Martialled, Garlanded, and Counted by the Yarde

**Quarky** · 01-05-21, 20:57

Wow - Corey Mwamba (J to Z). I stuck around. I learnt something.

**Serial_Apologist** · 01-05-21, 22:22

Originally posted by Quarky View Post

Wow - Corey Mwamba (J to Z). I stuck around. I learnt something.

Nice hearing Corey talking about himself and his musical choices - I'm not the only person to have detected bebop anticipations in Lionel Hampton's playing! The rest of the programme was less interesting this week.

**Ian Thumwood** · 02-05-21, 08:10

Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

Nice hearing Corey talking about himself and his musical choices - I'm not the only person to have detected bebop anticipations in Lionel Hampton's playing! The rest of the programme was less interesting this week.

I grew up listening to a lot of Lionel Hampton because my Dad was such a fan. Hampton was a musician who was capable of finding great musicality with all styles of jazz as the music evolved. The bebop influence is , perhaps, the least surprising and his big band of the late 40's seemed to be hedging it's bets by flirting with bop and R n' B at the same time. Charles Mingus was one of the bassists at one point and contributed charts for Hampton's band. Around that point, musicians such as Kenny Dorham, Jerome Richardson, Johnny Griffin , Wes Montgomery and Dinah Washington were associated with the band. Later on, Hampton famously engaged Clifford Brown for a tour of Europe. One of his best records is an informal "out of hours" made with French musicians such as guitarist Sacha Distel which epitomises "Cool Jazz" in my opinion. He never really flirted with more avant garde styles (despite employing Horace Tapscott at one point) and flirted with funk. Compositions by the likes of John Coltrane and Chick Corea would also feature in his repertoire. There is a brilliant album called "Live in Japan" which includes Barry Reis and Tom Harrell as well as having the late Thomas Chapin as it's MD. Chapin was a protegee with Hampton and later established himself as one of the key figures in the Downtown movement in 80s/ 90s. So, all in all, Hampton is something of an enigma - the best work is full cognisant with more interesting styles of jazz and fully aware of the emerging new talent whereas he was also equally capable of shallow, grand standing and jams on 12 bar blues / boogie riffs which get boring very quickly. His 1940/s 50s band was considered something of a circus which mixed the good with the bad and whose live performances were akin of live anarchy. This approach to jazz is so alien to today's that it is difficult to understand in 2021. The whole, macho concept of jam sessions has gone completely out of the window so it is often hard to appreciate the appeal this band had at the time. Let's not forget the exceptional "Hot mallets" recording made in about 1939 with a young Dizzy Gillespie which is a pivotal recording in the history of bop. Anyone not familiar with Hampton's music would tend to lump him in with other Swing era musicians but this would be totally inaccurate. His musical path travelled far wider than his former boss , Benny Goodman.

I was intrigued to hear the Jessica Williams track last night. She is a musician I had totally forgotten about and it reminded me of the reputation she enjoyed in the 1980s when her name seldom seemed to be out of Jazz Journal. I have to say that I never really understood her appeal at the time and, when I did hear her perform live at a solo gig, I was a little under-whelmed. A celebrated JJ journalist was at the same concert and i heard him describe her as the "greatest jazz pianist in the world." At the time, my impression was that she was over-praised and sounded slightly "old hat." It seemed a weird statement to make at a time when Jarrett's trio started to get attention and other musicians like Paul Bley, Chick Corea and John Taylor were churning out some sensational records too. The track played last night was really enjoyable and I could understand the appeal of her playing. I always felt that Jazz Journal had a tendency to take it's eye off the ball and get things totally wrong! When you look at their on line archive, the magazine has consistently slagged off 100s of records / artists whose work has later proved to be seminal. Alternatively, the magazine treated players like Stan Getz with hagiographical reverence long after they had been relevant. In Jessica William's case, you wonder why she was singled out at the time yet I think it is a shame that the fact was was effectively a mainstream player, she has been totally overlooked these days. I cannot recall the last time I heard her on the radio. The track was fun to listen to and almost informative as to how boring a lot of contemporary jazz piano playing has now become. So much jazz from 1980s now seems to some from another era. I don't necessarily think that what was held as being "good" then is probably the case now and I also think that players like Jessica Williams have too easily slid into obscurity. The track did remind me a bit of the young pianist Emmett Cohen who similarly falls between the cracks between "modern" and "mainstream." I would have to say that William's playing seems more sincere and genuine than Cohen's recent, highly praised record.

**Quarky** · 02-05-21, 15:56

I found it rather wonderful that Lionel was able to create images of Louis Armstrong and Bennie Goodman in his vibraphone playing.

**Serial_Apologist** · 02-05-21, 22:05

Originally posted by Quarky View Post

I found it rather wonderful that Lionel was able to create images of Louis Armstrong and Bennie Goodman in his vibraphone playing.

That was what was said in the programme - I didn't understand what he was talking about!

Martialled, Garlanded, and Counted by the Yarde

Martialled, Garlanded, and Counted by the Yarde

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