Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Lionel Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908, and was raised by his grandmother. Shortly after he was born, he and his mother moved to her hometown Birmingham, Alabama. He spent his early childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin before he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1916. As a youth, Hampton was a member of the Bud Billiken Club, an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America, which was off limits because of racial segregation. During the 1920s—while still a teenager—Hampton took xylophone lessons from Jimmy Bertrand and started playing drums. Hampton was raised Roman Catholic, and started out playing fife and drum at the Holy Rosary Academy near Chicago.
Lionel Hampton began his career playing drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band (led by Major N. Clark Smith) while still a teenager in Chicago. He moved to California in 1927 or 1928, playing drums for the Dixieland Blues-Blowers. He made his recording debut with The Quality Serenaders led by Paul Howard, then left for Culver City and drummed for the Les Hite band at Sebastian's Cotton Club. During this period he began practicing on the vibraphone. In 1930 Louis Armstrong came to California and hired the Les Hite band, asking Hampton if he would play vibes on two songs. So began his career as a vibraphonist, popularizing the use of the instrument ever since.
While working with the Les Hite band, Hampton also occasionally did some performing with Nat Shilkret and his orchestra. During the early 1930s he studied music at the University of Southern California. In 1934 he led his own orchestra, and then appeared in the 1936 Bing Crosby film Pennies From Heaven alongside Louis Armstrong (wearing a mask in a scene while playing drums).

Also in November 1936, the Benny Goodman Orchestra came to Los Angeles to play the Palomar Ballroom. When John Hammond brought Goodman to see Hampton perform, Goodman invited him to join his trio, which thus became the celebrated Benny Goodman Quartet with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa completing the lineup. The Trio and Quartet were among the first racially integrated jazz groups to record and play before wide audiences, and were a leading small-group in an era when jazz was dominated by big bands.
While Hampton worked for Goodman in New York, he recorded with several different small groups known as the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, as well as assorted small groups within the Goodman band. In 1940 Hampton left the Goodman organization under amicable circumstances to form his own big band.

Hampton's orchestra became popular during the 1940s and early 1950s. His third recording with them in 1942 produced a classic version of "Flying Home", featuring a solo by Illinois Jacquet that anticipated rhythm & blues. The selection became very popular, and so in 1944 Hampton recorded "Flying Home, Number Two" featuring Arnett Cobb. The song went on to become the theme song for all three men. Guitarist Billy Mackel first joined Hampton in 1944, and would perform and record with him almost continuously through the late 1970s. In 1947 he recorded "Stardust" at a "Just Jazz" concert with Charlie Shavers and Slam Stewart produced by Gene Norman.
From the mid-1940s until the early 1950s, Hampton led a lively rhythm & blues band whose Decca Records recordings included numerous young performers who later achieved fame. They included bassist Charles Mingus, saxophonist Johnny Griffin, guitarist Wes Montgomery, vocalist Dinah Washington and keyboardist Milt Buckner. Other noteworthy band members were trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Cat Anderson, and Kenny Dorham, trombonists Snooky Young and Jimmy Cleveland, and saxophonists Illinois Jacquet and Jerome Richardson.

The Hampton orchestra that toured Europe in 1953 included Clifford Brown, Gigi Gryce, Anthony Ortega, Monk Montgomery, George Wallington, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, and singer Annie Ross. Hampton continued to record with small groups and jam sessions during the 1940s and 1950s, with Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Buddy DeFranco, and others. In 1955, while in California working on The Benny Goodman Story he recorded with Stan Getz and Art Tatum for Norman Granz as well as with his own big band.
Hampton performed with Louis Armstrong and Italian singer Lara Saint Paul at the 1968 Sanremo Music Festival in Italy. The performance created a sensation with Italian audiences, as it broke into a real jazz session. That same year, Hampton received a Papal Medal from Pope Paul VI.

During the 1960s, Hampton's groups were in decline; he was still performing what had succeeded for him during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He did not fare much better in the 1970s, though he recorded actively on the Who's Who Record label.
Beginning in February 1984, Hampton and his band played at the University of Idaho's annual jazz festival, which was renamed the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival the following year. In 1987 the UI's school of music was renamed for Hampton, the first university music school named for a jazz musician.
Hampton remained active until a stroke in Paris in 1991 led to a collapse on stage. That incident, combined with years of chronic arthritis, forced him to cut back drastically on performances. However, he did play at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2001 shortly before his death.



