Lionel Hampton - The History Of A Terrific Jazz Musician And Performer

One excellent jazz musician was Lionel Hampton. Lionel was actually a bandleader, actor, jazz vibraphonist and percussionist. He has worked with other renowned jazz musicians such as Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones and Charlie Parker.

Lionel was raised by his grandmother in the south before he relocated to Chicago. In the 1920's he started playing the xylophone and drums. His very first instrument was the fife drum.

When he was a teenager he played percussion for the Chicago Defender Newsboy's band. When he lived in California, he played for the Dixieland Blue-Blowers.

The very first band that he recorded with was The Quality Serenaders, and then he left again to go play with another band, Les Hite band. It was here that he began studying the vibraphone.

Louis Armstrong asked Lionel to play the vibraphones on 2 of his songs. That is when he made the vibraphone a well liked instrument.

While playing with the Les Hite band, Lionel went to the University of Southern California taking music. He also worked with the Nat Shilkrer orchestra.

In 1936, he was in the film Pennies From Heaven, starring Bing Crosby. He was next to Louis Armstrong, but hid himself by putting on a mask when he was playing the drums.

In 1936, he was privileged to meet Benny Goodman who came to watch him perform. Benny asked him to join his group which consisted of Benny, Gene Krupa and Teddy Wilson. It was then renamed the Benny Goodman Quartet.

The year before, Lionel worked with Billie Holiday with Benny's orchestra. This group of artists was one of the first integrated jazz groups that performed openly in society.

Lionel recorded with a number of groups while still with Benny Goodman, but in 1940 he left to form his own jazz band. Lionel's orchestra was a hit during the 40's and 50's.

"Flying Home" featured an Illinois Jacquet solo that began a new style of music, R&B. The song was so popular that he did another version called "Flying Home, Number Two", with Arnett Cobb.

Lionel's music was a blend of jazz music and R&B during this time. Some excellent jazz musicians that worked with him throughout this time were Johnny Griffin, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus and even Dizzy Gillespie.

As time went on, in the 1960's and after, his success decreased, he was still performing hits from the 1930's-1950's. In the 1970's he recorded with the Who's Who Record label, but still didn't do as well as he could have.

Going the college route seemed to help a little bit. His band played at University of Idaho's jazz concert frequently. In 1985, they named it the Lionel Hampton Jazz Celebration. Two years later, they named the music school the Lionel Hampton School of Music.

It was the only music school at a university that was named after a jazz musician. Lionel kept playing until he had a stroke in 1991 in Paris.

Even though he had to stop performing as often, he did a performance at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2001, not long before he passed on. This jazz music legend will never be forgotten.

You can easily find his music online by visiting any online music rock station or by searching: list rock music or best music rock.

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