Omar Clarke, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU
JAMAICA AND Birmingham's living Jazz legend, Andy Hamilton is a teacher whose generosity and talent have finally been recognised by the music fraternity. Having delivered the album of the year in Birmingham and received an honorary doctorate in music, the goldenager has finally struck the highest note in his musical career.
Born in Port Maria, St. Mary, Andy, from an early age has devoted his life to making music and passing on his skill and enthusiasm to new-generation musicians.
Having celebrated his 82nd birthday on March 26 - Andy has today more pupils and followers in Birmingham than ever. Holding classes at the Midlands Arts Centre, in schools and in a jazz clubs, beginners rub shoulders with international stars as Andy expounds his knowledge in generous proportions.
Andy's early musical diet was made up of church music. "I went to Catholic mass first and then to other churches as the day went on," he told Showbiz.
But it wasn't the church, it was the music I was interested in.'' Before long he was leading a singing group - the "Mills Brothers''-"I learned to play brass instruments with the Salvation Army. My Dad wanted me to learn to play the organ, so I could play the one at the church. My Mother wanted me to play the violin. But my mind was set on the saxophone.'' Andy said, smiling.
He was 15 years old, when he eventually got the instrument he desired - a sax. This was the start of his fulfillment of his dream.
Local dinners and procession, parties, weddings, concerts and other kinds of presentations boasted the young player. As a player who had captured the imagination of music lovers in the cold climate up north, so he was invited to perform at gigs in jazz clubs in Syracuse, and Buffalo during the Second World War. There he gathered more experience and sharpened his technique.
He returned home to Jamaica in 1944, but Andy was restless for the life he had tasted overseas. However, immigration laws prevented his return to the United States. So in 1949 he went back to England, hoping one day to go on to America. But, he was never able to leave British soil. Birmingham was to become his home.
"I just love Birmingham," he said. "There were some racist people with ideas of course, but I could handle that. I made friends with a lot of young white guys who love jazz.'' But life in the jazz lane was not always a smooth ride. There was, for example, the time that a militant racial group landed in a jazz nightclub and thrashed the place to pieces.
Andy ended up with a split lip and several missing teeth. He confesses that there were times, when he came home, put the sax under the bed and just cried.
But jazz was in his blood and playing and mingling had shaped his attitude. "Anything multi-racial, I'd do. I'd explain that music is good medicine - it keeps people to get together." he explained.
Through the 1950s and 1960s Andy became a focus of jazz activity in Birmingham. When the big band came - Ellington, Basie he hosted them after their concerts. And all the time he was attracting, encouraging and teaching young players. From all of his home-grown material came his own groups and band. Andy retains a traditional attitude to dress and behaviour believing that correctness in these matters display respect for the audience.
In the mid 1980s, Andy's educational activities became more formalised and intense. At that time, Alan Cross, a Birmingham teacher with an interest in jazz, was tutoring Andy's son Graham, who later went on to play in the rock band Fire Young Cannibals. Alan befriended Andy and started a long collaboration which has led to Andy being "almost a member of staff ' at Lea Mason School, where Alan Cross works. From Lea Mason school, workshops and festivals have spread across the city; Alan Cross and Andy also run a Jazz at The Bear, a gathering place for Jazz musicians. Showbiz watched Andy at work with a beginner saxophonist at the Midland Art Centre. There were players who could only just manage to draw a coherent sound from the instrument. Andy listened with care, reaching out to adjust a finger here, making a little gesture there. Always, he spoke of the need to aim for "good Tone".
He is one of those natural teachers, who say little and, uncannily, seems to produce results without any obvious system or technique - Alan Cross agrees: "--he's got the calm and balance attitude to the job".
He doesn't actually call it teaching. He likes to talk about helping people. The secret lies not so much is Andy's individual tuition as in his acceptance of what the players bring and in the way he encourages them to play together and learn from each other.
With no teacher training other than a life time's experience, Andy has arrived at an effective approach which emphasizes learning rather than teaching, when he gives a school workshop, for example, he bring some of his own pupils, and every one ends up learning from everyone else. He takes players to concerts and sits by them, "--watch this, see how the pianist is working with the drummer.'' All of his life he has been learning, and he wants his young players to approach their work in the same way.
Now in recent years there has come long overdue recognition well beyond his own followers. Andy has delivered his first album of the year and recognition of his work came in December of 1992, when Birmingham University made him an Honorary Master of Arts-for services to music and the teaching of young people. This his wife Mary, their ten sons and daughters and a growing army of grandchildren are ecstatic about.
