ANDY HAMILTON
Genres: World Fusion, Post Bop • Jamaica

Andrew Raphael Thomas Hamilton, saxophonist and bandleader, born 26 March 1918; died 3 June 2012 In 1949, the Jamaican tenor saxophonist Andy Hamilton, who has died aged 94, faced a dilemma. As a musician he had reached the top, entertaining Noël Coward and friends at the Titchfield hotel in Port Antonio, then hired as a bandleader by the actor Errol Flynn for parties on his yacht, but his personal life was in crisis and he needed to escape. He joined others of his generation by moving to Britain, where he became a celebrated jazzman and prominent figure in the fight for Caribbean self-determination. He left without warning, hiding himself on board a banana boat and arrived in England as a stowaway. After serving the mandatory 14-day sentence for this misdemeanour, he went in search of his countrymen. He was disappointed at what he found: some living in wretched conditions while others resorted read more...