Ian Hamer

Biography

11 September 1932, Merseyside, England, d. 3 September 2006, Brighton, England. Born into a musical family, both of Hamer’s parents were professional musicians, he took up the trumpet, later adding flügelhorn. An early engagement was in a family band, led by his mother in which two brothers also played. At 16 he became a professional musician and within a few years was launched on a career that took him into numerous distinguished musical relationships. Among many with whom Hamer played from the late 50s and on through subsequent decades are Oscar Rabin, Vic Ash, Carl Barriteau, John Dankworth, Eric Delaney, Joe Harriott, Ted Heath, as a member of Woody Herman’s Anglo-American Herd, Vic Lewis, Dick Morrissey and Jack Parnell. For many jazz fans of the era, Hamer’s most significant teaming was a spell with Tubby Hayes during which he made several albums as lead trumpeter, composer and arranger. Hayes used Hamer’s charts and compositions on...

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