Lionel Hampton (Louisville, 20 de abril de 1908 - Nueva York, 31 de agosto de 2002). Vibrafonista, pianista, batería, cantante y director estadounidense de jazz.
Hampton fue el primer vibrafonista del jazz y una de sus grandes figuras desde los años treinta. Su estilo es fundamentalmente el del jazz clásico, o mainstream jazz, con fuertes vínculos con el jazz de las big bands, esto es, con el swing.
Hampton comenzó como batería, tocando en su juventud con los Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band. Su gran ídolo fue Jimmy Bertrand, un baterista de los años veinte. Hampton tocó en la Costa Oeste con grupos como Curtis Mosby's Blue Blowers, Reb Spikes y Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders; con estos últimos hizo su primera grabación en 1929, antes de unirse a la banda de Les Hite, que durante un tiempo acompañó a Louis Armstrong. Durante una sesión de grabación en 1930, a instancias de Armstrong, Lionel, que ya había practicado previamente con él, tocó el vibráfono, siendo el primero en improvisar con tal instrumento durante una grabación.

Sería seis años después cuando Lionel Hampton se haría famoso. Tras dejar a Hite, tuvo su propio grupo en el Paradise Cafe de Los Ángeles, hasta que una noche en 1936 Benny Goodman lo descubrió actuando. Hampton grabó con él de forma inmediata, junto con Teddy Wilson y Gene Krupa en su famoso cuarteto. Hampton se convirtió en una de las estrellas del grupo, apareciendo en películas con Goodman, en el famoso concierto del Carnegie Hall de 1938 y cada noche en la radio. En 1937, comenzó a grabar como líder para la compañía Víctor, acompañado siempre de grandes figuras.
Hampton estuvo con Goodman hasta 1940, a veces tocando la batería e incluso cantando. En 1940, Lionel formó su primera big band y en 1942 tuvo un gran éxito con "Flying Home". Durante el resto de la década, su orquesta fue una de las grandes favoritas del público, acercándose al R&B y mostrando la influencia del bebop desde 1944. Entre sus acompañantes, se encontraban artistas de la talla de Dinah Washington (a quien Hampton ayudó a triunfar), Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Fats Navarro, Wes Montgomery, Betty Carter y otros muchos. La popularidad de Hampton le permitió seguir liderando bandas hasta mediados de los noventa.

Lonnie Smith

Dr. Lonnie Smith (born July 3, 1942 in Lackawanna, New York) is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist, who converted to Sikhism in the mid-1970s.
He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music. He was part of several vocal ensembles in the 1950s, including the Teen Kings. Art Kubera, the owner of a local music store, gave Smith his first organ, a Hammond B3.

Smith's affinity for R&B melded with his own personal style as he became active in the local music scene. He moved to New York City, where he met George Benson, the guitarist for Jack McDuff's band. Benson and Smith connected on a personal level, and the two formed the George Benson Quartet, featuring Lonnie Smith, in 1966.
After two albums under Benson's leadership, It's Uptown and Cookbook, Smith recorded his first solo album (Finger Lickin' Good) in 1967, with George Benson and Melvin Sparks on guitar, Ronnie Cuber on baritone sax, and Marion Booker on drums. This combination remained stable for the next five years.
After recording several albums with Benson, Smith became a solo recording artist and has since recorded over 30 albums under his own name. Numerous prominent jazz artists have joined Smith on his albums and in his live performances, including Lee Morgan, David "Fathead" Newman, King Curtis, Terry Bradds, Blue Mitchell, Joey DeFrancesco and Joe Lovano.

In 1967, Smith met Lou Donaldson, who put him in contact with Blue Note Records. Donaldson asked the quartet to record an album for Blue Note, Alligator Bogaloo. Blue Note signed Smith for the next four albums, all in the soul jazz style, including Think (with Melvin Sparks, Marion Booker, Lee Morgan and David Newman) and Turning Point (with Lee Morgan, Bennie Maupin, Melvin Sparks and Idris Muhammad). Smith also plays for college universities across the nation.
Smith's next album Move Your Hand was recorded at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey in August 1969. The album's reception allowed his reputation to grow beyond the Northeast. He would record another studio album Drives and one more live album Live at Club Mozambique (recorded in Detroit on May 21, 1970) before leaving Blue Note.
In the mid-1970s, Dr. Lonnie Smith converted to Sikhism. Smith has also been referred to from around that time as "Dr. Lonnie Smith" although the honorific does not represent an academic doctorate degree.
Smith toured the northeastern United States heavily during the 1970s. He concentrated largely on smaller neighborhood venues during this period. His sidemen included Ronnie Cuber, Dave Hubbard, Bill Easley and George Adams on sax, Donald Hahn on trumpet, George Benson and Larry McGee on guitars, and Joe Dukes, Sylvester Goshay, Phillip Terrell, Marion Booker, Jimmy Lovelace, Charles Crosby, Art Gore, Norman Connors and Bobby Durham on drums.

