Jazz legend Chico Hamilton dies at 92

PanARMENIAN.Net - Jazz legend Chico Hamilton, who accompanied icons such as Lena Horne, Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis Jr. over the course of his seven-decade career, died of unknown causes in New York at age 92, USA Today said.

Born Sept. 20, 1921, in Los Angeles, Foreststorn Hamilton got his start in a band in high school and fast became a drummer on the rise, playing gigs with Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker and Billie Holiday. He broke out as a bandleader in 1955, heading ensembles such as Players, Pacific Jazz and Euphoria over the years, and recording more than 60 albums, including his most recent, Revelation, in 2011.

Aside from appearances in the 1941 film You'll Never Get Rich alongside Fred Astaire and the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby comedy Road to Bali, Hamilton composed the soundtrack for Roman Polanski's 1965 thriller Repulsion, as well as hundreds of TV and radio commercials.

Known for experimenting in genres such as jazz funk, post-bop and hard bop, the influential musician notably inspired artists such as Carlos Santana, Thievery Corporation and the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts. He also helped found the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music Program in New York in 1987, which has taught students such as members of Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors.

Hamilton was appointed to the President's Council on the Arts in 2006, and was honored by the Kennedy Center with a living jazz legend award the next year. His final album, The Inquiring Mind, is slated for release in early 2014.