Foreststorn “Chico” Hamilton, a distiguished jazz drummer, band leader and composer known for inspiring fellow and aspiring musicians, has died. He was 92.
A news release from Hamilton’s publicist says he died Monday in New York City.
An NEA Jazz Master saluted as a Living Jazz Legend by the Kennedy Center, Hamilton recorded more than 60 albums as a band leader, beginning in the 1950s, and also appeared in and scored films.
He founded a commercial and film music production company after moving to New York in 1965 and helped found the New School University Jazz & Contemporary Music Program.
Born in Los Angeles in 1921, he was in a high school band with Charles Mingus and Dexter Gordon and other classmates destined to become jazz innovators.
(Photo: AP)