Smith has performed at several prominent jazz festivals with artists including Grover Washington, Jr., Ron Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Lou Donaldson and Ron Holloway. He has also played with musicians outside of jazz, such as Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Etta James, Joan Cartwright, and Esther Phillips.
He was named the "Organ Keyboardist of the Year" in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009 by the Jazz Journalist Association.


Discography

1966: Finger-lickin' good (Columbia)
1968: Think! (Blue Note)
1969: Turning Point (Blue Note)
1969: Move Your Hand (Live) (Blue Note)
1970: Drives (Blue Note)
1970: Live at Club Mozambique (Live) (Released in 1995) (Blue Note)
1971: Mama Wailer (Kudu)
1975: When the Night is Right! (Chiaroscuro)
1975: Afrodesia (Groove Merchant)
1976: Keep on Lovin' (Groove Merchant)
1977: Funk Reaction
1978: Gotcha (TK)
1993: Afro Blue (Music Masters)
1994: Foxy Lady: a Tribute to Hendrix (Music Masters)
1995: Purple Haze: a tribute to Jimi Hendrix (Music Masters)
2000: The Turbanator (32 Jazz)
2003: Boogaloo to Beck: A Tribute (Scufflin')
2004: Too Damn Hot (Palmetto)
2006: Jungle Soul (Palmetto)
2009: Rise Up! (Palmetto)
2010: Spiral (Palmetto)

Joey DeFrancesco

Joey DeFrancesco (born April 10, 1971) is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.
DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was multi-instrumentalist Joe DeFrancesco, of Italian descent; his father is Hammond B3 player "Papa" John DeFrancesco, who took his son to jazz clubs from the age of seven.

Joey DeFrancesco started playing the piano at the age of four,switching to the B3 shortly after. By age six, he was sitting in on his father's gigs. By age ten, he was enrolled in the Settlement Music School Jazz Band. Under the direction of Lovett Hines, he learned and performed with the Jazz Band with the likes of saxophonist Robert Landham, drummer Kevin Outterbride, bassist Leonard Richardson Sr. and guitarist Kelvin McDaniel, playing out on his own, as well as sitting in with organ legends like Jack McDuff and Richard "Groove" Holmes. DeFrancesco went to high school with bassist Christian McBride, where the two were often scolded for altering their big band charts.

While in High school, he was also in a local jazz trio called Strictly Business with drummer Leon Jordon Sr. and bassist Leonard Richardson Sr..
When DeFrancesco was seventeen years old, Miles Davis asked him to join his band. DeFrancesco toured Europe and recorded Amandla with Davis. He became well known in the 1990s, however, through his work with John McLaughlin's trio Free Spirits. He has also played with jazz guitarists Pat Martino, Paul Bollenback, Jimmy Bruno, Dave Stryker, Danny Gatton as well as trumpet player Big Jim Henry and many others.
DeFrancesco's own recordings as leader, first with Columbia, and later with labels such as Muse and Big Mo, established what Chris Parker has referred to as "his importance as one of the most unfussily virtuosic torch-bearers of contemporary organ jazz."

DeFrancesco listened to and learned from Jimmy Smith, to whom he pays homage in his 1999 High Note release, The Champ. In 2000 he recorded the album Incredible! with Smith. He also pays tribute to Don Patterson in Tribute to Don Patterson: The Philadelphia Connection released in 2004. DeFrancesco also learned from McDuff, and recorded with him as well. DeFrancesco paired with Jimmy Smith on Smith's last effort, called Legacy, finished just days before Smith died in 2005.
Today, Joey DeFrancesco plays an average of 200 nights a year on the road with various musicians. His core bands include Byron Landham (drums), Paul Bollenback (guitar) or Pat Bianchi (keyboards). When not on the road, he resides in Arizona with his mother, father and daughter Ashley Blue Defrancesco.

