THE MUSICIAN: A funny thing happened on the way to a gig

By Don Hamilton

THE MUSICIAN is an autobiography of an 86 year old Jazz  musician who wanted to go to some big city like New York or Chicago to become a "star",ater he graduated from college, however he decided to become a music teacher, for the security and be a part time professional musician as a sideline. After he t

• Language: English
• Publisher: H & H Music Service
• Release date: Apr 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780990659235

Book preview

The Musician

A funny thing happened

on the way to a gig.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

By

Don Hamilton

Contents

Preface

This kid has rhythm

My first real instrument

World War II

Early music lessons

My Trio

The Quintet

On to college

The Big Snow of 1950

The 249th Army Band

Pranks for the memories

Airplanes, motorcycles, hang gliding, what next?

Strange places to perform

On the road again

Performing overseas

Christmas programs for Special Education classes

Honors and Awards

Performing experiences

It’s never too late, for music

You have to stop somewhere

It’s been a good ride

Acknowledgements

About the author

Preface

In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. Next, He created man, and named him Adam. He took a rib from Adam and He made woman and named her Eve. Now that He had created man and woman, it became necessary to create something that was capable of soothing those savage beasts, He had just created. It seemed logical that the creation of music would be the next step, because we all know that music can sooth those savage beast within all of us humans, at least, that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

This is a story about a want-to-be musician, a young man who appeared to have been given a gift from God, the gift of music. This young man was named Donald Lee Hamilton and he was born July 16, 1931, at the end of the great depression. He was the only child of Alfred L. and Julia Elizabeth Willis Hamilton, a rather middle class family from Fairmont, West Virginia.

Donald appeared to have a lot of rhythm in his soul. When music would come on the radio (TV was not yet invented) he would react to the music by tapping his foot, or clapping his hands to the beat of the music. Both of his parents agreed that this should be developed so, at the age of five, Donald was enrolled in tap-dancing classes. That was a huge mistake. Don hated every minute of this class. Yes, he did have a lot of rhythm, but it never got down as far as his feet. He was not able achieve the very basic dancing steps and was soon allowed to stop those dancing lessons. I guess his feet had no clue about the requirements of dancing. We have to assume that Don’s feet were unaware that they were meant to be dancing.

Long before Don began the study of music, he had dreams of being on a stage, playing music of all types and many different instruments, to entertain other people. He had been given this gift from God and felt the desire to develop that gift in any way possible. This is a story about a young man who had received a gift and made a lifetime of sharing his gift with the rest of the world. This is a story about Don Hamilton, The Musician.

This kid has rhythm

I was the only child of a middle class family in West Virginia. My father was the manager of a local branch of a national chain of shoe stores, the Kenny Shoe Stores. My mother, Julia Elizabeth Willis Hamilton, was the next to oldest of five children. She had worked as a deputy in the County Sheriff’s office, prior to my birth. After I went to school, she worked part-time in the shoe store, for my dad.

Both parents were amateur musicians but neither one had ever considered becoming professional. As a young man, Alfred had studied the violin and prior to getting married, he had played for the silent movies in the pit-orchestras of some of the local theatres around central West Virginia. In this job, the musicians would be placed in front of the stage (or in the pit), and play appropriate music to fit the action on the screen. Sometimes the movie company would send music for the musicians to play, but generally, this music was improvised and the players simply made up something that would fit the action displayed on the screen. Actually, there wasn’t any sound with the movies. The words were printed at the bottom of the movie screen and the orchestra provided the mood through the music. I had often wished I could have been able to be one of those musicians. Improvisation is one of my strong suits and I would have felt right at home, watching the movie and making up music to fit what I was seeing.

With these musical genes rolling around in Don’s family, it’s not surprising that something pertaining to music was developing within this young man’s life. Since I seemed to show a good bit of rhythmic ability, my parents decided to enroll me in tap dancing classes. Of course, this was not the answer. I never was able to achieve the simplest basic steps. In fact, it’s doubtful if my feet ever realized that they might be designed for dancing. After a few (long) weeks, my parents realized that this was not where my musical talent and ability would lie. I was finally allowed to quit tapping and look farther into the world of music.

In about the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school,