Lionel Hampton

Lionel " Hamp " Hampton ( born April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky; † August 31, 2002 in New York ) was an American jazz musician. He is known as a bandleader, and Jazzperkussionist Vibraphonvirtuose. Hampton is one of the most famous names in jazz history, and worked with prominent jazz musicians such as Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker and Quincy Jones.

Life

Childhood and youth

Hampton grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Birmingham, Alabama, but moved to Chicago in 1916 while still a child, where he grew up well cared for by his uncle and attended a Catholic school. His uncle was Richard Morgan, who worked occasionally for Al Capone. Morgan was lovers of Bessie Smith and drove her car when she was killed in a rear-end collision.

Career

Hampton began his career as a drummer in bands in Chicago and California ( where he moved to in 1927 ). In the Les Hite band, he began playing drums in addition also xylophone. They soon became the house band by Frank Sebastian's New Cotton Club, a popular jazz club in Los Angeles, where Louis Armstrong heard him. Early as 1930 he made recordings on a vibraphone ( Armstrong in the NBC Studios in Los Angeles discovered ) with Armstrong, with whom he performed well at the Cotton Club in Harlem. The vibraphone as a jazz instrument became popular through Hampton. In 1934 he had his own band before he played for four years with Benny Goodman, whose orchestra came in November 1936 to Los Angeles to perform at the Palomar Ballroom. By John Hammond Hampton Goodman met, and asked them to go with him to New York. So they made with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman Quartet, the. The quartet was one of the first racially integrated bands and performed in front of large audiences.

While Hampton worked for Goodman in New York, he made recordings with various small groups under the name of Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1940 he left the Goodman band and formed his own touring band. In Hamptons band played talents such as Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Ernie Royal, Jack McVea, Charles Mingus, Monk Montgomery, Wes Montgomery, Quincy Jones, Benny Golson, Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, Clifford Brown, Dinah Washington, Betty Carter, Joe Williams, Arnett Cobb, Earl Bostic, Art Farmer, Clark Terry and others. His wife Gladys Hampton, who died in 1971, was also his manager ..

Hamptons recording of Flying Home (1942 ) with the famous tenor sax solo by Jacquet was later refined and expanded by Cobb (1946 ); it applies to some of the first rock - 'n' -roll plate. For Quincy Jones Hampton was " something of a rock ' n' Roller".

He was known for his energetic style of play on vibraphone, drums, and piano - he played with a two- finger technique like a vibraphone.

The mid-1980s gave Hampton and his band at the University of Idaho a concert that was named 1985 " Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival ." 1987 there, the music college was renamed " Lionel Hampton College of Music"; it remains to this day the only university music college with the name of a jazz musician. In addition to his music, he was also socially and politically engaged ( on the Republican side ). He was the initiator of several residential development projects in Harlem and Newark (New Jersey).

In 1996, he died in a house fire may be scarce with his life, but lost his entire household, his instruments and records. Lionel Hampton died on August 31, 2002 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York to cardiac arrest and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.

In 1988 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. He was more honorary doctorates. In 1996 he received from U.S. President Clinton, the National Medal of Arts.

Hampton also had several film appearances, including in Pennies from Heaven (1936, a Bing Crosby movie ) plays drums with Louis Armstrong in which he (hidden under a mask ). Later he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Discography (selection)

Collection

• The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 - ( Mosaic - 2007) - 5 CDs with Ziggy Elman, Hymie Schertzer, Vido Musso, Adrian Rollini, Jess Stacy, Allan Reuss, Gene Krupa, Cootie Williams, Lawrence Brown, Johnny Hodges, John Kirby, Cozy Cole, Buster Bailey, Jonah Jones, Eddie Barefield, Clyde Hart, Edgar Sampson, Billy Taylor, Sonny Greer, Harry James, Benny Carter, Babe Russin, Herschel Evans, Billy Kyle, Omer Simeon, Budd Johnson, Russell Procope, Jerry Jerome, Chu Berry, Milt Hinton, Danny Barker, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Charlie Christian, Henry Red Allen, JC Higginbotham, Earl Bostic, Sid Catlett, Toots Mondello, Al Casey, Slick Jones, Edmond Hall, Joe Sullivan, Freddie Green, Zutty Singleton, Budd Johnson, Nick Fatool, Nat King Cole, Oscar Moore, Helen Forrest, Marlowe Morris, Teddy Bunn, Kaiser Marshall, Sir Charles Thompson, Irving Ashby, Marshall Royal, Shadow Wilson