Eddie Cantor used to say, “Sometimes it takes ten years to become a star overnight.” Chuck Riggs, 34, knows the feeling. He had been working with tenor sax player Scott Hamilton for a full ten years before the release of the album, Close Up: The Scott Hamilton Quintet on Concord Records in 1982. “That’s the record that really put the band on the map,” Riggs recalls. “That record basically got us Japan.” The Scott Hamilton Quintet (Hamilton, Riggs, guitarist Chris Flory, bassist Phil Flanigan, and pianist John Bunch) wowed ’em on its first Japanese tour in 1983, playing its contemporary swing everywhere from tiny, packed jazz clubs, to vast—but also packed—concert halls. “The Japanese really know how to treat an artist. You know, doing one-nighters is very hard for a drummer. Not only do you have to keep your energy up night after night as you tour, but every place […]

August 1985 Issue