Lionel Hampton

[Tom 1960]

I've been really digging the vibes sound of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson recently and after just listening to a track off XM called "Flying Home" by Lionel Hampton which in fact really cooked. I am now asking for some recommendations as a good starting point. Thanks guys.

[JSngry]

What kind of sidemen are you looking for. Hamp's about the same no matter what, always a lively, inventive, & very skilled player, so it comes down to that, really.

[Chuck Nessa]

I suggest Hamp and Getz.

[(BB)]

I'm not sure what recording of Flying Home you have been listening to but the recording on this cd

amazon link

is one of my favorites. Everyone is swinging like mad, towards the end Lionel (I assume) is gruntin' up a storm. It is hard to listen to this and not end up smiling. Pure joy!

Edited April 24, 2007 by (BB)

[Fer Urbina]

If you find a good-sounding reissue of the RCA small groups from the late 30s-early 40s I'd try it. Hampton didn't leave Benny Goodman till 1940, so most of the groups are pick-up bands, some of them include Red Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, Cozy Cole, the Nat Cole trio, a reed section of Benny Carter-Chu Berry-Coleman Hawkins-Ben Webster...

A personal favourite is the stuff he does at the end of "I Got Rhythm" with the Goodman Quartet at the Carnegie Hall concert (the "famous" one from 1938).

F

[kh1958]

In addition to the ones mentioned, I like the Art Tatum Group Masterpiece session with Hampton.

Reunion at Newport 1967 is quite good as well.

He was also responsible for the final Charles Mingus recording (in 1977), which is not great Mingus, but is still pretty enjoyable, with Hampton, Woody Shaw and Gerry Mulligan as the main soloists on various Mingus compositions.

[jlhoots]

I like the stuff in the Tatum Group Masterpieces box set. Not sure re: individual availability.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

There was an album recorded in Paris, with Clifford Scott in the band. Titles were something like:

Crazy

More crazy

Still crazy

More crazy still

I used to have two of them on an EP.

Is this stuff still around?

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If you find a good-sounding reissue of the RCA small groups from the late 30s-early 40s I'd try it. Hampton didn't leave Benny Goodman till 1940, so most of the groups are pick-up bands, some of them include Red Allen, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Hinton, Cozy Cole, the Nat Cole trio, a reed section of Benny Carter-Chu Berry-Coleman Hawkins-Ben Webster...

A personal favourite is the stuff he does at the end of "I Got Rhythm" with the Goodman Quartet at the Carnegie Hall concert (the "famous" one from 1938).

F

I've got a CD with 20 of those RCA cuts. Don't know about the sound but the music is hottersell!

MG

[Alexander Hawkins]

I like the stuff in the Tatum Group Masterpieces box set. Not sure re: individual availability.

My thoughts exactly! Although I know relatively little Hampton, so am following all the other advice with interest...

[mmilovan]

I will recommend RCA takes warmly, some outstanding music there.

Also, live dates (air checks) with Goodman, Krupa and Wilson.

Also, Camel Caravan swing sessions with Goodman and his Big band around 1939. Hampton is at the drums here.

[Tom 1960]

I'm not sure what recording of Flying Home you have been listening to but the recording on this cd

amazon link

is one of my favorites. Everyone is swinging like mad, towards the end Lionel (I assume) is gruntin' up a storm. It is hard to listen to this and not end up smiling. Pure joy!

I think that might be the recording? I was taking care of some work here in the house and heard this coming over the stereo. These guys were really swinging and wooping it up good!

[B. Goren.]

I like this set: The Complete Lionel Hampton Quartets And Quintets With Oscar Peterson On Verve:

In addition you listen to his recordings with Goodman.

[Harold_Z]

I like this set: The Complete Lionel Hampton Quartets And Quintets With Oscar Peterson On Verve:

In addition you listen to his recordings with Goodman.

I like the Verve set too! As has been said many times before me - Hamp will swing you into bad health!

The Verve swings lke mad!

The RCA is also wonderful. A different era. Harry James, Johnny Hodges. All that GOOOOD stuff.

[brownie]

There was an album recorded in Paris, with Clifford Scott in the band. Titles were something like:

Crazy

More crazy

Still crazy

More crazy still

I used to have two of them on an EP.

Is this stuff still around?

MG

Grew up on this stuff... Still have the original ten-inchers of the session.

