FRED HAMILTON
Fred Hamilton is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and a professor in the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas. He teaches guitar, jazz improvisation, and rhythm section master class and directs the guitar ensembles. He has played bass or guitar with Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Cedar Walton, Mike Stern, James Moody, George Garzone, David Liebman, Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, Kenny Wheeler, Art Lande, and many others. He is the bassist and guitarist in the Earl Harvin Trio and has toured and recorded four albums since the group's formation in 1993. He is a founding member of the group Brahma, which plays guitars, dobro, the Hindustani slide guitar, and banjo. During the summer, Fred teaches and performs at a variety of workshops, which have included the University of Washington, the University of Colorado, the Nairopa Institute, the University of North Texas, and the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops. Denton, Texas, and UNT have been home since 1989, and before that, he held positions on the faculty at Concordia College in Montreal (1984-85), St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (1982- 84), and Bowling Green State University in Ohio (1979-82). He received the Bachelor's and Master of Music degrees in composition from the University of Northern Colorado where he was a graduate teaching fellow from 1978 to 1979. Before that, he played guitar and composed and arranged for the Commanders Jazz Ensemble in the U.S. Air Force with the NORAD Command Band (1972-76). During his formative years in Denver, Colorado, he studied with Jim Atkins, the original rhythm guitarist with the Les Paul Trio. The other influential guitarist in the Denver area during his youth was the legendary Johnny Smith.