Discography

1989 All of Me Columbia Records LP, CD -

1990 Where Were You? Columbia Records CD -

1991 Part III Columbia Records CD -

1992 Reboppin' Columbia Records CD -

1993 Live at the 5 Spot Columbia Records CD -

1994 All About My Girl Muse Records CD -

1994 Relentless Columbia Records CD with Danny Gatton

1995 The Street of Dreams Big Mo CD -

1996 It's About Time Concord Records SACD, CD with Jack McDuff

1998 All in the Family HighNote Records CD -

1998 All or Nothing at All Big Mo CD -

1999 Goodfellas Concord Jazz CD -

1999 The Champ HighNote Records CD -

1999 Joey DeFrancesco's Goodfellas Concord Jazz CD -

2000 Incredible! Concord Jazz CD -

2000 The Champ: Round 2 HighNote Records CD -

2001 Singin' and Swingin' Concord Jazz CD -

2002 The Philadelphia Connection:

A Tribute to Don Patterson HighNote Records CD -

2003 Falling in Love Again Concord Jazz CD with Joe Doggs (Joe Pesci)

2004 Plays Sinatra His Way HighNote Records CD -

2005 Legacy Concord Records CD with Jimmy Smith

2006 Organic Vibes Concord Jazz CD with Bobby Hutcherson

2007 Live: The Authorized Bootleg Concord Records CD with special guest George Coleman

2008 Joey D HighNote Records CD -

2009 Finger Poppin' Doodlin' Records CD -

2009 Snapshot-The Original Trio HighNote Records CD -

2010 Never Can Say Goodbye:

The Music of Michael Jackson HighNote Records CD -

2011 40 HighNote Records CD Set to be released on September 20th, 2011

Ron Carter

Ron Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that instrument.
Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan. He started to play cello at the age of 10, but when his family moved to Detroit, he ran into difficulties regarding the racial stereotyping of classical musicians and instead moved to bass. He attended the historic Cass Technical High School in Detroit, and, later, the Eastman School of Music, where he played in its Philharmonic Orchestra. He gained his bachelor's degree at Eastman in 1959, and in 1961 a master's degree in double bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music.

His first jobs as a jazz musician were with Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton. His first records were made with Eric Dolphy (another former member of Hamilton's group) and Don Ellis, in 1960. His own first date as leader, Where?, with Dolphy and Mal Waldron and a date also with Dolphy called Out There with George Duvivier and Roy Haynes and Carter on cello; its advanced harmonies and concepts were in step with the third stream movement.
Carter came to fame via the second great Miles Davis quintet in the early 1960s, which also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Carter joined Davis's group in 1963, appearing on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E.S.P., the latter being the first album to feature only the full quintet. It also featured three of Carter's compositions (the only time he contributed compositions to Davis's group). He stayed with Davis until 1968 (when he was replaced by Dave Holland), and participated in a couple of studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. Although he played electric bass occasionally during this period, he has subsequently eschewed that instrument entirely, and now plays only acoustic bass. Carter was close to Davis and even revealed to an interviewer in 1966 that the famous trumpeter's favorite color was fuchsia.
Carter also performed on some of Hancock, Williams and Shorter's recordings during the sixties for Blue Note Records. He was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the era, playing with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver and others.
After leaving Davis, Carter was for several years a mainstay of CTI Records, making albums under his own name and also appearing on many of the label's records with a diverse range of other musicians. Notable musical partnerships in the 70's and 80's included Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Hank Jones, and Cedar Walton. During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.

He appears on the alternative hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest's influential album The Low End Theory on a track called "Verses from the Abstract". He also appears as a member of the jazz combo the Classical Jazz Quartet.
In 1994, Carter appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine. In 2001, Carter collaborated with Black Star and John Patton to record "Money Jungle" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington.
Carter was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of The City College of New York, having taught there for twenty years, and received an honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music, in Spring 2005 . He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York City in 2008, teaching bass in the school's Jazz Studies program.
Carter made a notable appearance in Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City. The end credits feature him and fellow bassist Christian McBride duetting on "Solitude".
Ron Carter sits on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America as well as the Honorary Founder's Committee. Ron has worked with the Jazz Foundation since its inception to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina.

Carter appeared as himself in an episode of the HBO series Treme entitled "What Is New Orleans."
Carter's authorized biography, "Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes," by Dan Ouellette was published by ArtistShare in 2008.


