miles Davis seems like a relevant correlative here, but Chico had a very different thing going on.
Known for a sprawling 50-album-plus discography of his own albums—and as a side-person cutting his teeth with Lester Young, Chet Baker and Lena Horn—Chico might be best pigeon-holed as one of the greatest interpreters of American song. Chico’s proclivity for eclecticism had an interesting impact on his arrangements: a blend of bossa, swing, and rumba was cast over old songs and classic standards. No album is more illustrative of this characteristic swirl than the Impulse!–released El Chicofrom 1965.
El Chico takes Hamilton’s swinganova reworkings of the old songbook to new heights, with the added sound of Hungarian psychedelic-jazz troubadour Gabor Szabo’s acoustic guitar added to the fray alongside members of Hamilton’s somewhat commercially successful quintet: Albert Stinson on upright; Jimmy Cheatham on Trombone; Sadao Watanabe on alto sax/flute; and guest percussionists Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja. The results of this confluence are romping and ragged: at one point on “Conquistadores” (basically a studio jam), the percussionists can be heard egging Szabo on with yells and yips while the whole thing reaches out into the sunset ether. There are a lot of fades on the album, but it holds together as a sort of cinematic, latin-inflected noir which is humanistic and modern in the same breath. (Watanabe’s boppish lines are often the urbane foil to the tribal rhythms underneath, while Hamilton’s own drum set is mapped on a driving boogaloo beat that is bouncy but driving.)
The repertoire on El Chico contains four Hamilton originals, each on-brand with a certain melodic and chordal language that the drummer-composer would explore on more conceptual late-career albums like the funk-inflected Nomad (1980), and the long-form crossover success Peregrenations (Blue Note, 1975). “El Moors” ends with a drum feature, speeding up into mayhem, before returning to the modal, eastern-tinged main theme, while “Helena” feels like the soundtrack to a dance sequence in a Polanski film—it’s no surprise that Chico and his quintet starred in the 1957 crime drama Sweet Smell of Success and scored it as well.
The covers on El Chico wind the obscure into a rarefied groove space. The group’s Bossa-Nova version of “People”, originally recorded by Barba Streisand for the Broadway show Funny Girl, was probably Chico’s most signature track, with Szabo’s raw, bent strings twisting it to and fro. “Strange” was a common-sounding melody popularized by Nat King Cole; “This Dream” was boiled down to a samba-ish vehicle for improvisation, with Szabo’s fretboard work stealing the show. The real curveball is “Marcheta”, which was written as a Mexican Love Song for a Hollywood film by one of Johnny Mercer’s favorite collaborators, Victor Schertzinger: here it’s reworked into a repeated form which moves between unison playing and a heart-wrenching chord progression while Watanabe floats on top, this time with a flute.
The record is in some ways a sign of things to come with Mr. Hamilton: the addition of Charles Lloyd on flute and saxophone a few years later would explode the group into fame and later disabandement as each of the younger players—after being discovered and mentored by Chico—moved on to become a star with their own groups, sometimes with the maestro himself steering the drum chair (Gabor Szabo’s Spellbinder for instance).
This is effortless music with pulse and an eye towards the unknown. | t csatari
PLAYS CHICO PRESS
“Uncivilized’s Tom Csatari has never shied away from the influence of Chico Hamilton on his own recordings, whether on solo guitar outings or with his expansive and ever-shifting free-jazz collective. … [the] group suffuse the selections here with the same liberated and exuberantly searching ethos.” ~ Aquarium Drunkard
“Americana Meets Latin Jazz With Uncivilized :: Led by Tom Csatari, the ‘experimental Americana collective’ Uncivilized has a neat line in interpretations of others’ music. Previously they’ve performed the works of Frank Zappa, John Fahey and Elliot Smith and the soundtrack to Twin Peaks – and for their next live stream they’ll be digging into the music of quirky Latin jazz maestro Chico Hamilton for a show in partnership with the UK’s Blue In Green Radio. With guest tuba player Ben Stapp along for the ride, you can very much expect the unexpected.” ~ Joe Muggs
“If you’re online on Tuesday evening, July 27, catch Uncivilized, an experimental Brooklyn collective when they take on the music on Chico Hamilton’s El Chico album, recorded in 1965. Uncivilized has been a fixture at Brooklyn’s Barbès club since 2013. The group features Rachel Housle (d/percussion), Ben Stapp (tuba), Nick Jozwiak (cello), Kevin Sun (ts) and Tom Csatari (g/effects).” Marc Meyers, JazzWax.com
BAND PRESS
The New York Times:
“A mix and match jazz ensemble”
“its own fuzzy, folky, big-hearted thing.”
“jazz with twists and turns.”
New & Notable, Bandcamp.com
“A smooth blend of psych-folk and ‘80s/‘90s-style jazz fusion…"
Richard Gehr, The Village Voice
“YES, JAZZ CAN BE BUCOLIC … Rustic Anarchy”
Brian Chidester, The Deli:
“otherworldly … with great Charles Lloyd-like flutes.”
Impose Magazine:
”The Bernie Sanders Jazz Band.”
“orchestrations of controlled micro-doses of chaos”
Lucid Culture:
“heavy pastoral jazz.“
“hauntingly cinematic, lushly sweeping”
Secret Decoder Magazine:
“vivid pop compositions”
“pastoral exploratory works flicker with bright life”
“attentive dynamics and spirited playing”
Aquarium Drunkard:
“Uncivilized’s radical folk-jazz suggests a top down realignment is more than just possible, but necessary.”
Stereogum:
“This sonic journey is one well worth taking.”
Steve Smith, NPR, The New Yorker, etc.:
“Uncivilized has been dubbed a 'gothic, campfire freak jazz’ collective, and maybe that’s a fair estimation of the band’s loose ethos. But listening to Garden, derived from a 2018 Pioneer Works concert, I’m struck by how closely and deferentially these players listen to one another as they float among modal jams, soul-jazz grooves, and Twin Peaks covers.”