Jazz Great Lionel Hampton, 94, Dies

Associated Press, via Yahoo! News ^ | 31 August 2002 | Larry McShane

[BluesDuke]

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•	Lionel Hampton

There was more than musical magic on stage that day in 1936 when Lionel Hampton joined Benny Goodman in a Manhattan ballroom — it was a breakthrough in American race relations.

Hampton, a vibraphone virtuoso who died Saturday, broke a barrier that had kept black and white musicians from performing together in public. Through a six-decade career, he continued to build a name for himself as one of the greats in jazz history.

"He was really a towering jazz figure," said saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who played with Hampton in the 1950s. "He really personified the spirit of jazz because he had so much joy about his playing."

The 94-year-old showman and bandleader died of heart failure at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said his manager, Phil Leshin. Hampton suffered two strokes in 1995 and had been in failing health in recent years.

Hampton played with a who's who of jazz, from Goodman to Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker to Quincy Jones. His own band helped foster or showcase other jazz greats including Charlie Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro, Joe Williams and Dinah Washington.

"With Hampton's death, we've drawn closer to losing part of the origins of the early jazz era," said Phil Schaap, a jazz historian.

During his career, Hampton performed at the White House for presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Bush. When he played for Truman, his was the first black band to ever entertain in the White House, Hampton once said.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., remembered Hampton's 90th birthday party at the White House, when the man known as the "vibe president" invited President Clinton ( news - web sites) to grab his saxophone and jam.

"Lionel was a spectacular guy," said Rangel, who recalled seeing Hampton play at the Apollo Theater, the legendary concert venue in Harlem. "He has to be missed."

In 1997, Hampton received the Presidential Medal of Honor — while wearing a borrowed suit, socks and shoes, because all his clothes and much of his bands' arrangements and other memorabilia had been destroyed in a fire two days earlier.

Hampton's music was melodic and swinging, but audiences also responded to his electric personality — the big smile, energy and bounce that contributed to his style. When not playing the vibes, he drummed, sang and played his own peculiar style of piano, using two fingers as if they were vibraphone mallets.

Hampton was a songwriter, too; he wrote his most famous composition, "Flying Home," in 1937 and played it about 300 times a year for the next half-century. It was a hit in 1942, propelled by an Illinois Jacquet tenor sax solo.

"Lionel Hampton was a true American legend," said former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani ( news - web sites). "He will be sorely missed by all New Yorkers, Americans and music lovers around the world."

Hampton did not have a copy of his birth certificate but marked his birth date as April 20, 1908. It was generally accepted that he was born in Louisville, Ky., and raised by his grandmother in Birmingham, Ala., and Chicago.

He learned to play the drums from a nun while in grade school, and launched his career with Les Hite's band after finishing high school. It wasn't until a 1930 recording session with Armstrong that Hampton played the vibraphones.

"There was a set of vibes in the corner," Hampton once recalled. "Louis said, `Do you know how to play it?'"

He didn't. But after 45 minutes of noodling on the instrument, Hampton felt comfortable enough to swing in behind Armstrong on "Memories of You."

The future "King of Vibes" toured with his own band on the West Coast, then settled in at the Paradise Nightclub in Los Angeles.

In August 1936, Benny Goodman heard Hampton play and three months later Hampton was at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York, starting out "four gorgeous years with Benny" in the new, trailblazing Benny Goodman Quartet.

That quartet, with Hampton, pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, broke racial barriers that had largely kept black musicians from performing with whites in public. Wilson and Hampton made up the black half of the foursome.

Wilson had recorded with Goodman and Krupa previously, and white soloists "jammed" informally with black groups, but a color line was drawn whenever a white band was on stage.

Hampton took to the road with his own orchestra in 1940 and built bookings into the million-dollar-a-year range. After the big-band era died, Hampton pared down to a smaller group — around eight players dubbed the Inner Circle — and he occasionally put bigger groups together to travel the globe as a musical ambassador of the United States.

Hampton regularly turned up at colleges and major jazz festivals, made guest appearances on numerous television variety shows and recorded scores of jazz albums and singles.

Hampton also established a community development corporation which, with government support, built low- and middle-income housing in New York and Newark, N.J.

One of his projects in Harlem is named for his wife, Gladys, who died in 1971 after a 35-year marriage. The couple had no children.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

[BluesDuke]

The Lionel Hampton Orchestra came and played at my high school the summer before my senior year. I think with the exception of Milt Jackson I have never heard a more joyous yet passionate sound from any jazzman playing the vibraphone.