Discography

1961: Where? (Prestige Records) with Eric Dolphy, Charlie Persip, Mal Waldron, George Duvivier
1966: Out Front (Prestige)
1969: Uptown Conversation (Embryo Records)
1973: Blues Farm (CTI)
1973: All Blues (CTI)
1974: Spanish Blue (CTI)
1975: Anything Goes (Kudu)
1976: Yellow & Green (CTI)
1976: Pastels (Milestone)
1977: Piccolo (Milestone)
1977: Third Plane (Milestone)
1978: 1+3 (JVC) trio live with Hank Jones or Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams
1978: Peg Leg (Milestone)
1978: Standard Bearers
1979: Parade
1980: New York Slick (Milestone)
1980: Patrao
1980: Empire Jazz
1980: Pick 'Em (Milestone)
1981: Super Strings (Milestone)
1990: Carnaval
1991: Meets Bach (Blue Note)
1992: Friends (Blue Note)
1994: Jazz, My Romance (Blue Note)
1995: Mr. Bow Tie (Blue Note)
1995: Brandenburg Concerto (Blue Note)
1997: The Bass and I
1998: So What (Blue Note) trio with Kenny Barron and Lewis Nash
1999: Orfeu (Blue Note)
2001: When Skies Are Grey (Blue Note)
2002: Stardust (Blue Note)
2003: The Golden Striker (Blue Note)
2003: Eight Plus
2003: Ron Carter Plays Bach
2006: Live at The Village Vanguard
2007: Dear Miles featuring his quartet Stephen Scott, piano, Payton Crossley, drums and Roger Squitero, percussion
2008: Jazz and Bossa

Danielle Darrieux

Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux (French pronunciation: [da.niɛl i.vɔn ma.ʁi ɑ̃.twa.nɛt daʁ.jø]) (born 1 May 1917) is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history.
She was born in Bordeaux, France during World War I to a physician who was serving in the French Army. Her father died when she was seven years old. Raised in Paris, she studied the cello at the Conservatoire de Musique. At 13, she won a part in the musical film Le Bal (1931). Her beauty combined with her singing and dancing ability led to numerous other offers, and the film Mayerling (1936) brought her to fame.
In 1935, Darrieux married director/screenwriter Henri Decoin, who encouraged her to try Hollywood. She signed with Universal Studios to star in The Rage of Paris (1938) opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Afterwards, she elected to return to Paris.

Under the German occupation of France during World War II, she continued to perform, a decision that was severely criticized by her compatriots. However, it is reported that her brother had been threatened with deportation by Alfred Greven, the manager of the German run film production company in occupied France, Continental. She got a divorce and then fell in love with Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican Republic diplomat and notorious womanizer. They married in 1942. His anti-Nazi opinions resulted in his forced residence in Germany. In exchange for Rubirosa's freedom, Darrieux agreed to make a promotional trip in Berlin. The couple lived in Switzerland until the end of the war, and divorced in 1947. She married scriptwriter Georges Mitsikidès in 1948, and they lived together until his death in 1991.
She gave a good performance in the 1951 MGM musical, Rich, Young and Pretty. Joseph L. Mankiewicz lured her back to Hollywood to star in 5 Fingers (1952) opposite James Mason. Upon returning to France, she appeared in Max Ophüls' The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) opposite Charles Boyer, and The Red and the Black (1954) opposite Gérard Philippe. The next year she starred in Lady Chatterley's Lover, whose theme of uninhibited sexuality led to its being proscribed by Catholic censors in the United States.

Approaching 40, she played a supporting role in her last American film to date, United Artists' epic Alexander the Great (1956) starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom. In 1961 she went to England at the request of director Lewis Gilbert to star in The Greengage Summer opposite Kenneth More. In 1963, she starred in the romantic comedy La Robe Mauve de Valentine at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris. The play was adapted from the novel by Françoise Sagan. During the 1960s she also was a concert singer.
In 1970, Darrieux replaced Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway musical, Coco, based on the life of Coco Chanel, but the play, essentially a showcase for Hepburn, soon folded without her. In 1971–72 she also appeared in the short-lived productions of Ambassador. For her long service to the motion picture industry, in 1985 she was given an Honorary César Award. She has continued to work, her career now spanning eight decades, most recently providing the voice of the protagonist's grandmother in the animated feature, Persepolis (2007), which deals with the impact of the Iranian Islamic revolution on a girl's life as she grows to adulthood.

She was paid homage to in Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009) when Shosanna Dreyfus is preparing to take the Nazis down, her assistant calls her Danielle Darrieux.