Hampton Hawes | en

James Manheim, All Music Guide wrote this: In the quite successful small industry of making string quartet versions of rock and pop music, the Hampton String Quartet has been one of the more durable players. Joining forces in the mid-'80s not long after the Kronos Quartet released its version of "Purple Haze," the members of the quartet were trained at The Juilliard School and have cultivated independent careers in the classical and soundtrack spheres. Their activities as a quartet, however, have been focused entirely upon arrangements of classic rock and pieces by the likes of Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones,...

Lionel Hampton is one of the most extraordinary musicians of the 20th century and his artistic achievements symbolize the impact that jazz music has had on our culture in the 21st century. He was born April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Charles Hampton, a promising pianist and singer, was reported missing and later declared killed in World War I. Lionel and his mother, Gertrude, first moved to Birmingham, Alabama, to be with her family, then settled in Chicago. He attended the Holy Rosary Academy, near Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a Dominican sister give him his first drum lessons. In...

Slide Hampton is a jazz trombonist and arranger. He was born Locksley Wellington Hampton on April 21, 1932 in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, but largely spent his youth in Indianapolis. He has played with Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, and Woody Herman, and was musical director for singer Lloyd Price and is a two-time grammy winner. He leads a nine-trombone band called World of Trombones. On October 30, 1999, he played in a recording of several pieces arranged in a book of sheet music called "Easy Jazz Conception," by Jim Snidero, which was designed to help students learn basic jazz style. He was...