The date was reissued a few years ago in the Vogue/BMG series:

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

There was an album recorded in Paris, with Clifford Scott in the band. Titles were something like:

Crazy

More crazy

Still crazy

More crazy still

I used to have two of them on an EP.

Is this stuff still around?

MG

Grew up on this stuff... Still have the original ten-inchers of the session.

The date was reissued a few years ago in the Vogue/BMG series:

Thanks for that. I see Amazon.fr are doing it for 6.99 euro. I guess I'm unlikely to beat that price second hand in Paris Jazz Corner in a couple of weeks, am I, Brownie?

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

I'd also recommend going for the late 30s/early 40s RCA small-group sessions as a matter of contrast with his later 50s small-group recordings that so many seem to be so fond of here (probably because they offersuch an immense lot of common ground with other mainstream or "middle jazz" acts and sounds that today's jazz listeners seem to be most accustomed to).

Nothing against "Hamp and Getz" and similar small group sessions at all, but for sheer exuberance and vitality, I'd strongly recommend getting Hamp's 40s big band recordings he did for Decca too. There's a lot there that really burns! And his early 50s big band that recorded for MGM (with somewhat more brassy ensembles) is not negligible either.

As for his live recordings, his 1947 Just Jazz All Stars concert recordings are a must.

There also are a lot of Hamp's 50s concert recordings that are fine.

You need not get all of them (to the more casual listener the recordings can become repetitive), but his Apollo Hall concert of 1954 and his Olympia Concert (Paris) recordings would be a nice treat. And a special mention to that IAJRC LP featuring historically important recordings of his legendary 1953 band that never recorded commercially (the one that included Clifford Brown, George Wallington, Annie Ross, etc. and a bunch of others that moonlighted in Paris and in Sweden - much to the dismay of Hamp).

And for a special oddity, how about his "Hamp and the Old World" LP released in Europe on Philips in the mid-50s which features Hamp jazzing up European folk songs. Not sure if it's ever been reissued on CD but it's quite fun to listen to.

As for "Flying Home", there are so many versions of this track recorded by Hamp that one really would have be more specific when looking for a particular recording.

On a negative side, I'd rather avoid those 70s recordings with Hamp and other guests featured in the "Lionel Hampton Presents" series produced by Hamp himself. To me they are pretty lame and rehashes of old and well-worn ideas.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Big Beat Steve

[brownie]

Thanks for that. I see Amazon.fr are doing it for 6.99 euro. I guess I'm unlikely to beat that price second hand in Paris Jazz Corner in a couple of weeks, am I, Brownie?

MG

Not a chance, believe me! With rare exceptions, secondhand CDs at PJC start at €12

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Thanks for that. I see Amazon.fr are doing it for 6.99 euro. I guess I'm unlikely to beat that price second hand in Paris Jazz Corner in a couple of weeks, am I, Brownie?

MG

Not a chance, believe me! With rare exceptions, secondhand CDs at PJC start at €12

Phew! Long time since I was there!

MG

[king ubu]

I'd also recommend going for the late 30s/early 40s RCA small-group sessions as a matter of contrast with his later 50s small-group recordings that so many seem to be so fond of here (probably because they offersuch an immense lot of common ground with other mainstream or "middle jazz" acts and sounds that today's jazz listeners seem to be most accustomed to).

Nothing against "Hamp and Getz" and similar small group sessions at all, but for sheer exuberance and vitality, I'd strongly recommend getting Hamp's 40s big band recordings he did for Decca too. There's a lot there that really burns! And his early 50s big band that recorded for MGM (with somewhat more brassy ensembles) is not negligible either.

As for his live recordings, his 1947 Just Jazz All Stars concert recordings are a must.

There also are a lot of Hamp's 50s concert recordings that are fine.

You need not get all of them (to the more casual listener the recordings can become repetitive), but his Apollo Hall concert of 1954 and his Olympia Concert (Paris) recordings would be a nice treat. And a special mention to that IAJRC LP featuring historically important recordings of his legendary 1953 band that never recorded commercially (the one that included Clifford Brown, George Wallington, Annie Ross, etc. and a bunch of others that moonlighted in Paris and in Sweden - much to the dismay of Hamp).

And for a special oddity, how about his "Hamp and the Old World" LP released in Europe on Philips in the mid-50s which features Hamp jazzing up European folk songs. Not sure if it's ever been reissued on CD but it's quite fun to listen to.

