Jazz Musician Lionel Hampton - The History Of The Legendary Jazz Musician

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

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

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

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

Louis Armstrong really wanted Lionel to play the vibraphones on two of his songs. That's when he made the vibraphone a hot instrument.

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

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

In 1936, he was lucky 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 band of artists was among the first integrated jazz bands that played openly in society.

Lionel recorded with various groups while still with Benny Goodman, but in 1940 he left to create his own jazz band. Lionel's orchestra was a hit through 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 well-liked that he did an additional version called "Flying Home, Number Two", with Arnett Cobb.

Lionel Hampton's music was a mixture of jazz music and R&B during this time. Some terrific 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 lessened, he was still delivering hits from the 1930's-1950's. During the 1970's he recorded with the Who's Who Record label, but still did not do as well as he could have.

Going the college course seemed to help slightly. 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 which had been named after a jazz musician. Lionel kept actively playing until he had a stroke in 1991 in Paris.

Despite the fact that he had to stop performing as much, he did a performance at the Smithsonian in 2001, not long before he passed away. 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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