One great jazz musician was Lionel Hampton. Lionel was actually a bandleader, actor, jazz vibraphonist and drummer. He has worked with other renowned jazz musicians such as Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones and Charlie Parker.
Lionel was raised by his grandmother in the south before he relocated to Chicago. During the 1920's he began playing the xylophone and drums. His first instrument was the fife drum.
When he was a teenager he played percussion for the Chicago Defender Newsboy's band. When he was living in California, he played for the Dixieland Blue-Blowers.
The very first band that he recorded with was The Quality Serenaders, and then he left again to go play with another band, Les Hite band. It was here that he started studying the vibraphone.
Louis Armstrong requested Lionel to play the vibraphones on two of his songs. That is when he made the vibraphone a hot musical instrument.
While playing 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 got a job as an actor in the film Pennies From Heaven, starring Bing Crosby. He was right next to Louis Armstrong, but hid himself by wearing a mask when he was playing the drums.
In 1936, he was lucky to meet Benny Goodman who went 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 group of artists was on the list of first integrated jazz bands that played openly in society.
Lionel recorded with several groups while still with Benny Goodman, but in 1940 he left to create his own big band. Lionel's orchestra was a hit during 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 popular that he did a different 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 great jazz musicians that worked with him throughout this time was Johnny Griffin, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus and even Dizzy Gillespie.
As time went on, in the 1960's and after, his success decreased, he was still playing hits from the 1930's-1950's. Throughout 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 route seemed to help slightly. His band played at University of Idaho's jazz concert consistently. 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 that was named after a jazz musician. Lionel kept performing 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 National Museum of American History in 2001, not long before he passed away. This jazz music legend will never ever 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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