Sunday 5 November 2017

29. Lionel Hampton: Hamp The Legendary Decca Recordings

Image result for hamp legendary decca

Lionel Hampton came to prominence when he joined with Benny Goodman's orchestra in the 1930s. Goodman noticed him playing his vibraphone at a club in Los Angeles and immediately asked him to join himself, Gene Krupa and Teddy Wilson on their small combo recordings thus becoming the first racially integrated successful jazz group. Hampton, from Louisville Kentucky, had spent the previous decade touring with various groups as a flamboyant drummer or on the vibraphone (a recently invented musical instrument).

Hampton went on to form his own orchestra and became hugely successful in the 40s and 50s. His biggest hit "Flying Home" kicks things off here with a great sax solo from the up and coming Illinois Jacquet. The majority of the tracks in the first disc follow the big band mold but then things take a complete left turn with the song "Red Cross" with Charlie Parker blowing an unbelievable solo. Hampton wasn't cowed by the emergence of bebop. Also check out his note perfect solo on the 15 minute live version of "Stardust" featuring Charlie Shavers and Slam Stewart.

Hampton brought through and worked with a lot of up-and-coming young jazz stars. He can obviously be heard in a few of the tracks on Charlie Christian album "Genius Of The Jazz Guitar" due to the Benny Goodman connections. But this album also shows him working with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Wes Montgomery and even Charles Mingus on the track "Red Top". The jazz standard "Midnight Sun" is sublime in the hands of Hampton and his orchestra.

Hampton was to have a long career playing right up to the 1990s with infectious energy and  musicianship of the highest calibre.

Disc One
1. Flying Home
2. Hamp's Boogie Woogie
3. Million Dollar Smile
4. Red Cross
5.Hamp's Blues
6.Evil Gal Blues
7.Flying Home
8. Stardust
9. Ribs and Hot Sauce
10.Blow Top Blues
11. Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop
12. Rockin' in Rhythm, Pts. 1 & 2
13. Limehouse Blues
14. Tempo's Birthday
15. Jack the Fox Boogie

Disc Two
1. How High the Moon
2. Three Minutes on 52nd Street
3. Red Top
4. Mingus Fingers
5. Midnight Sun
6. Chicken Shack Boogie
7. Central Avenue Breakdown
8. Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee
9. Moonglow
10. The Hucklebuck
11. Lavender Coffin
12. Rag Mop
13. I Wish I Knew
14. There Will Never Be Another You
15. Pink Champagne
16. Memories of You
17. Time on My Hands
18. Easy to Love
19. Twentieth Century Boogie
20. Dancing on the Ceiling
21. How High The Moon




28. Billie Holiday & Lester Young (BD Jazz)

Billie & Lester by J. C. Baty

There are a few albums out there that bring compile the songs that Billie Holiday and Lester Young recorded together. Some of them are extraordinarily comprehensive but I felt the urge to include this one as I'm a bit of a sucker for those hybrid graphic novel/ CDs that are quite prevalent here in Europe. This is a two CD album with the first showcasing the two artists and the second focusing on Lester Young from as early as 1936's Shoe Shine Boy with Count Basie.

Lester Young and Billie Holiday were kindred spirits. Young's light but musically audacious tenor sax was the perfect foil for Holiday's vocal experimentation. The early tracks were recorded with various luminaries from Benny Goodman's and Count Basie's orchestras including Buck Clayton, Walter Page, Teddy Wilson, Freddie Greene and Jo Jones. This Year's Kisses is an absolute joy to listen to. Things then motor along beautifully with tracks included from an early summer 1937 session that included Johnny Hodges on the alto trading licks with Young. Mean To Me is one of the highlights of the whole album.

Back In Your Backyard is a fascinating track for the time it was recorded; January 12th 1938. It was four days later that Benny Goodman was to change the course of music history with his historic performance at Carnegie Hall and the after-show event that was to occur in Harlem where Chick Webb and Count Basie were to do battle. Billie and Lester were surely having the time of their lives.



The album then moves into the early 1940s with I'm Pulling Through and the fantastic All Of Me. All the musicians involved were truly at the top of their games at this stage. The first part of the album concludes with perhaps their most famous collaboration from the CBS TV special in 1957, Fine And Mellow. The first version is the rehearsal version and the second is the broadcast version with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge and Gerry Mulligan.


1. He Ain't Got Rhythm
2. This Year's Kisses
3. I Must Have That Man
4. Sun Showers
5. Mean To Me
6. Foolin' Myself
7. I'll Never Be The Same
8. Me Myself And I
9. A Sailboat In The Moonlight
10. Born To Love
11. Who Wants Love?
12. He's Funny That Way.
13. When You're Smiling.
14. If Dreams Came True
15. Back In Your Backyard
16. I Can't Get Started
17. I've Got A Date With A Dream
18. The Man I Love
19. You're A Lucky Guy
20. I'm Pulling Through
21. All Of Me
22. Fine And Mellow (1)
23. Fine And Mellow (2)