On 26th March, 1991, someone from the Smithsonian Institution’s Duke Ellington Oral History Project interviewed Jimmy Hamilton. It took place in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Island where he lived.
Ted Hudson published an excerpt of the interview in the DEMS Bulletin 1997/4 which I take the liberty to reprint in Ellington Galaxy.I also include the comments by Sjef Hoefsmit to the claims of Jimmy Hamilton that he composed Add Lib on Nippon.
Hamilton
Something you said just there I like to set the record straight on.I don’t think I don’t think I ever got credit for it and it is my song. I wrote it, I composed it, I arranged it, and Duke collaborated by putting others – by adding to it. That Add Lib on Nippon, that’s mine. I composed that and I did the arrangement for the band. I don’t think that I got any credit for it because when the album came out, they didn’t even mention my name.
Interviewer
No, you’ve been credited for your performance, of course, but I think you are right. You are the composer of it.
Hamilton
I went downtown to see Duke one time when he was down there in that room there on Broadway, down Radio City. He was down there, and I went down there because I was doing some arrangements for him. He would pay me to make arrangements. I went down to see him to get some money or something and went into his dressing room and he said, “Have you seen this?”
I said, “What”?”
He brought out the album that had been released. They put the album out, The Far East Suite.
He said, “Here”.
And I looked at it and I read it, “Ad Lib on Nippon”.
My name ain’t mentioned anywhere. Stanley Dance is the one put it out, put the notes on the back. Didn’t mention me nowhere that I wrote the song.
Interviewer
Did you say something?
Hamilton
I didn’t say anything. You know why? I am going to tell you why he did it. He was like getting — he was getting even with me because something he asked me to do.
We were working somewhere. Where were we working?
Somewhere we were playing and and he asked if I would relinquish this song. There was some kind of award offer, some kind of awards being handed out, and he needed so many things to qualify in some way.And he said, “You’ll get the money for it, you know, but I would like to claim it you know .. uh.”
Interviewer
This is one of your compositions?
Hamilton
Yeah! And I didn’t agree to it. I said “Why should I do that?”
I said, “Hell it might be the only thing I ever do. Why should I?”
But he did not like that. He didn’t like that. So that’s how he got back at me, by doing that
Interviewer
Had you given him – was the composition for “Ad Lib on Nippon” something you did as you were performing? Had you actually written it out and handed to him?
Hamilton
I wrote it out. We were in Japan and we were getting ready to go to the Middle East or Far East, I think it was. And he asked me, , ” Why don’t you write something for you to do in the “Far East Suite?”
So I said, “I don’t know what I can do.” We are on a ship coming back — no on the airplane. And I said “Well I’ll think about it” And I did.
I started working on it, putting it together. And by the time we got to Italy, we were all set. We rehearsed.
Maybe we rehearsed it before we got to Italy. It was a matter of me writing me a solo, some melody to play and then showcasing it with an arrangement so I would stand out. It went over good. It went over quite good. But he never gave me any credit for it. Never got credit for it.
Interviewer
Now, this occasion where he wanted you to agree to let him claim one of you compoditions – do you remember when that was, what period of time? What was he competing for?
Hamilton
Well, it was some kind oif Grammy Award or something like that, you know. I don’t remember exactly what it was but it was some kind of Grammy award like.
Interviewer
Was it very long before the “Ad Lib on Nippon” incident? I mean like years before or was it a fairly short period of time?
Hamilton
No, after we started playing “Ad Lib on Nippon” we went through the Far East and came back, and somewhere we were playing. I used to remember where it was, but I can’t remember it any more. Maybe it was in a theater or somewhere and he asked to use it like that.
Later in the interview Hamilton says “Oh yeah, he gave me credit for Ad Lib on Nippon”
Interviewer
Second time it was….
Hamilton
In the book here. ’68, he gave it to me in ’68.
End of the excerpt of the interview
Here is part of Sjef Hoefsmit’s comment in DEMS.
“It is clear that Jimmy’s claim to have written “Ad Lib on Nippon” can only be justified and should be accepted for part 4 of the Suite which is titled Tokyo. There are some recordings of Duke trying to establish part 3. In June 1964, a video recording was made of Duke’s first tour through Japan. These recordings were used for a 20 December 1964 telecast titled ” Duke Ellington Swings Through Japan”. In this telecast is a short piano interlude of 0:25 min, which is the first time we hear the theme of part 3 of Ad Lib on Nippon. We also hear this theme at the end of the Danish Radio broadcast #26.
Part 2 was part of the soundtrack of Astrofreight. The soundtrack was recorded on 26 August 1964. The title was Iglo or Iglo Blue. As part 2 of Ad Lib on Nippon, this theme was titled Igoo.
Part 1 and and 3 are exclusively for piano and bass. We wonder if there was ever any score written out for these parts.”
Article by Ulf Lundin