Already a noted bandleader after logging time as a sideman for Count Basie, Lester Young, Lena Horne and others, drummer Chico Hamilton found himself at the crossroads of stylistic expansion on 1966's El Chico. The album came at a time when the sound of bossa nova galvanized jazz listeners, and Hamilton reacted in his own unique way, incorporating the sound of the genre alongside his own avant-garde touches. Hamilton's line-up — Jimmy Cheatham on trombone, Sadao Watanabe on alto saxophone, guitarist Gábor Szabó, bassist Albert Stinson, and Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja augmenting Hamilton on percussion — gives the album its vivid character, combining melodic openness with richly layered rhythm and texture. The mix of originals ("El Moors," "Helena," the group-written "Conquistadores") and outside material (Barbra Streisand's "People," "This Dream," "Marcheta") underscore the group’s adventurous, cross-cultural approach, as well as Hamilton's embrace of global influences for a more exploratory, rhythm-driven sound.
The Verve Vault series is all-analog, cut from the original master tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
