Hampton, Lionel 1908(?)–

Lionel Hampton 1908(?)–

Jazz vibraphonist, band leader

Played in Newsboys’ Jazz Band

Joined Benny Goodman Quartet

Fostered Careers of Young Jazz Players

Selected discography

Sources

Leader of the most durable and perhaps best-loved of all the big bands, Lionel Hampton was a contributor to one of swing music’s peak experiences—the heyday of the Benny Goodman Quartet in the late 1930s—and has remained a consummate entertainer and infectiously enthusiastic jazz ambassador for his entire career. Hampton plays an unusual instrument, the vibraphone, but with Goodman and later with his own big band he helped to define a jazz mainstream that endured for decades.

Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 20, 1908. (There is confusion about both the day and year of his birth; the date given here accords with Hampton’s autobiography, Hamp.) His father was declared missing in action in World War I but survived to meet his son years later in a VA Hospital in Dayton; his mother moved the family to Birmingham, Alabama, and then north to Chicago. An energetic child with an obstreperous flair for percussion, Hampton was sent to a Catholic school, the Holy Rosary Academy in Collins, Wisconsin, near Kenosha. One of the Dominican nuns there, Sister Petra, was also a drum virtuosa, Hampton recalled in his autobiography. “She taught me the 26 rudiments on drums—drums have a scale just like the horn. She taught me the flammercue and ‘Mama-Daddy’ and all that stuff on the drums.”

Played in Newsboys’ Jazz Band

After Holy Rosary folded for lack of funds, Hampton returned to Chicago and enrolled at St. Monica’s School. He took a job delivering the Chicago Defender so he could play in the jazz band organized by the paper’s newsboys, and studied classical music under the band’s director, Major N. Clark Smith.

Hampton was given a marimba as a gift by his uncle, Richard Morgan, a musically savvy bootlegger with ties to Al Capone. The marimba might have made possible Hampton’s later facility with the vibraphone, but at this time he had his sights set on becoming a drummer.

Hampton headed for Los Angeles, where he played drums and made recordings with various bands, and, at the urging of his manager (and later his wife) Gladys Riddle, enrolled in extension courses at the University of Southern California where he could finish high school

At a Glance…

Born April 20, 1908 (some sources give 1909 or later), in Louisville, KY; son of Charles Hampton (later missing in action in World War I) and Certrude Morgan Hampton. Grew up in Chicago. Married Gladys Riddle. Education: Attended Holy Rosary Academy, Collins, Wisconsin, and St. Monica’s School, Chicago; took extension courses to finish high school at USC

Career: Jazz vibraphonist and bandleader. Recorded first jazz vibraphone solo in session with Louis Armstrong, 1930; joined Benny Goodman Quartet, 1936; recorded widely with Goodman and with players of own choosing, 1936-1940; helped break down racial barriers in jazz, 1936-1940; established own big band, 1940; recorded hit “Flying Home,” 1942; developed high-energy stage presentation and intensely rhythmic musical structures; toured the world widely as goodwill ambassador.

Awards: Numerous jazz awards. Received National Medal of Arts from President Clinton, 1997; has also received honors from presidents from Truman to Bush.

Addresses: c/o Jazz One Productions, Inc., 44 Rio Vista Dr., Allendale, NJ 07401-1624.

and study music theory. Recording with Louis Armstrong in 1930, he discovered a vibraphone in the studio and quickly mastered the instrument (his wife may have given him a set of vibes somewhat earlier); the solo that resulted on “Memories of You” was the first jazz vibraphone solo.

Joined Benny Goodman Quartet

By 1936 Hampton was a resident bandleader at the Paradise Café in Los Angeles. One August night, Benny Goodman, the unparalleled king of the jazz world at that time, walked in and joined Hampton on-stage and then invited him to join a quartet that the bandleader was forming. The immensely successful and influential Benny Goodman Quartet made its first recordings on April 19, 1936; Hampton was so excited by the prospect that he could fall asleep only at seven that morning and had to be awakened as the 11 a.m. recording time slipped by. Hampton had been recommended to Goodman by jazz entrepreneur and talent-spotter John Hammond, who would have realized that he was proposing something at the time almost unprecedented—an integrated jazz band.

