REVIEW: Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen in A Place for Jazz Kick-off/Fundraiser, Friday, April 25, 2025

If history arguably repeats, it often rhymes. In the hands and horns of tenor players Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen, it also harmonized Friday in a spring kick off and fundraiser for A Place for Jazz.

The two celebrated the music and memory of predecessor tenor team Zoot Sims and Al Cohn in a two-set show that nearly filled the Carl B. Taylor Auditorium of the SUNY Schenectady County Community College Music School. 

Harry Allen, left, and Scott Hamilton

Hamilton (70) and Allen (58) warmly recalled the 50s and 60s heyday of Sims and Cohn, when bebop eclipsed swing’s last echoes and rock kicked down the door. Meeting in the 1940s “Four Brothers” sax section of Woody Herman’s second Herd, Sims and Cohn played with everybody thereafter, though most often as a duo. Before both (born in 1925) passed in the 1980s, Hamilton played a 1972 orchestra gig behind Elvis Presley, while Cohn played on pop-jazz records by Laura Nyro and Phoebe Snow.

Sims and Cohn developed a staccato swing arrangement of “What the World Needs Now” that Hamilton and Allen expertly played Friday; one of several tunes from Sims & Cohn albums from 1956 to 1962. In fact, Hamilton and Allen started with the well-mannered mellow flow of “The Opener” from the Zims-Cohn book. 

Hamilton and Allen looked back together in slightly different ways. Hamilton let the venerable tunes tell their tales tastefully in straight-ahead simplicity, too lively to feel reverent, exactly, but painting inside the lines; while the playful, extraverted Allen expressed more personality, especially humor. He introduced himself as Dan Ayckroyd, for example. If things felt a bit tentative at first, by the end they were finishing each other’s sentences.

Scott Hamilton/Harry Allen Quintet. From left, Rossano Sportiello, piano; Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton, tenor saxophones; Mike Karn, bass; Aaron Kimmel (obscured by a cymbal), drums

After both tenors had their say with a song, pianist Rossano Sportiello led the rhythm section of bassist Mike Kart and drummer Aaron Kimmel in crisp breaks that showed they could have carried the whole show as a tasteful trio gig, before the horns took over again to take things home.

After “The Opener,” Hamilton noted this was one of few Sims-Cohn tunes they knew, then promised they’d also play “a couple we don’t know;” but only Hamilton played without charts. They gave Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis’s “Hey, Lock” a slower, suave ease, then bopped their way through Billy Byers’s “Doodle Oodle” with confident aplomb, a light-hearted ramble of pure fun in skilled hands. Osie Johnson’s witty “Expense Account,” a relaxed stroll, held that mood with a friendly sax dialog before Hamilton and Allen joined forces powerfully at the recap.

Hamilton left the stage to Allen for a tender “Someone to Watch Over Me” over Kimmel’s brushed drums, Karn’s understated bass and Sportiello’s tasty comments in the seams of the familiar melody before Allen applied a glorious solo cadenza. Hamilton rejoined in the set-closer, Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail” – a spirited romp that revealed the Duke’s modernist side.

Rossano Sportiello, left, piano; Mike Karn, bass; Aaron Kimmel, drums

After the break, Sportiello, Karn and Kimmel ran through Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose” to elegant effect as a trio, Sportiello injecting a period-perfect stride exploration and Kimmel playing the melody beautifully on brushed drums.

Hamilton and Allen came on to reach together into the Sims-Cohn songbook for “Mr. George, a 60s hard-bop number that built energy with the tenors trading fours together and with Kimmel’s drums. These riff swaps lit up the latter portions of several songs, Kimmel’s understated playing forming an elegant foundation for whatever the horns wanted to do up top.

Another bop number followed, using the same conversational riff sharing to fine effect, though Hamilton apologized afterward for missing a cue. Then they revved back up, very together, in Jake Hanna’s “Jake’s Lament,” a jaunty, dance-y swing celebration far less sad than its title.

They then recreated the rhythmic Sims-Cohn arrangement of “What the World Needs Now,” all post-bop abruptness and surprise before a bluesy coda.

Rosanno Sportiello, piano, left; Scott Hamilton, tenor; Mike Karn, bass, Aaron Kimmel, drums

Like Allen’s solo spot in the first set, Hamilton chose a ballad for his in the second,” a tender read on “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face” that took full advantage of his elegant phrasing. 

After rightly praising engineer Troy Pohl for fine sound, they closed with “Blues Up and Down” which Hamilton called the most celebrated tenor battle before noting that Sims and Cohn hadn’t played it “but everybody else does.” 

Their unity in the harmony passages yielded to contrasting individual expressions; Allen fast and fluent, Hamilton meditative and thoughtful. But when they reunited in the final choruses, they both steered close to the melody and each other.

Bill McCann didn’t have to cajole the guys much for an encore of “Lonesome Road,” swinging it, playing the familiar melody in crisp harmony.

Nothing seemed lonesome about the road these guys travel – together, with their trio and the echoes of their heroes. In their somewhat old-fashioned way, they made the evening a welcoming, unhurried and comfortable ride.

Susan Brink, left; and Jerry Gordon

At the break, Susan Brink presented the Jazz Journalist Association’s Jazz Hero Award to longtime A Place for Jazz volunteer Jerry Gordon, currently its secretary and web-master. 

Maestro Bill McCann also announced the A Place for Jazz fall season: Sept. 5: saxophonist David Murray Quartet; Sept. 19: guitarist Peter Bernstein Quartet; Oct. 3: saxophonist Sarah Hanahan Quartet; Oct. 17: saxophonist Leo Russo Sextet; Nov. 7: singer Tyreek McDole.

Season pass memberships supporting the volunteer non-profit A Place for Jazz’s concerts and educational programs including scholarships are available at www.aplaceforjazz.org.