All about Music Unlimited




	1974 to Today Music Unlimited was founded by Al Hamme in 1974 to provide musicians in the Binghamton, NY area with an outlet to play modern big band jazz and to create a personnel base so that he could contract musicians for the various traveling shows that were beginning to appear in the Binghamton locale. In the last 35 years, Al has broadened the scope of this organization to include all facets of the music business. Music Unlimited now provides a number of different-sized bands that present jazz concerts, provide music for social functions and continue to back traveling artists. In addition, Music Unlimited also provides arranging and production services for recording projects, stage shows and industrial exhibitions. Al Hamme is a woodwind artist, clinician, conductor, arranger and composer. He has recorded with Slam Stewart, Phil Woods, Tom Harrell, Peter Appleyard, Richard Wyans, Bucky Pizzarelli, Tony Marino, Mike Holober, Sherrie Maricle, Ann Chamberlain, Steve Gilmore, Steve Brown, Tom Whaley, Bill Carter, Fred Hersh, Ron Vincent and Gene Bertoncini. Al contributed to Slam Stewart's final recording in 1987, The Cats Are Swingin', and Jacque Tara Washington's Jazz Passions, as a performer, arranger and producer. Al's recordings with his own band, The Swing Street Jazztet, include *The Swing Street Jazztet Plays Dave Wheeler* and **Potpourri: The Open Studios Sessions*. Al is a founding member of the Presbybop Quartet.* Recordings with this ensemble, lead by pianist and composer Bill Carter, include *Faith in a New Key, Dancing Day, Fragile Incarnation, Stand on Your Head, John According to Jazz, Welcome Home* and *Psalms Without Words*. Al founded the jazz program at Binghamton University in 1964 and directed it for 33 years. Other responsibilities while on the faculty at Binghamton University included: Director of the Concert Band and Wind Chamber Music Program (1967-1989); Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Music (1975-1985); and Chairman of the Music Department (1980-1985). He also served as the director of the Cornell Jazz Ensemble for six years and was chosen to be the first Artistic Director of the School of Jazz Studies for the New York State Summer School of the Arts Program (1985-1991).