Ian Hamer (artist) • The Paul McCartney Project

Born:: Sep 11, 1932

Died:: Sep 03, 2006

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About

From Wikipedia:

Ian Wilfred Hamer (11 September 1932 – 3 September 2006) was a British jazz trumpeter.

Early life

Hamer was born in Liverpool, the son of a successful Merseyside dance band leader. Together with his two brothers, also professional musicians, he played in the band run by his mother until serving in the Royal Air Force.

Music career

In 1953, Hamer moved to London to work for clarinettist Carl Barriteau and a brief period with the Oscar Rabin Band. From 1955 to 1956, he was part of the Tubby Hayes octet. He later joined the Vic Ash quintet.

In 1963, together with Harry South, he led a band called The Six Sounds, featuring Ken Wray and Dick Morrissey, and which by 1966 had developed into his own band, the Ian Hamer Sextet. The Sextet featured variously South, Dick Morrissey, Keith Christie, Kenny Napper, Bill Eyden, Tubby Hayes, Alan Skidmore, Spike Wells, Daryl Runswick, Alan Branscombe and Ron Mathewson. Also in 1966, Hamer joined the Top of the Pops studio orchestra conducted by Johnny Pearson.

Hamer also played in big bands led by Tubby Hayes, Ted Heath, Mike Gibbs, Jack Parnell and Harry South. He also played with Kenny Wheeler, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, as well as smaller bands with Stan Tracey, Benny Golson, Lalo Schifrin, Gary McFarland, Woody Herman’s Anglo-American Herd, Barbara Thompson, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band, Eric Delaney, John Dankworth and Joe Harriott. As a session musician, he played on recordings by The Beatles (“Got to Get You into My Life” ) and Bing Crosby, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, James Last, Matt Monro, and Peter Herbolzheimer. […]

BEATLES PLUS JAZZMEN

IT’S Ringo, Paul, George and John week! And in this week of “Paperback Writer” (it’s out tomorrow, Friday), comes the news the Beatles have recorded an LP track with top British jazzmen.

Georgie Fame advised the Beatles on the best musicians available that would “think Beatle”. On the session were Ian Hamer, Les Condon and Eddie Thornton (trumpets), Alan Branscombe and Peter Coe (tenors).

Trumpeter Les Condon told the MM of his reaction to working on a Beatle date: “Interesting and unusual — I’ve never done a session quite like it before. The tune was a rhythm-and-bluesish sort of thing — we were only on one number which they had recorded previously. Apparently they felt it needed something extra. That’s why we were there. The arrangement? Well, they didn’t have a thing written down. We just listened to what they’d done and got an idea of what they wanted. Then we went ahead from there and gradually built up an arrangement. We tried a few things, and Paul McCartney – he’s really the prime mover who gets everyone at it — and recording manager George Martin decided between them what would be used. But most of it went right the first time. Ian and I jotted down some voicings but everybody chipped in and credit for the arrangement must be evenly divided. I suggested something for the trumpets for an ending, and we dubbed that on. They didn’t think it was quite strong enough, so we dubbed it on with the three trumpets again. You’ll really be hearing six trumpets in that coda. It was the most relaxed session I’ve ever been on. The Beatles all seemed very nice fellows. And do you know what? They didn’t tell us anything. They kept asking things.”
From Melody Maker – June 11, 1966