Lionel Hampton - Centennial Celebration

The Concord Music Group, home to one of the largest jazz catalogs in the world, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lionel Hampton – as part of the label’s ongoing Centennial Celebration series with the release of "Lionel Hampton - Centennial Celebration." Featured here are recordings with Art Tatum and Buddy Rich, Harry Sweets Edison, and the Golden Men of Jazz.

Lionel Hampton was the first jazz vibraphonist and was one of the jazz giants beginning in the mid-'30s. He has achieved the difficult feat of being musically open-minded (even recording "Giant Steps") without changing his basic swing style. Hamp started out as a drummer, playing with the Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band as a youth. His original idol was Jimmy Bertrand, a '20s drummer who occasionally played xylophone. Hampton played on the West Coast with such groups as Curtis Mosby's Blue Blowers, Reb Spikes, and Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders (with whom he made his recording debut in 1929) before joining Les Hite's band, which for a period accompanied Louis Armstrong. At a recording session in 1930, a vibraphone happened to be in the studio, and Armstrong asked Hampton (who had practiced on one previously) if he could play a little bit behind him and on "Memories of You" and "Shine"; Hamp became the first jazz improviser to record on vibes.