To this day, Hampton's playing is the predominant reason why I prefer the Benny Goodman Quartet's version (recorded during the legendary 1938 Carnegie Hall concert) of "Stompin' At The Savoy," for years the signature piece in the Goodman orchestra's book. There's something about the four-piece version which just flat outswings and outcharms the full band version, which was classic enough.

I had a box set of Hampton's best Bluebird/RCA recordings over the years and lost it with too many others of my treasures (books and music) in floodwater damage a few years ago. I had read in 1995 or 1996 that Hampton in an apartment fire lost the bulk of his record collection, and I contacted the reporter in New York who broke the story (I was a radio reporter at the time) offering to give my box set to Hampton if he could make contact for me. (I was willing to commit my set to tapes, having heard that Hampton for life preferred old fashioned shellac and vinyl records.) The reporter never did. But I would have done it, kind of to say thanks to the old man for all that terrific music.

That's going to be some set of the Goodman Quartet God will be hearing now that Lionel is sliding in with his vibes. Benny, Teddy, and Gene just weren't right without him...

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I love that sound, too. Beautiful post, BluesDuke.

May he rest in peace.

[DallasMike]

Another article I read today said that he was a staunch Republican and Reagan supporter. All that talent and a sharp mind, too!

[CyberAnt]

"Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Bush"

I was waiting on my car to be fixed this morning, and they had CNN news on. Since I couldn't reach the TV, I was forced to endure. However, the segment they did on Hampton only showed Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush - no dems. I find that interesting ...??

[texasbluebell]

Link to a photo of the jazz great with the 'toon, which I hesitate to post here as a photo, simply because the face on the left will sully the thread. If anyone wants to see it, you've been warned!

link to photo

[leilani]

This "news story" conveniently omits that he was a lifelong activist for the republican party.

[Faraday]

One of the giants. Thanks for the post.

[Fintan]

Lionel Hampton. Miles Davis. Muddy Waters. Howlin' Wolf. Frank Sinatra. Elvis Presley. Robert Johnson. The list goes on...And add your names.

And all we have left is...nothing.

[freedomson]

Jazz lovers bump

[Mr. Mojo]

And all we have left is...nothing.

Well, we still have, uh,.......

Yeah, I guess you're right. John Lee Hooker was the last of the great bluesmen, and he died last year. A lot of great jazzmen are still around, but no absolute legends (other than perhaps Oscar Petersen....not one of my personal favorites).

Well, we do have Bob Dylan.

[Mr. Mojo]

Rest in peace, Lionel. You were a class act in every way.

[BluesDuke]

Hampton was exquisite in any of the Goodman small groups with which he played. Even more shimmering than the Quartet's "Stompin' At The Savoy" was the beautiful "Memories of You" by the Goodman Sextet of the 1940s, with Charlie Christian on guitar as well. And if you want flat out exuberance, it doesn't get much better than the Quartet's "Avalon". Not to mention a jam-session setup performance at the Carnegie Hall concert of "Honeysuckle Rose" (though the real treat on that number is when a surprised Freddie Green - Count Basie's great rhythm guitarist, a.k.a. "Father Time" - is handed a solo spot he would never have expected; never a soloist, Green simply thought on his feet and chunked out a cleverly improvised round of mid-to-upper chords over the bass and drums).

[BluesDuke]

Just imagine all the people Hampton can now pick to play with...me, I'd love to hear some snappy duets between the Hamp and Milt Jackson (his only real superior on the vibraphone), with maybe Connie Kay of the Modern Jazz Quartet to percuss anything and everything that could be percussed, perhaps Mr. Ellington to punch out a few short piano chords and runs, maybe Lester Young to kind of nudge his way in with the lyric tenor sax and Johnny Hodges to break out the alto sax...shall we invite Wes Montgomery to strap on his guitar, urge Miles Davis to clip the Harmon mute onto his trumpet, get Jack Teagarden and his trombone and maybe convince him to sing a round of the blues if he can get Satchmo to shaddap for a few choruses...bring in T-Bone Walker for the slinky blues guitar...over here, Ms. Fitzgerald, we need some scat, cat...and perhaps you'd care to bring your soprano sax to the party, Mr. Trane...and yes, bring Messrs. Goodman, (Jimmy) Hamilton and (Russell) Procope (Duke Ellington's best of the reedmen who doubled on clarinets) and his clarinet along for the ride...and, by all means, Messrs. Monk and Tatum, you'll be taking some turns at the piano...?

Right about now, I'm thinking this is the only time I'd even think about wishing I were God. That's some band he can bring himself together...

[BluesDuke]

Yeah, I guess you're right. John Lee Hooker was the last of the great bluesmen, and he died last year. A lot of great jazzmen are still around, but no absolute legends (other than perhaps Oscar Petersen....not one of my personal favorites).

