Ian Hamer

Who was Ian Hamer?

Ian Hamer, was a British jazz trumpeter.

The son of a successful Merseyside dance band leader, together with his two brothers, also professional musicians, he played in the band run by his mother until moving to London in 1953 to work for clarinettist Carl Barriteau and a brief period with the Oscar Rabin Band. In 1955 he joined the octet put together briefly by Tubby Hayes, a band which recorded at the Festival Hall in 1956. In 1958 he played in the Vic Ash Quintet.

In 1963, together with Harry South, he led a band called The Six Sounds, featuring Ken Wray and Dick Morrissey, and which by 1966 had developed into his own band, the Ian Hamer Sextet. The Sextet featured variously South, Dick Morrissey, Keith Christie, Kenny Napper, Bill Eyden, Tubby Hayes, Alan Skidmore, Spike Wells, Daryl Runswick, Alan Branscombe and Ron Mathewson.

Hamer also played in big bands led by Tubby Hayes, Ted Heath, Mike Gibbs, Jack Parnell and Harry South. He also played with Kenny Wheeler, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, as well as smaller bands with Stan Tracey, Benny Golson, Lalo Schifrin, Gary McFarland, Woody Herman's Anglo-American Herd, Barbara Thompson, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band, Eric Delaney, John Dankworth and Joe Harriott. As a session musician, he played on recordings by The Beatles and Bing Crosby, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, James Last and Matt Monro.