World of Percussion mourns Lionel Hampton.

[djarrett]

One of the exceptional careers in American music ended yesterday as Lionel Hampton, vibraphone pioneer, big band leader, and jazz ambassador, died at the age of 94. Mr. Hampton died of heart failure at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Over a career that spanned seven decades, Mr. Hampton popularized the vibraphone - a percussion instrument that resembles the xylophone and previously had been employed only for novelty effects. He also produced historic recordings with small and large groups, sustained a successful big band into the eras of rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll, and became known throughout the world as one of jazz's most extroverted and identifiable personalities.

Lionel Hampton, who received the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton in 1997, was born in Louisville, Ky., on April 20, 1908. He spent his early years in Birmingham, Ala. When his family moved to Chicago, in 1916, he was sent to a private academy in Wisconsin, where he studied drums and joined the school's fife, drum, and bugle band. After further playing and instruction as a member of a group called the Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band, he began touring with various bands as a teenager, arriving in Los Angeles in 1927.

During a long residency at Sebastian's Cotton Club, Mr. Hampton met Louis Armstrong. The trumpeter heard Hampton play orchestral bells on ''Song of the Islands,'' and suggested in a 1930 recording session that Mr. Hampton play the vibraphone, or vibes, that were in the studio. His playing of ''Memories of You'' on that occasion is considered the first important recorded jazz-vibes solo.

Mr. Hampton was still working on the West Coast, leading bands of his own and still primarily playing the drums. He was billed as ''the World's Fastest Drummer'' when Benny Goodman heard him in 1936 and decided to expand the Benny Goodman trio that had already made history. Pianist Teddy Wilson joined Goodman and Gene Krupa to form the first racially integrated public performing ensemble.

''I truly feel,'' Mr. Hampton said in 1994, ''that the Benny Goodman quartet opened the door for Jackie Robinson coming into Major League Baseball. The integration of musicians started a lot of things happening.''

With the assistance of his wife and manager, the late Gladys Riddle Hampton, he became one of the wealthiest jazz musicians. Mr. Hampton was also a major campaigner and fund-raiser for such Republican politicians as Richard M. Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller.

Among the many other significant parts of Mr. Hampton's legacy are the low- and moderate-income housing built by the Lionel Hampton Development Corp. in Harlem and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, an annual competition for high school and college musicians held each February at the University of Idaho.

From 1936 to 1940, Mr. Hampton enjoyed tremendous success as the featured vibes soloist in Goodman's small groups and as an occasional drummer with the Goodman orchestra. It was also in this period that Mr. Hampton began a series of 23 legendary recording sessions for RCA Victor that included the greatest musicians of the period. These records featured Mr. Hampton as vibist, drummer, pianist (using a two-finger attack that produced surprisingly modern results), and vocalist.

When a bout of sciatica forced Goodman's temporary retirement in 1940, the clarinetist encouraged Mr. Hampton to assemble his own big band and offered financial backing. ''I got my basic training from Benny Goodman,'' Mr. Hampton would recall. ''I just followed Benny's example of how to build a dance book and conduct a dance.''

The Lionel Hampton Orchestra was a major attraction through the 1940s, a period when most big bands were in decline. Among its numerous successful recordings on the Decca label were ''Flying Home,'' on which tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet played one of the most famous solos in jazz, and ''Blow Top Blues,'' sung by the jazz great Dinah Washington (a name Hampton gave her to replace her real one, Ruth Jones).

Among other important jazz figures to receive early exposure in Mr. Hampton's orchestra over the next decade were Dexter Gordon, Arnett Cobb, Johnny Griffin, Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, Betty Carter, Jimmy Scott, Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, and Quincy Jones.

As commercial blues material eclipsed pop songs and led to the decline of many big bands, Mr. Hampton adjusted to the times. He was among the first to employ an electric organ and Fender bass, and he introduced heavier measures of showmanship into his performances. (One possibly apocryphal story had his entire band jumping off a boat into the Potomac River on the break in ''Flying Home.'')

To the end, however, Mr. Hampton remained a traditionalist in his selections and approach. ''I still play dance music,'' he said in 1994, ''and it's still crowded when we play. Where do you think rock 'n' roll came from? It came from our heavy beat, and people's ability to dance to it.''

While satisfying his jazz fans during the 1950s with a series of memorable Verve recordings that paired him with Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Stan Getz, Mr. Hampton maintained his big band until 1965, when he began to appear with greater frequency in combo settings. In the past three decades, he regularly reassembled the larger ensemble for international tours, while also working with such all-star groups as the recent Golden Men of Jazz.

Beginning with a 1953 tour of Europe, Mr. Hampton became a major attraction overseas. He conducted numerous tours throughout the world well into the '90s.

Mr. Hampton's wife died of a heart attack in 1971. They had no children.

By Bob Blumenthal

The Boston Globe, 9/1/2002

[Jazzman]

Thanks DJ for putting this up on the thread. You talk about the big names in the business....

 

I didn't know some of the things that you mentioned in the writeup from the Post.....a true artist that loved his trade. A heavy hitter and master in the formulation of Jazz. The Cotton Club.....if the walls of that club could only speak. I wonder if someone will write a book about his life?

 

He helped so many other up and comming artists along the way, a true professional. Sorry to hear about his passing,94 is gitting up there. What a life he had. I wonder what his thoughts were about the many Jazz styles of today.

 

I didn't realize that he played the drums too.

 

I love the sound of Vibes! Really breaks out from the norm.

 

Jazzman

[kh]

i hope that many others take the time to read your post. so much history created by that one man. he was one of my first influences-- as a kid, i heard many of his early recordings with benny goodman. the music lives on. thanks for taking the time out. take care.

-ken

[Tedster]

Mr. Good Vibes...rest easy...and I hope he's jamming with Ray Brown...