How time flies. I’m often surprised that I’ve lived long enough to see that young musicians whom I’ve admired in their fledgling years have emerged as mature musicians, playing such outstanding jazz that it’s difficult to remember exactly how they played when I first heard them, although I knew at the time they were immensely talented. So it is with the saxophonist Lachy Hamilton, now studying in Amsterdam, doing his Master’s thesis. He was back in Australia recently for a short time, and I caught up with his playing at a little gig at the Carlisle Castle Hotel in Newtown on Thu Jan 15. This gig happens regularly every second Thu night from about 7.15 pm to 9.15 pm. Just two sets, but played with withering brilliance by a quartet featuring, other than Hamilton, Peter Koopman (guitar, yet another outstanding Kiwi musician), Nick Jansen (double bass) and Tim Geldens (drums).
Hamilton is one of the army of outstanding musicians which has emerged out of the impressive James Morrison crucible. Hamilton completed his Bachelor of Music (Hons) from the James Morrison Academy of Music (University of South Australia) in 2017 where he studied with Jeff Clayton, Mat Jodrell, Carl Mackey, Angela Davis, Troy Roberts, James Morrison, and was the recipient of the 2016 Excellence in Performance Award. He was a finalist in the 2014 and 2015 James Morrison Scholarship, and was selected for the 2015 Telluride All Stars program in Colorado, studying under Bob Montgomery, Josh Quinlan and Ernie Watts.
Before long Hamilton had established himself as a strong voice in the new wave of Australian improvisers and composers, releasing his debut album Alchemy in 2019 to critical acclaim. 2022 saw the release of the album Jahl Heshi, a collaboration with contemporary pianist Harry Sutherland, playing with Jacques Emery (bass) and Alexander Inman-Hislop (drums).
L-R, Jacques Emery, Lachy Hamilton, Alexander Inman-Hislop, Harry Sutherland… Photo credit Shane Rozario
The Carlisle Castle is a typical local pub in a back street in Newtown which appears to have a dedicated clientele. The musicians play at one end of a small rectangular room, which probably seats about 40 people with a clear sightline to the performance area. Those closest to the stage, maybe about 25 people at most, were listening closely to the music and applauding the solos. Otherwise it was a bustling venue with some people accompanied by their dogs on a leash; adjacent to the music room there’s a billiards room which was very noisy on the night I was there; and it’s not far to the kitchen/bistro, which serves tasty food. There are other rooms in the pub which seemed to be more or less full of miscellaneous people engaged in various forms of socialising, so extensive that I got lost coming back from the men’s room. The venue had all the appearance of a flourishing local pub, at least on this night of modern jazz.
I’m told that most jazz gigs in Sydney now take place in small pubs which in turn I suppose means that the musicians are playing for peanuts. At the Carlisle Castle there was no door charge to subsidise the musicians’ fee, no doubt because a door charge would probably discourage attendance. As I don’t get around much anymore, and have given up drinking alcohol, I’m not likely to be a regular at such a pub, unless it’s specifically to hear a particular jazz group or musicians for review, which was the case with Lachy Hamilton.
I assume that this gig presented the sort of repertoire normally fashionable at this sort of gig, with the musicians playing tunes they all knew which would be good to improvise on. Predictably, the head of a tune was usually articulated in unison by Hamilton and Koopman, often at lightning speed. Then solos and the usual four-bar, eight-bar or two-bar breaks with the drums, with the occasional bass solo thrown in for contrast. This is the essential language of jazz played at a very high level, and was a delight to hear; music in which there was never a dull moment. There should be more of it.
The first set began with two tunes associated with Bud Powell, his composition Celia, and the standard All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm, probably best-known for the Bud Powell version. This was followed by an unidentified song, followed by the 1924 standard Tea For Two. Then the set finished with a fifth tune, Monk’s little heard composition We See, a typical Monk tune, catchy but at the same time delightfully abstract.
There was no need for microphones out the front so the music was basically acoustic. Of course Jansen’s double bass, and Koopman’s guitar were both amplified, but the overall sound was basically that of acoustic jazz. It was glorious to hear the unadorned big, full acoustic sound of Hamilton’s tenor saxophone, and to follow his beautiful thought patterns, confirming that he’s definitely a player who’s well worth going to hear.
