MONTREAL It's not as though swing specialist Scott Hamilton hadn't branched out into other styles before recording the lightly bopping "Groove Yard" for his 1991 "Race Point" album. You don't get to be one of the most commanding tenor saxophonists of the post-Stan Getz generation just by minding your generic p's and q's.

But handling the tune, a jauntier and more sinuously lined one than he usually takes on, had a freeing effect. "I'm a little scared to do different things," Hamilton sa...