You mean B.B. King has died and the news hasn't come forth yet? But while I'm at it, boy could God line himself up a blues band any old time he wants...set Francis Clay behind the traps and get Willie Dixon on that upright bass...put Mr. Spann on the piano and Mr. (Groove) Holmes at the organ, what the hell, there's room for two, let Little Walter and Big Walter (Horton) blow the harps...let's get Mr. Bloomfield and Big Albert (King) on the electric guitars...maybe Mr. Waters for some slide dueling with Mr. Allman...and did I hear someone say the Mighty Wolf should handle the vocals?

[BluesDuke]

And all we have left is...nothing.

I wouldn't go that far...not if Diana Krall is working among us...and Horace Silver and Sonny Rollins are still alive and well...

[Mr. Mojo]

B.B. and Horace slipped my mind, of course. Sonny's style was a little too abrasive for my taste. My favorite tenor player was The Hawk.

[Mr. Mojo]

Duane and Muddy dueling slide would be incredible. And perhaps Lowell George - a very underrated slide player - could jam with them as well. I'd add Sonny Boy Williamson to the harp playing contingency.

Mighty Wolf should handle the vocals?

No argument here. Btw, have you ever heard the Wolf's London Sessions? A surprisingly good album (especially considering his age), and he's joined by the likes of C. Watts, B. Wynman, and Eric Clapton. Anyway, right before they go into "Little Red Rooster," The Wolf lectures them all about "finding the groove"...and it's just priceless. Those Englishmen were a bit out of their league.

[BluesDuke]

I liked Coleman Hawkins. (He did a charming album with Duke Ellington in the early 1960s, by the way, and if you ever get to hear Hawkins' work with the old, foundational Fletcher Henderson Orchestra - Henderson was really the man who set the basic guidepost for what became swing - you are in for a huge treat, especially if you get to smoke out their recordings when Hawkins and Louis Armstrong were feature soloists in the band.) I didn't think of Sonny Rollins as particularly abrasive so much as I thought of him as going for an earthy root in a contemporary mode and maybe a bit too firmly so, but I never held that against him - hearing the expanded CD version of his classic Village Vanguard sets with his original sax-bass-drums trio remains a revelation (particularly when Elvin Jones is the drummer), and the two volumes of Sonny Rollins, his Blue Note debut, are incomparable. Rollins had (and still does, for all I know, I've not heard the man lately, alas) a charming knack for sneaking back to a theme during an extended improvisation in places other than those you might expect him to do it. He also did some nice work with the Modern Jazz Quartet, as a bannered guest on one of their albums.

Tell you the truth, I almost wish I could step into a time machine and go back to just hang on the lower level and listen during the period when Rollins, dissatisfied, retired from active playing, spent his time practising and rethinking his music, and actually waded out to the Williamsburg Bridge in the wee small hours to practise. I have heard legend holding it that a lot of those practises were enough beyond these things that it would be a pleasure to just eavesdrop on the lower level...

He's one of my favourite tenormen but I also loved Stan Getz, Lester Young, the John Coltrane who made those remarkable Atlantic albums, Toby Hardwick (a tenorman with the Ellington orchestra of the 1930s), Charlie Rouse (Thelonious Monk's longtime tenorman), and Paul Gonsalves (Ellington's marathon tenor soloist of the 1950s and 1960s).

[BluesDuke]

I liked London Sessions, but to be honest of all the British players who worked on that album I thought, really, that only Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood were really sympatico to the Wolf (right around where the Wold lectures them on the "Rooster" groove, old Eric practically has to drag him kicking and screaming to play acoustic slide, which he hadn't played in some time before that date and never really was a whiz with to begin with - but Clapton had it right: the Wolf was no slide virtuoso but he was deadly for just using the technique to set a groove); Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts didn't really seem to find themselves settling in easily or catching the grip of Wolf's subtleties.(Not their fault, really, if you consider that the Stones hadn't been Wolfmen so much as they'd gone for Muddy's later electric work and the Chuck Berry/Bo Diddley sort of rocking blues.) The sleeper sideman of the album: longtime Chess keyboard stalwart Lafayette Leake, one of the more underrated of the legendary Chicago blues sidemen.

Another surprising latter-day Wolf album is Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited - he's in surprisingly spry voice in this small club date, and if his band sounds a little too rudimentarily bent in places the exuberance of the performance is worth it.

I liked Sonny Boy Williamson, too, but I actually thought he was a better songwriter than harmonica player (and he was a hell of a harmonica player). The Sonny Boy album to have (though none of them should be away from any serious blues lover): Down and Out Blues, all his own material, and all of it remarkable. Most valuable player: guitarist Robert Jr. Lockwood.