Jazz musician and bandleader, born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Originally a drummer, he was given xylophone tuition while a young man in Chicago. He later introduced the vibraphone into jazz, recording with Louis Armstrong in 1930. A member of Benny Goodman's small groups in the late 1930s, he first formed a permanent big band in 1940, continuing as a leader until the 1980s, taking his entertaining brand of musicianship and showmanship on many overseas tours.
"Hamp" ranks among the greatest names in jaz history and worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman to Charlie Parker to Quincy Jones.
Hampton moved to Chicago as a child and began his career as a drummer. Hampton, who knew how to play the xylophone, tried it and they agreed to record a few records with Hamp on vibes.
In the mid-30s, the Benny Goodman Orchestra came to Los Angeles to play the Palomar Ballroom. John Hammond brought Goodman to see Hampton play. Goodman asked Hampton to move to New York City and join Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa---who'd already formed a Benny Goodman Trio within the large band---to expand into the Benny Goodman Quartet.
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.
Hampton's band fostered the talents of Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Ernie Royal, Jack McVea, Charlie Mingus, Monk Montgomery, Wes Montgomery, Quincy Jones, Benny Golson, Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, Clifford Brown, Dinah Washington, Betty Carter, Joe Williams, Arnett Cobb, Earl Bostic, and John Colianni among many others.
His wife, Gladys Hampton, was his manager throughout much of his career.
Hampton's recording of "Flying Home" (1939) with the famous honking tenor sax solo by Jacquet, later refined and expanded by Cobb (1946), is considered by some to be the first rock and roll record.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Hampton and his band started playing at the University of Idaho's jazz concert, which in 1985 was renamed the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. In 1987 the University's music college was renamed the Lionel Hampton School of Music, the first and only university music college to be named after a jazz musician.
Lionel Hampton died of cardiac arrest at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York at about 06:15 AM, on August 31, 2002.
Hampton was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.
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