Hampton and his wife drove across the country to join Goodman and his orchestra in New York. At first, Hampton and black pianist Teddy Wilson were relegated to intermission slots, but recordings by the quartet (Hampton, drummer Gene Krupa, Wilson on piano, and Goodman on clarinet) sold well, and bit by bit the color barrier came down. “I think we opened the door for interracial baseball in a way,” Hampton claimed in a 1994 essay he penned for Entertainment Weekly. “I think the public acceptance of our mixed band trickled out and helped let blacks like Jackie Robinson play for the white Dodgers.”

RCA gave him carte blanche to organize his own recording dates during this period, and in 1940, with Goodman’s blessing, Hampton decided to assert his independence and start his own big band. This band, initially comprised of unknowns, thrived on showmanship and rhythmic drive. Its biggest hit was 1942’s “Flying Home,” which the writers of Jazz: The Essential Companion describe in this way: “[It] clearly established his formula: high energy, screaming brass, rhythmic trademarks which could drive an audience to fever pitch …” In addition to “Flying Home,” other Hampton tunes such as “Down Home Jump” and “Hey Ba-ba-rebop” were based on distinct rhythmic figures that could inspire strong audience reaction.

Fostered Careers of Young Jazz Players

Jazz players who passed through Hampton’s band on their way to stardom included Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, Joe Newman, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Lee Young, Clark Terry, Joe Williams, and Dinah Washington. Hampton had a reputation as a disciplinarian, acting as a counterweight to some of the drug-fueled excesses that took hold in the jazz scene after the war. The band was known for continuing individual numbers until each soloist had improvised to the point of exhaustion; Hampton on occasion would also entertain audiences by playing the piano using only two fingers in the manner of vibraphone mallets. “They used to criticize my band and say, ‘Here comes the circus.’ And now all of them do it. As soon as they start singing, they’re walking around the stage, they’re sitting on the steps, they’re singing out in the audience. And all that jive came from us,” Hampton recalled in a 1995 conversation with percussionist Tito Puente published in Down Beat.

Hampton was known among many for his association with the institute of the “goodwill tour,” a venture intended to introduce jazz, and the best of things American generally, to audiences abroad. A longtime fixture at Republican Party political conventions, Hampton met with great success and veneration during his later years. Although he maintained his big band longer than did most other bandleaders, by the middle 1960s it had often given way to a smaller group known as The Inner Circle. Always guided by his wife and longtime business manager, Hampton established his own record label, named Glad-Hamp, that notched an impressive track record of identifying and promoting young jazz talent. Hampton was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 1997, and although he lost priceless mementos of a lifetime when a fire destroyed his Manhattan apartment that year, his career is a collection of jazz memories probably unmatched.

Selected discography

The Complete Lionel Hampton, vols. 1 and 2, RCA, 1993.

Flyirí Home and Other Showstopping Favorites, CEMA 1992.

Greatest Hits, RCA, 1996.

Hamp:The Legendary Decca Recordings, Decca Jazz, 1996.

I’m in the Mood for Swing, Living Era, 1992.

Just Jazz, MCA, original release 1947.

Live at the Metropole Café, Hindsight, 1989.

Midnight Sun (1946-47), Decca Jazz, 1993.

Reunion at Newport, RCA, 1967.

Also recorded frequently with the Benny Goodman Quartet for RCA, 1936-1940; reissues are available.

Sources

Books

Case, Brian, and Stan Britt, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz, Harmony, 1978.

Simon, George T., and others, The Best of the Music Makers, Doubleday, 1979.

Southern, Eileen, Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians, Greenwood Press, 1982.

Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather, and Brian Priestley, Jazz: The EssentialCompanion, Prentice Hall, 1987.

The New Grove Encyclopedia of Jazz, ed. Barry Kernfeld, Macmillan, 1988.

Hampton, Lionel, with James Haskins, Hamp: An Autobiography, Warner, 1989.

Contemporary Musicians, volume 6, Gale Research, 1994.

Periodicals

Down Beat, July 1994; November 1995.

Entertainment Weekly, July 29, 1994.

Jet, January 27, 1997.

New York Times Book Review, December 3, 1989.

Washington Post, January 4, 1990; January 10, 1997.

—James M. Manheim