Rossini's Jazz

One nice jazz musician was Lionel Hampton. Lionel was a bandleader, actor, jazz vibraphonist and percussionist. He has worked with other well-known jazz musicians similar to Buddy Wealthy, Quincy Jones and Charlie Parker. Lionel was raised by his grandmother within the south earlier than he relocated to Chicago. In the 1920's he started playing the xylophone and drums. His first instrument was the fife drum.

When he was a youngster he performed drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboy's band. When he lived in California, he played for the Dixieland Blue-Blowers. The first band that he recorded with was The High quality Serenaders, then he left once more to go play with one other band, Les Hite band. It was right here that he began finding out the vibraphone. Louis Armstrong  requested Lionel to play the vibraphones on two songs. That's when he made the vibraphone a preferred instrument.

Whereas nonetheless 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 movie Pennies From Heaven, starring Bing Crosby. He was next to Louis Armstrong, however hid himself by wearing a mask when he was taking part in the drums.


In 1936 he was fortunate to meet Benny Goodman who came to look at him perform. Benny requested him to join his trio which consisted of Benny, Gene Krupa and Teddy Wilson. It was then renamed the Benny Goodman Quartet. The year before, Lionel labored with Billie Holiday with Benny's orchestra. This group of artists was one of the first integrated jazz teams that performed openly in society.

Lionel recorded with a number of teams while nonetheless with Benny Goodman, however in 1940 he left to create his personal huge band. Lionel's orchestra was a success within the 40's and 50's. "Flying Home" featured a Illinois Jacquet solo that began a brand new style of music, R&B. The track was so well-liked that he did another version known as "Flying Home, Number Two", with Arnett Cobb. Lionel's music was a mixture of jazz music and R&B throughout this time. Some great jazz musicians that labored with him throughout this time had been Johnny Griffin, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie.

As time went on, within the 1960's and after, his success lessened. He was nonetheless performing hits from the 1930's-1950's. Within the 1970's he recorded with the Who's Who File label, however nonetheless didn't do in addition to he may have.

Going the faculty route seemed to assist a bit. His band performed at University of Idaho's jazz concert regularly. In 1985, the named it the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Two years later, they named the music school the Lionel Hampton Faculty of Music. It was the only music faculty at a university that was named after a jazz musician. Lionel kept enjoying till he had a stroke in 1991 in Paris. Though he needed to cease performing as much, he did a efficiency at the Smithsonian Nationwide Museum of American Historical past in 2001, not long earlier than he died. This jazz music legend will never be forgotten.