To paraphrase the -New Testament, many are called but few are chosen to be nicknamed "Bugs." The multi-instrumentalist John Bugs Hamilton obstructs the path of most jazz listeners through his presence on a batch of Fats Waller sides recorded between 1938 and 1942, music so bouncy that it could easily make a round trip between the earth and the moon. The trumpeter emerged out of an early '30s project that was the pet project of trombonist Billy Kato. Inclusion in the brass section of a new Chick Webb was a posting of more prominence for Hamilton, but one so brief that anyone who stopped for a coffee might have missed it entirely.

In 1935, the trumpeter was among the rowdy roustabouts who made up Kaiser Marshall's band at the wonderfully-named Ubangi Club. After a stint with Bobby Neal, Waller came along with his activities which at any given time could include a hectic gigging schedule as well as prolific, off the cuff recording. In the year following his final gigs with this group the trumpeter began an association with Eddie South that might have been equally rewarding had health issues not interrupted. Playing any horn became an impossibility and he succumbed to tuberculosis in 1947. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi