In Focus: Dave Hamilton

Jump into the work of the Motor City producer, guitarist, and vibraphone player, Dave Hamilton. Hamilton is probably most famous for his work in the early 1960s as a session musician at Motown Records, with the legendary Funk Brothers. In 1963, he released his debut as a leader with Blue Vibrations, on the Motown subsidiary Workshop Jazz. Nowadays, he is remembered not only as a musician, but also as a talented, successful and highly respected producer. In the mid-’60s Hamilton created his first labels Tempo and Topper, and in 1965 established the Da Da recording studio. As label owner, producer and studio musician, Hamilton recorded a wide variety of material during the 1960s and 1970s, much of which was unreleased at the time, including gospel and funk recordings. He went on to start further record labels, including TCB and Demoristic, and his career as a producer has been documented by Ace Records since 1998 - but it’s taken several series of compilations from the label to release just a fraction of the music Dave Hamilton produced.