Lionel Hampton

[Durium]

LIONEL HAMPTON

That evening the audience liked the rhythms and danced and jived all together, with the result that they felt through the floor of the Apollo Hall and the complete interior became a mess.

What a shame ...... everybody cried shame over it. A shame for a society of hard working decent people.

Police Stops Hampton Madness

Keep swinging

Durium

[Big Beat Steve]

Hasn't this subject been discussed here some time ago (in connection with Ed van der Elsken's book?)

Anyway, great newsreel footage, and BTW, the reprint of Ed's book is really fine too (and very affordable at 20 euros).

The bewilderment and disgust of the Dutch press about those Hampton tours wasn't an isolated case. Even German, French and Swedish JAZZ mags were somewhat reserved about the "musical value" of the stage shows of those Hampton tours. In fact (and I am sorry to say this) the German jazz mag "Jazz Podium" really outdid itself in complete incomprehension as they constantly categorized the live shows of Lionel Hampton's big band as "nothing but rock'n'roll", etc. Thankfully they refrained from referring to "jungle noises", etc. as the day press would be apt to do, but clearly this part of danceable, gutsy, down-to-earth jazz was out of reach even for noted German jazz writer celebs such as Dieter Zimmerle, editor and long-time German jazz publicist. Apparently over here they all were on a firm "how-to-make-jazz-as-respectable-as-classical-music" kick in the 50s. Laughable if you look at it today, and not one of the finer publicistic hours of Dieter Zimmerle.

"Jazz Hot" from France and the Swedish jazz mags clearly were much more in tune with the subject they were supposed to cover, as the mags gave a much fairer appraisal of the music, though they had their reservations about the "show" side of the concerts too and complained about the unruly behavior of part of the audience.

Anyway, I find all of the live recordings from the 1953, 1954, and 1956 European tours highly enjoyable. (Not that I would overlook the studio recordings the Hamp did in France and Germany during those tours, though ...)

BTW, the "saxophonist" lying on the floor in that video footage in your blog is Eddie Chamblee.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Big Beat Steve

[Durium]

Hasn't this subject been discussed here some time ago (in connection with Ed van der Elsken's book?)

Anyway, great newsreel footage, and BTW, the reprint of Ed's book is really fine too (and very affordable at 20 euros).

Yes, it did. I posted the contribution Burgemeester almost a year ago, but I learned that the concerts continued although te mayor had banned it.

Thank to Arnold van Kampen who researched these events I can continue the story in the second part of this ocntibution later this week.

Police Stops Hampton Madness

Keep swinging

Durium

Edited June 24, 2008 by Durium

[Durium]

Hasn't this subject been discussed here some time ago (in connection with Ed van der Elsken's book?)

Anyway, great newsreel footage, and BTW, the reprint of Ed's book is really fine too (and very affordable at 20 euros).

The bewilderment and disgust of the Dutch press about those Hampton tours wasn't an isolated case. Even German, French and Swedish JAZZ mags were somewhat reserved about the "musical value" of the stage shows of those Hampton tours. In fact (and I am sorry to say this) the German jazz mag "Jazz Podium" really outdid itself in complete incomprehension as they constantly categorized the live shows of Lionel Hampton's big band as "nothing but rock'n'roll", etc. Thankfully they refrained from referring to "jungle noises", etc. as the day press would be apt to do, but clearly this part of danceable, gutsy, down-to-earth jazz was out of reach even for noted German jazz writer celebs such as Dieter Zimmerle, editor and long-time German jazz publicist. Apparently over here they all were on a firm "how-to-make-jazz-as-respectable-as-classical-music" kick in the 50s. Laughable if you look at it today, and not one of the finer publicistic hours of Dieter Zimmerle.

"Jazz Hot" from France and the Swedish jazz mags clearly were much more in tune with the subject they were supposed to cover, as the mags gave a much fairer appraisal of the music, though they had their reservations about the "show" side of the concerts too and complained about the unruly behavior of part of the audience.

Anyway, I find all of the live recordings from the 1953, 1954, and 1956 European tours highly enjoyable. (Not that I would overlook the studio recordings the Hamp did in France and Germany during those tours, though ...)

BTW, the "saxophonist" lying on the floor in that video footage in your blog is Eddie Chamblee.

Thank you Steve. I quoted you in my latest blog which continues the story and explains how the night concert ban was canceled by mayor d' Ailley

Dear Mayor ....

Keep swinging

Durium

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks, Hans, honored to appear on your blog - on the one hand ...

But on the other, I did not intend to diss the late Dieter Zimmerle in a big way outside this forum; sadly it remains that even the European jazz world of the 50s was stuck in a widespread incomprehension of almost any form of jazz that was presented in a truly extrovert manner to be enjoyed by the public in a very basic, outward, no-fuss way without any high-brow artistic pretenses. And this was particularly evident in Germany at that time. (Lack of real awareness of what had been happening during the Swing era - when most Germans were cut off from developments during the Nazi era - and where bands like Hampton's came from certainly played a role in this). But seeing how the Dutch press and the authorities reacted, we weren't the only country thus affected, it seems.

The funny thing is that if you look at all this it actually is oddball characters of jazz journalism such as Hugues Panassié (whose view of the jazz world was VERY skewed in a lot of other ways) who grasped this elementary appeal of swing far better than many of his colleagues who in other respects had a much more balanced view of the development and variety of jazz.

Edited June 26, 2008 by Big Beat Steve