IT DON’T
MEAN A THING
LIONEL HAMPTON & ORCHESTRA
SOGWRITER: DUKE ELLINGTON
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: IT DON’T MEAN A THING/HOT MALLETS
LABEL: RCA VICTOR
GENRE: JAZZ
YEAR: 1941
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August
31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist,
pianist, percussionist,
and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In
1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz
Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.
Lionel Hampton was born in 1908 in Louisville,
Kentucky, and was raised by his mother. Shortly after
he was born, he and his mother moved to her hometown of 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 began to play drums. Hampton was raised Roman Catholic, and
started out playing fife and drum at the Holy Rosary Academy near Chicago.
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 developed a high-profile during the 1940s and early 1950s. His
third recording with them in 1942 produced the version of "Flying Home",
featuring a solo by Illinois Jacquet that anticipated rhythm & blues.
Although Hampton first recorded "Flying Home" under his own name with
a small group in 1940 for Victor, the best known version is the big band
version recorded for Decca on May 26, 1942, in a new arrangement by Hampton's pianista
Milt Buckner. The 78
RPM disc became successful enough for Hampton to record "Flyin' Home
#2" in 1944, this time a feature for 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 to the late 1970s. In 1947, Hamp performed "Stardust"
at a "Just Jazz" concert for producer Gene Norman,
also featuring Charlie Shavers and Slam Stewart; the
recording was issued by Decca. Later, Norman's GNP Crescendo label issued the remaining tracks from
the concert.(…)
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, Buddy DeFranco, and
others. In 1955, while in California working on The Benny
Goodman Story he recorded with Stan Getz and made
two albums with 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.
"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got
That Swing)" is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills.
It is now accepted as a jazz standard, and
jazz historian Gunther Schuller characterized it as "now legendary" and "a prophetic
piece and a prophetic title". In 2008, Ellington's 1932 recording of the
song was inducted into the Grammy Hall
of Fame
The music was composed and arranged by
Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago
and was first recorded by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records on February 2, 1932. After Mills wrote the lyrics, Ivie Anderson sang the
vocal and trombonist Joe Nanton and alto
saxophonist Johnny Hodges played the solos. The song became famous, Ellington wrote, "as
the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the
time". Ellington credited the saying as a credo of trumpeter Bubber Miley, who was
dying of tuberculosis at the
time; Miley died the year the song was released. The Ellington band recorded it
numerous times, most often with trumpeter Ray Nance as vocalist.
Postagens