As for "Flying Home", there are so many versions of this track recorded by Hamp that one really would have be more specific when looking for a particular recording.

On a negative side, I'd rather avoid those 70s recordings with Hamp and other guests featured in the "Lionel Hampton Presents" series produced by Hamp himself. To me they are pretty lame and rehashes of old and well-worn ideas.

Can you give some specific recommendations regarding RCA - big band or small group? I have none of it and never saw anything in local CD shops...

The only Hamp I have, besides the Paris stuff (all of it, also the ones in the JiP series) and the Tatum date is the 2CD Decca set, so I'd definitely be interested in getting more (mainly earlier stuff, meaning RCA rather than the OP/Verve albums)!

[Fer Urbina]

Can you give some specific recommendations regarding RCA - big band or small group? I have none of it and never saw anything in local CD shops...

The only Hamp I have, besides the Paris stuff (all of it, also the ones in the JiP series) and the Tatum date is the 2CD Decca set, so I'd definitely be interested in getting more (mainly earlier stuff, meaning RCA rather than the OP/Verve albums)!

Avid (UK) seems to have the bulk of the late 30s-early 40s small groups in two double-CD sets (50 tracks each).

Lionel Hampton, vol. 1

Lionel Hampton, vol. 2

From their own website, at £5 a set p/p included in the UK, they look like a steal. That said, I don't have the faintest idea about their remastering, liner notes, presentation, etc.

Anyone?

F

[Fer Urbina]

Can you give some specific recommendations regarding RCA - big band or small group? I have none of it and never saw anything in local CD shops...

The only Hamp I have, besides the Paris stuff (all of it, also the ones in the JiP series) and the Tatum date is the 2CD Decca set, so I'd definitely be interested in getting more (mainly earlier stuff, meaning RCA rather than the OP/Verve albums)!

Avid (UK) seems to have the bulk of the late 30s-early 40s small groups in two double-CD sets (50 tracks each).

Lionel Hampton, vol. 1

Lionel Hampton, vol. 2

From their own website, at £5 a set p/p included in the UK, they look like a steal. That said, I don't have the faintest idea about their remastering, liner notes, presentation, etc.

Anyone?

F

From what I've read in Leo Valdés's site, the Avids include alternate takes, and they may have taken the music from a 1976 six-LP box set, The Complete Lionel Hampton • 1937-1941 (Bluebird AXM6-5536).

F

[Big Beat Steve]

I have the 6-LP RCA Bluebird box set that Fer Urbina refers to.

As for more recent reissues, all I know is that this box set for a long time was the most definitive word in the reissues of Hamp's late 30s small band sessions (these predate his big band which did not start until 1941 or so) since RCA CD reissues of this music used to be rather piecemeal affairs. Later on the master takes were reissued more comprehensively on the French CLASSICS label but currently only the 1938-39 volume seems to be available any more while the others seem to be OOP (see the Abeille website).

So the AVID budget CDs might be the best possible option in every respect. I don't know where CLASSICS got their material from or how they did their remasters but I am willing to bet (thinking of the way those cheapo public domain CDs over here in Europe operate) that AVID took their material from other CD's and NOT from vinyls. So they probably used the Classics reissues as a basis.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Big Beat Steve

[king ubu]

Thanks, F & Steve - unlikely I'll find that 6LP box, so it might indeed be good to get these discs!

What about the big band? Nothing currently around?

[Fer Urbina]

I have the 6-LP RCA Bluebird box set that Fer Urbina refers to.

As for more recent reissues, all I know is that this box set for a long time was the most definitive word in the reissues of Hamp's late 30s small band sessions (these predate his big band which did not start until 1941 or so) since RCA CD reissues of this music used to be rather piecemeal affairs. Later on the master takes were reissued more comprehensively on the French CLASSICS label but currently only the 1938-39 volume seems to be available any more while the others seem to be OOP (see the Abeille website).

So the AVID budget CDs might be the best possible option in every respect. I don't know where CLASSICS got their material from or how they did their remasters but I am willing to bet (thinking of the way those cheapo public domain CDs over here in Europe operate) that AVID took their material from other CD's and NOT from vinyls. So they probably used the Classics reissues as a basis.

I don't know which are Avid's sources, but I seem to recall that they got good reviews for their Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall remaster (I guess taken from the original LP).

I also guess that the RCA 6-LP set was later reissued verbatim in twofers in the French RCA "Jazz Tribune" series, both on LP and CD?

F