Requisites

With Sweet Smell Of Success drummer Chico Hamilton got his first brush (no pun intended) with Hollywood in 1957. Riding high on the popularity of his adventurous quintet of the time – reed/flutist Paul Horn, bassist Carson Smith, cellist Fred Katz, guitarist John Pisano, he and the band were cast in the film after being watched around the country for six months to insure they were drug free, on the heels of Gerry Mulligan’s recent release from jail on similar charges.

This gritty black-and-white film about a ruthless Walter Winchell-style, New York City tabloid-gossip columnist, J.J. Hunsecker, played by a dour Burt Lancaster, who wields his power like a club from Club 21. The plot of this sharp-edged media satire thickens when J.J.’s younger sister, played by Susan Harrison, begins dating the clean-cut young jazz guitarist in the Chico Hamilton Quintet, Steve Dallas, played by Martin Milner. Tony Curtis turns in a brilliant performance as the unctuous Broadway press agent Sidney Falco, who would sell his own mother to get an item in J.J.’s column. It’s your basic “guitarist finds girl, guitarist loses girl, guitarist loses gig but ends up with girl” story.

The music composed by Elmer Bernstein, Fred Katz and Chico Hamilton and performed by Elmer Bernstein Orchestra and the Chico Hamilton Quintet. The personnel in the group are Chico Hamilton – drums, Paul Horn – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, Fred Katz – cello, John Pisano – guitar and Carson Smith on bass. They appear on the soundtrack on compositions by Hamilton and Katz:  Hot Dogs and Juice (Goodbye Baby), Hunsecker Operates (Goodbye Baby), Goodbye Baby Blues and Love Scene (Susan – The Sage).

The group also performed Jazz Themes composed by Hamilton and Katz: Goodbye Baby, Cheek to Chico, Susan (The Sage), Sidney’s Theme, Jam, Night Beat and Concerto of Jazz Themes from the Soundtrack of “Sweet Smell of Success.

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