THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411190093
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
IS THERE anything Lionel Hampton can't do?
At age 86, the venerable king of the vibraphone still composes and records regularly, donates his time to countless charities, stays politically active and plays to eager audiences the world over.
Not bad for an Alabama-born drummer boy who first studied music with strict Dominican nuns in Kenosha, Wis. Growing up in the Chicago area, Hampton played in the paperboys' music program organized by The Defender, Chicago's leading black newspaper, snapping snare drum in the marching band and finessing tympani and xylophone in the concert band.
``I used to practice on xylophones in between times when I was taking lessons and practicing for the big concert band,'' the gravel-throated Hampton said recently from his Manhattan home. ``I used to listen to recordings of Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins and I would take their solos off their records note for note and play them on my xylophones.
``In the time I came up, the drums and xylophones - the grandfather of the vibes - was part and one. If a drummer played drums, then automatically he studied to play the xylophone. I modernized it; I discovered the vibraharp in the studio where they'd been used only for (commercial) jingles.''
Hampton made the groundbreaking discovery after his family moved to Los Angeles, where the young drummer played in a group with Les Hite - ``all teenagers, but good musicians, though.'' Hite led the house band at L.A.'s Cotton Club, where Armstrong would often play; in 1930, Satchmo invited Hite's group to accompany him on a recording session.
The king of the vibes was crowned.
``In the studio there was a set of vibraharps, which were new to the business back then,'' Hampton recalled. ``Louis Armstrong asked me about that instrument and I explained it to him, about the instrument being added to the drummer's department.
``He said, `Can you play it?' and I said, `Sure.' So he said, `Well, come on, move it out to the middle of the floor and play something for me.' I played one of the solos on the vibraharp that I'd taken off his recording; the name of the song that I played was `Chinese Chop Suey.' I played that for him and he was so amazed, me playing that solo.
``So he said, `Keep it out here and play some more on this record,' '' Hampton continued. ``The tune he was recording was a tune that Eubie Blake had wrote and sent to him to make a record of, called `Memories of You.' Louis said, `Play something on it.' I played on it and that was the first time jazz had ever been played on the vibraharp.''
Armstrong wasn't the only luminary with whom the young Hampton would work.
``After playing with Louis for nine months, later on I had a little band of my own,'' he said. ``I was playing in a nightclub and, lo and behold, Benny Goodman came out there one night and started jamming with me. He brought along Teddy Wilson, the pianist, and Gene Krupa, the drummer. What a band, oh boy!
``We four jammed for about two, three hours. Benny said, `Man, I like this, let's make a record of it. Do you want to record with us?' He asked me did I want to record with them. Naturally, I said, `Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!' We went down to RCA Victor the next morning and recorded two numbers, `Moonglow' and `Dinah.' The record got so big that it spread all over the world and Benny asked me to come and join him.
``So, I'll never forget - on Dec. 11, 1936, I joined the Benny Goodman Quartet. The rest is history.''
Career takes off
And an illustrious one. The Benny Goodman Quartet, generally considered the first racially integrated group of jazz musicians in the nation, would become one of the hottest ensembles in the world.
Hampton would go on to even greater personal success fronting his own big band, a versatile showcase for his improvisational skills and tireless swing.
His first orchestra, formed in 1941, included legendary players Dexter Gordon and Illinois Jacquet. Over the years, as his sound evolved with the influence of R&B, Hampton would discover and groom some incredible talent: Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Charles Mingus, as well as singers Aretha Franklin - ``I found her in her father's church, singing in the choir'' - and Dinah Washington, whom he heard working the powder room at the Regal Theater in Chicago.
``I named her,'' Hampton says proudly. ``When she came to audition for me I said, `What's your name?' She said, `Ruth Jones.' I said, `I don't like that name. Can I change it?' She said, `I don't care what you call me as long as you give me the job.'
``So out of the clear blue sky I said, `Well, from now on your name is Dinah Washington.' And it stuck. Became famous.''
Like Hampton himself, who, over the past five decades, has earned more than 15 honorary doctorates and garnered ceaseless accolades: a jazz salute on Reagan's White House lawn; an appointment to the board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., by George Bush; a 1992 Kennedy Center Honors award; a Grammy nomination for his 1992 release, ``Lionel Hampton & His Golden Men of Jazz: Live at the Blue Note, Vols. 1 & 2'' (Telarc).
Hampton's many side projects have included membership in the Republican National Committee, experiments in public housing, an annual jazz festival for high school students at the University of Idaho (where the music school bears his name) and participation in the annual Jazz Nativity, a charity event at New York City's Lincoln Center.
Musically, there's no stopping the man. Hampton recently signed to the fledgling Mojazz Records, a division of Motown, which will release his first contemporary jazz recording. The album will feature guest artists including Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.
Hampton's also entered symphonic territory with his orchestral compositions, ``Blues Suite'' and ``King David Suite,'' which he recently performed in Stuttgart, Germany, with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Hampton will present ``King David Suite'' with the Virginia Symphony at tonight's concert at Hampton University's Ogden Hall, along with his swing repertoire.
``King David Suite,'' with its sacred inspiration, is particularly dear to Hampton.
``It's a composition I wrote from the Bible, from the Psalms,'' he said. ``I call it the `King David Suite' because David was the master of the Psalms, he wrote the Psalms as a tribute to God. It's a beautiful piece of music.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CAPRICE
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY VIBRAHARP VIBES
JAZZ by CNB