Chico Hamilton

Arroyo is a 1991 Soul Note album by drummer Chico Hamilton and Euphoria, the band of younger musicians he was still leading at the end of his life. Born in Los Angeles in 1921, Hamilton was the drummer in Gerry Mulligan's pianoless quartet with Chet Baker, then formed a chamber jazz quintet with cellist Fred Katz, flutist Buddy Collette and guitarist Jim Hall, and over the years gave saxophonists such as Eric Dolphy and Charles Lloyd a place in his groups. In this edition of Euphoria the saxophone chair belongs to Eric Person, with Cary DeNigris on guitar and Reggie Washington on bass.

The quartet recorded and mixed the album on December 11, 12 and 17, 1990 at Manhattan Center Studios in New York, with Roy Clark engineering and Gennaro Carone mastering. The band is credited as producer, with production coordinated by Jeffrey Andrew Caddick and Giovanni Bonandrini as executive producer. Person plays alto and soprano saxophones, and Hamilton drums and vocals. The record opens with Alone Together, the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz standard, reworked at almost twelve minutes, and later turns to Tickle Toe by Lester Young. The other six pieces come from the band. DeNigris wrote Stop and, with Hamilton, The Dance We Didn't Have; Person contributed Where's The Peace?; Hamilton wrote Taunts Of An Indian Maiden, Sorta New and the closing Cosa Succede?, an Italian title translated on the sleeve as What's Happening?. The same trio of Hamilton, Person and DeNigris, without a bassist, returned to the label in 1993 with Trio!.

This is the Soul Note CD, catalogue number 121241-2, first released in 1991.