Hampton, Lionel (Leo)

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Hampton, Lionel (Leo)

Hampton, Lionel (Leo), exuberant American bandleader, vibraphonist, and drummer; b. Louisville, Ky., April 20, 1908. Hampton was the first notable vibraphone soloistin jazz and a successful bandleader for over 50 years. His biggest hits include “Flying Home,” “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re- Bop,” and “Rag Mop.”

Hampton was the son of Charles Edward and Gertrude Morgan Hampton. His father wasa railroad worker who went missing in action in World War I; Hampton rediscovered him in a veteran’s hospital more than 20 years later, blind and near death. Hampton was raised by his mother’s family, primarily his maternal grandmother, in Birmingham, Ala., and, as of about 1919, in Chicago. He displayed an early interest in drums and was given his first formal instruction in them by Sister Petra at the Holy Rosary Academy in Collins, Wise. Back in Chicago, he learned harmony from Major N (athaniel) Clark Smith, former bandmaster for Theodore Roosevelt’s RoughRiders, who was director of the Chicago Defender Youth Band, organized by then ewspaper and made up of its newsboys. Hampton played in Chicago bands, then moved to Calif, to work with Les Hite. He made his recording debut in November 1924 with the Reb Spikes band, Reb’s Legion Club Forty-Fives. In the late 1920s he became amember of the band at Frank Sebastian’s New Cotton Club, then led by Hite. Louis Armstrong fronted the band in 1930-31, and Hampton recorded with him, notably playing the vibraphone at a session on Oct. 16, 1930, that marked the first serious use of the instrument for jazz.

In the early 1930s, Hampton organized his own band and toured the West Coast, establishing a residency at the Red Car Club (later the Paradise) in L.A. in 1933. In 1934 he studied harmony and music theory at the Univ. of Southern Calif. In August 1936, Benny Goodman invited him to join the trio that played separate from his big band, and Hampton disbanded and moved to N.Y. to do so. On the way east he married his longtime companion, seamstress Gladys Riddle, who had become his personal manager, on Nov. 11, 1936.

Hampton’s four-year tenure with Goodman, plus the all-star recordings he made under his own name for RCA Victor starting in 1937, brought him enough exposure that he was able to launch his own band when Goodman temporarily disbanded in 1940. Lionel Hampton and His Orch. debuted on Nov. 6, 1940, in L.A. Over the next decade he scored a series of R&B and pop hits: “Flying Home” (music by Goodman and Hampton), which reached the R&B Top Ten in two different versions in 1943; “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (music by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Dorothy Fields), a 1937 recording that made the R&B Top Ten when reissued during the recording ban, in January 1944; “Hamp’s Boogie Woogie” (music by Milt Buckner and Hampton), which topped the R&B chart in September 1944; “Beulah’s Boogie,” which made the R&B Top Ten in December 1945; “Hey! Ba- Ba-Re-Bop” (music and lyrics by Hampton and Curley Hamner), which topped the R&B charts in March 1946 and made the pop Top Ten; “Blow-Top Blues,” featuring Dinah Washington, an R&B Top Ten in May 1947; “I Want toBe Loved (But Only by You)” (music and lyrics by Savannah Churchill), an R&B Top Ten in June 1947; “Rag Mop” (music and lyrics by Johnnie Lee Wills and Deacon Anderson), which made both the R&B and pop Top Ten in February 1950; and “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” an R&B Top Ten in October 1950.

Hampton appeared in several films, notably A Song Is Born (1948), The Benny Goodman Story (1955), and Mister Rock and Roll (1957). He began to tour internationally in 1953. Despite the downturn in popularity of big bands and swing music after the 1940s, he was able to maintain his orch. until 1965, when he disbanded and formed a smaller unit called the Jazz Inner Circle. But he occasionally fronted larger units for special performances and tours. He continued to perform into the 1990s and recorded on his own Glad Hamp Records and other labels. He earned three Grammy Award nominations: in 1984 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, for the track “Vibramatic”; in 1986 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band, for the album Sentimental Journey; in 1990 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band, for the album Cookin’ in the Kitchen; and in 1991 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, for the album Lionel Hampton & the Golden Men of Jazz Live at the Blue Note.

Discography

Stompology (1937); Tempo and Swing (1939); Hamp (1942); Mess Is Here (1944); Jazz Heritage: Sweatin’ with Hamp (1945); Midnight Sun (1946); The Original Stardust (1947); Lionel Hampton with the Just Jazz All Stars (1947); Hot House (1948); Moonglow (1950); The Blues Ain’t News to Me (1951); The King of the Vibes (1953); The Lionel Hampton Quartet (1953); Air Mail Special (1953); Lionel Hampton in Paris (1953); Lionel Hampton Plays Love Songs (1954); Swingin’ with Hamp (1954); Hamp’s Big Four (1954); Hallelujah Hamp (1954); Hot Mallets (1954); Lionel Hampton and His New French Sound (1955); The Hampton-Tatum-Rich Trio (1955); Hamp and Getz (1955); Hamp Roars Again (1955); Hamp in Hi Fi (1956); Golden Vibes (1958); Hamp’s Big Band (1959); Silver Vibes (1960); Soft Vibes, Soaring Strings (1961); Many Splendored Vibes (1962); Lionel Hampton inJapan (1963); You Better Know It (1964); Newport Uproar (1967); Where Could I Be? (1971); Transition (1974); Blues in Toulouse (1977); As Time Goes By (1978); Hamp in Harlem (1979); Sentimental Journey (1985); Mostly Blues (1988); Live at the Metropole Café, New York City (1989); Just Jazz: Live at the Blue Note, Vol. 1, 2 (1991);I’m in the Mood for Swing (1992); For the Love of Music (1994); Jivin’ the Vibe (1996); Triple Play: Live at the Blue Note (1999); Live at Carnegie Hall (1999); Just One of Those Things (1999).