RIP Slide Hampton.

[Jazzmonkie]

I saw him on Jazzmobile in the 70's with an allstar band: Jimmy Heath, Ben Riley, Stanley Cowell, and Sam Jones.

[Peter Friedman]

A fine example of Slide's playing.

[BillF]

2 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

A fine example of Slide's playing.

[sidewinder]

On 21/11/2021 at 5:42 PM, BillF said:

 

It was in post-Free Trade Hall days and a bit late for Bill Birch. The venue was the Royal Exchange Theatre. Theatre in the round was never better! I recall Deuchar looking astounded at Griffin's torrent of notes! 

The Birch Book does mention that Slide played Club 43 in Feb 1968, teamed with Cecil Payne. Interestingly, Griffin played the same club with a quartet the following week. No mention of the Royal Exchange Theatre gig so I guess it was post-1970.

There is even a picture of Slide and Payne on the Club 43 date.

[clifford_thornton]

6 hours ago, RogerF said:

Slide Hampton recorded one of my all time favourite albums: Slide Hampton & Vaclav Zahradnik Big Band : B&S. Released in 1971 it also features The Trio (Surman, Phillips, Martin)! RIP Slide and thank you for that.

that is a good one!

[BillF]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

The Birch Book does mention that Slide played Club 43 in Feb 1968, teamed with Cecil Payne. Interestingly, Griffin played the same club with a quartet the following week. No mention of the Royal Exchange Theatre gig so I guess it was post-1970.

There is even a picture of Slide and Payne on the Club 43 date.

I was there for the Griffin date, but not the Slide. I had to wait another 16 years to see him - till 1984, as I mentioned above. I saw Cecil Payne at the Peel Hotel, Leeds at much the same time as the Club 43 date. Same tour? I recall that he played his Gillespie big band feature, "Stay On It" and I asked him to play a blues and he obliged. 

Edited November 22, 2021 by BillF

[sidewinder]

Leeds of that era sounds like a transplanted Kansas City of the North (oh hang on - that was Newcastle..)

Sad that it didn’t last.   I guess much of it was down to Ernie Garside and his booking connections.

Edited November 22, 2021 by sidewinder

[BillF]

1 hour ago, sidewinder said:

Leeds of that era sounds like a transplanted Kansas City of the North (oh hang on - that was Newcastle..)

Sad that it didn’t last.   I guess much of it was down to Ernie Garside and his booking connections.

Certainly Ernie was co-proprietor of Club 43 in Manchester, but I don't know about him and the Peel Hotel in Leeds, which had some amazing visiting artists. At the Peel, as well as Cecil Payne, I saw Tubby Hayes, Joe Harriott, Phil Seamen, Lee Konitz, Johnny Griffin, Jimmy Witherspoon, Chris McGregor's Blue Notes with Dudu Pukwana and the Polish Modern Jazz Quartet, to name a few. Those were also the early days of the now well established Leeds College of Music's jazz course (first in the UK) with Dave Cliff (and later Alan Barnes and David Newton) as students and Peter Ind on the staff.

Bryan Layton was resident pianist at the Peel and also taught on the jazz course. I recall an evening when we retired to Bryan's house next door to the Headingley cricket ground for a spontaneous session in his front room featuring piano and two basses - Peter Ind and Bernie Cash (jazz and Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra.)

I have already written about how Peter took me to hear and meet Lennie Tristano, so I won't repeat that.

In those days of great tours by American groups Leeds lacked a concert hall like Manchester's Free Trade Hall, but I still managed to hear the Ellington orchestra, George Shearing and the Junior Mance Trio in cinemas.

For concerts we usually went to nearby Bradford with its St George's Hall, where I saw Jack Teagarden with Earl Hines and a package show with the Brubeck Quartet, the Gillespie Quintet (Have Trumpet Will Excite) and a Buck Clayton group with Emmett Berry, Dickie Wells, Buddy Tate and Earl Warren.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Leeds also had a club, the name of which I don't recall, where I saw, among others, Lucky Thompson with a Ronnie Scott group and the young Kenny Wheeler with a band of Dankworth sidemen.                                                             

 So, yes, Leeds and district in those days was buzzin' (as they say in Manchester).

Edited November 22, 2021 by BillF

[ghost of miles]

WBGO obituary:

Slide Hampton, trombonist who also made a lasting impression as a master arranger, is dead at 89