How Chico Hamilton inspired Nick Mason’s favourite Pink Floyd song
By the time Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd, nothing was ever going to be the same. Here was the guy responsible for getting the band off the ground in the first place, and now he had fallen victim to his own mental issues before they had gotten time to release a proper follow-up to the album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. They needed to move forward, and Nick Mason was thrilled when he got the chance to play ‘Set the Controls for The Heart of Sun’ to channel his inner Chico Hamilton.
When looking at the live footage of Mason playing, he’s not exactly flying across the kit like every other rock and roll drummer. He had already started venturing outward to other instruments, and the fact that he had mallets was a lot closer to where his roots were when thinking about the song.
Even though rock was practically a dirty genre compared to jazz, Chico Hamilton was the kind of artist who could wow anyone regardless of the style labels. When working with his band, Hamilton knew the importance of variety with every song he wrote. He understood how to get the most out of the drum either by annihilating it or providing just the right delicate touch to make everything else work.
Since Pink Floyd never limited themselves to any one genre, they found themselves dipping their toes into jazz on A Saucerful of Secrets. While most of the album is an outright mess featuring loads of different dissonant noise and Barrett’s table scraps, Mason knew that he wouldn’t have been the drummer he is today without Hamilton teaching him how to play ‘Set The Controls for The Heart of the Sun’.
When talking about his favourite Floyd songs, Mason thought that ‘Set the Controls’ grew out of how Hamilton played, telling GQ, “I know exactly where it came from in terms of the drum part, which was Chico Hamilton playing in a film called Jazz On A Summer’s Day. He does a drum solo played with mallets. It’s beautiful and so different to any other drum solo. I’m all in favour of technique and would encourage any young drummer to practice and learn the basics. But so much of rock drumming is about what not to play.”
Even though Mason is capable of playing fantastic drum fills on pieces like ‘One Of These Days’, ‘Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ is one of the greatest minimalist performances he ever did. Since songs like the title track felt like works in progress, Mason’s way of moving with the music feels like he’s much in tune with what everyone else is playing for the very first time.
Throughout the band’s live shows, Mason would continue to improve on what he laid down on the studio version. Now that the song had more time to breathe, the entire group seemed like they were all listening to each other, weaving together different pieces of the tune to create a unique tapestry of sound that makes the listener feel like they’re floating out in space.
Just like every other genre they touched on, Mason wasn’t bound to stay in that lane for much longer. The band would shed their space-rock skin, but ‘Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun’ would still be one of the first crowning moments of their history as a live act.