An unexpected pleasure was hearing the African American drummer Ali Jackson, who sat in on the third number, and played the rest of the first set. To some extent, he dominated the evening’s performance, as he also sat in on the first three numbers of the second set: Edgar Sampson’s 1933 composition, Stompin’ At The Savoy, which is often thought to have been written by Benny Goodman, who had the biggest hit during the swing era; then the lovely Billy Strayhorn ballad of 1961 A Flower is a Lovesome Thing; and the catchy Ellington tune Angelica (Purple Gazelle).
Jackson was an exceedingly interesting drummer, with an unusual, wholly individual approach no matter what time-feel was called for. In Angelica he played for much of the tune simply using his hands and a tambourine, which provided fascinating momentum behind the players. When it came to his solo, he used space and silence to maximum effect. I was not surprised to discover later that, in New York, Jackson studied with Max Roach and Elvin Jones at the New School University for Contemporary Music, and that in 2009, a reviewer in The New York Times wrote “Jackson generates a subtle but irresistible force when he plays, making even the smallest gestures advance his agenda of locomotion”. A perceptive comment, which I felt was borne out at the Carlisle Castle. Apparently Jackson is in Australia in order to teach at Brisbane’s Jazz Music Institute.
The resident drummer Tim Geldens, also by the way, a superb player, was back for the last two numbers of the night, Billy Strayhorn’s Upper Manhattan Medical Group, and Charlie Parker’s Relaxin’ at Camarillo. The three numbers from either Ellington or Strayhorn were an unmitigated delight to hear. Of course there’s an inexhaustible supply of tunes from the Great American Songbook plus jazz standards available to be played, and it’s always an education for me to discover more about those compositions as they come my way. I love to go to the internet as soon as possible after such a gig and check out who composed a particular work, and who played on the composition’s original version. I discovered for example, that the tenor saxophonists who played on the two versions of Monk’s We See were Frank Foster and Charlie Rouse. It’s possible that Lachy Hamilton heard both versions and was influenced by those two great tenorists. Who knows?
In the case of Upper Manhattan Medical Group – sometimes known as UMMG – this was written by Strayhorn in tribute to the medical staff who took care of him following his diagnosis of cancer of the esophagus in 1964. Strayhorn died on May 31, 1967, at the early age of only 51.
Back to the gig. The program was complete at 9.15 pm with Parker’s classic blues Relaxin’ at Camarillo, inspired by Parker’s time at Camarillo State Hospital in California from mid-1946 to early 1947. He was treated there for his alcohol and drug addiction problems. This followed Bird’s mental health crisis where he was arrested after setting his hotel bed on fire and running naked through the lobby while intoxicated. Once again a significant jazz standard played by the Hamilton quartet was full of implications for a little bit of study of jazz history.
By the time this review is read, Hamilton will be either back in Amsterdam, or in transit. Amsterdam is presumably still a vital centre for jazz, dominated to some extent by the lavishly funded venue The Bimhuis, funded that is by governments. In my dreams I imagine such a venue being established in Sydney. In his forthcoming memoir, which I’ve been editing over the last three years or so, Dale Barlow waxes lyrical about Amsterdam, where he was resident for several periods during the 80s and 90s. It was in Amsterdam where Dale recorded the brilliant album Bluesville Time with Cedar Walton’s quartet.
Lachy Hamilton is of a later generation of Australian saxophonists, now following in Dale Barlow’s illustrious footsteps. I have every confidence that Lachy will find a way to build a flourishing career in jazz overseas, just as Dale did, while returning from time to time to retain a foothold in the Australian scene. But the path to real success is of course, gaining a foothold in places like New York, the UK and Europe. The sky’s still the limit.
This concert took place at the Carlisle Castle Hotel, 17-19 Albermarle St, Newtown on Thu January 15, 2026, and featured Lachy Hamilton (tenor saxophone), Peter Koopman (guitar), Nick Jansen (double bass), Tim Geldens (drums) and Ali Jackson (drums).
