A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help pianist and keyboardist Steve Hamilton following surgery to remove his right kidney, writes Rob Adams.

Steve Hamilton. Publicity Photo.

Hamilton, who lived and worked in London for a number of years after graduating from Berklee School of Music in 1995 and has been an integral part of drumming legend Billy Cobham’s band since 2013, underwent a CT scan in August for a problem that has since been cleared up.

However, the scan found a tumour that could have been life threatening if left to develop.

“I went into hospital on September 25th and had the kidney removed along with the tumour and hopefully any traces of it from my body,” says Hamilton who is now recovering at home in Stirling. “It seems we found it early enough to hope for a clear outcome moving forward.”

Just before he had his CT scan, Hamilton, whose extensive CV also includes tours and recordings with Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Peter King, Tommy Smith  and Pee Wee Ellis and gigs with Ray Charles, Freddie Hubbard and Van Morrison, had released his first album under his own name, Between the Lines, on Bandcamp.

Having appeared on more than forty recordings as a sideman, Hamilton felt that the enforced lay-off due to the Covid-19 pandemic gave him an ideal opportunity to work on his own music.

Between the Lines is dedicated to his father, the guitarist Laurie Hamilton, a constant source of advice and musical discoveries, who died in 2013. It features Martin Taylor MBE and saxophonist Paul Booth, whose quartet Hamilton plays in. Guitarists Don Paterson and Davie Dunsmuir, Hamilton’s colleague from the Billy Cobham Band, also made stellar contributions.

“I really enjoyed the process of making the album,” says Hamilton. “I didn’t set out with any particular aim or sound in mind. Of course, I didn’t expect to be undergoing life-saving surgery once the recording was finished but I’m beginning to do some exercise, like slow walking, and I’m looking forward to getting back into some kind of musical action again. I’m just so grateful to my NHS consultant and the whole team who looked after me. They were all amazing.”

You can donate to the GoFundMe campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/steve-hamilton039s-nephrectomy-recovery-fund

Between the Lines is available on Bandcamp https://stevehamilton.bandcamp.com/album/between-the-lines