RIP Slide Hampton...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

News that trombonist, writer and arranger Slide Hampton has died, aged c. 90. When I first started to listen to jazz at the start of the 1960s, he was played a lot on French radio and recorded some impressive albums, his own bands including Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little, George Coleman, Pete LaRoca etc. He also arranged Dexter Gordon's "Sophisticated Giant" date in 1977, which to me is the best of Dexter's "return" albums...

Slide Hampton in Italy, with an impressive Italian band...

http://youtu.be/Et0t0G72V-I

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"But I was still very much taken by Miles and Coltrane and J.J. and all those guys. That's where my heart was and I wanted to learn more about that music.

So I went to Europe and found out that there were a lot of opportunities for people that were into that concept of music. I went over with Woody Herman in '68, and we played two weeks in England. Then I went to France, and I lived in France for six years after that. I did television, recording, radio, which they don't have over here--you know, they have radio orchestras and radio programs that are subsidized by the government for a certain amount of jazz--concerts, cultural houses, everything you could think of. It had never been like that over here.

The opportunities that were available to us were just so outstanding and I stayed over there for eight years. I worked with Don Byas, I worked with Dexter Gordon, I worked with Don and Dexter together, I worked with Art Farmer and Dexter together, and Johnny Griffin..." Interview.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"The Fabulous Slide Hampton Quartet", 1969, with Joachim Kuhn, NHOP, and Philly Joe Jones. Quite something....

http://youtu.be/rKi8Z2yATU8

[Jazzrook]

Slide Hampton with Clifford Jordan, Cedar Walton, David Williams & Billy Higgins playing 'Solar' from the 1985 album 'Roots':

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=tEDwNok0nF0

JR

[Alyn_Shipton]

Still waiting to see confirmation of Slide Hampton's death on a reliable obit site. At least one fact-checking site says this is "fake news". There might be an official announcement from family etc soon if the news is indeed true.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

This from Jazz Corner in New York which is usually pretty reliable and connected...
"RIP Slide Hampton. We are so sad to inform you of the passing of National Endowment for the Arts #JazzMaster #SlideHampton. He was 89. Slide Hampton's distinguished career spans decades in the evolution of jazz. At the age of 12 he was already touring the Midwest with the Indianapolis based Hampton Band, led by his father and comprising other members of his musical family. By 1952, at the age of 20, he was performing at Carnegie Hall with the Lionel Hampton Band. He then joined Maynard Ferguson's band, playing trombone and providing exciting charts on such popular tunes as "The Fugue," "Three Little Foxes," and "Slide's Derangement."

As his reputation grew, he soon began working with bands… More

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

This from Jazz Corner in New York which is usually pretty reliable and connected...
"RIP Slide Hampton. We are so sad to inform you of the passing of National Endowment for the Arts #JazzMaster #SlideHampton. He was 89. Slide Hampton's distinguished career spans decades in the evolution of jazz. At the age of 12 he was already touring the Midwest with the Indianapolis based Hampton Band, led by his father and comprising other members of his musical family. By 1952, at the age of 20, he was performing at Carnegie Hall with the Lionel Hampton Band. He then joined Maynard Ferguson's band, playing trombone and providing exciting charts on such popular tunes as "The Fugue," "Three Little Foxes," and "Slide's Derangement."

As his reputation grew, he soon began working with bands… More

OFFICIAL..WBGO
Slide Hampton was a trombonist, arranger, and composer with skills very few could match. He could take a small band and make it sound like an orchestra — not just in vastness, but in excitement, impression and intricate layers of sound. His arrangements found the visceral core of bebop classics and revealed their stunning beauty and spine-tingling glory. When he raised his horn to solo, the results were always impressive: a deep mix of profound blues and complex technique. He was a true original.

Hampton died on Nov. 18 at his home in Orange, N.J. His son, Lamont Hampton, confirmed his death without providing a cause.

Though he never achieved the fame of J.J. Johnson, a formative influence, Hampton was revered as a modern jazz trombonist; in passing, critic Gary Giddins once proclaimed him “perhaps the most underrated bebop virtuoso soloist alive.” Nate Chinen, reviewing a Hampton concert for the New York Times in 2006, noted his “full and slightly foggy sound, warm and mellow even in the upper reaches of his range"....cont...
"

[Jazzrook]

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=Et0t0G72V-I

JR