Hampton Hawes Trio – live at Red Hill Inn, Pennsauken, New Jersey May 4, 1957 – Bandstand U.S.A. – Mutual – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Key figures in the West Coast Cool School this weekend. A live gig at Red Hill Inn, Pennshauken New Jersey by Hampton Hawes and his trio – Paul Chambers on bass and Richie Goldberg on drums – all recorded on May 4, 1957 for Mutual’s Bandstand U.S.A. series.
So sez Wikipedia:
Hampton Hawes was self-taught; by his teens he was playing with the leading jazz musicians on the West Coast, including Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, and Teddy Edwards. His second professional job, at 18, was playing for eight months with the Howard McGhee Quintet at the Hi De Ho Club, in a group that included Charlie Parker.[1] By late 1947, Hawes’ reputation was leading to studio recording work.[1] Early studio dates included work for George L. “Happy” Johnson, Teddy Edwards, Sonny Criss, and Shorty Rogers. From 1948 to 1952, he was recorded live on several occasions at Los Angeles-area jazz clubs including The Haig, The Lighthouse, and The Surf Club.[1] By December 1952, he had recorded eight songs under his own name for Prestige Records with a quartet featuring Larry Bunker on vibraphone.
After serving in the U.S. Army in Japan from 1952 to 1954, Hampton Hawes formed his own trio, with bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Chuck Thompson. The three-record Trio sessions made by this group in 1955 on Contemporary Records were considered some of the finest records to come out of the West Coast at the time. The next year, Hawes added guitarist Jim Hall for the All Night Sessions. These were three records made during a non-stop overnight recording session.
After a six-month national tour in 1956, Hampton Hawes won the “New Star of the Year” award in Down Beat magazine, and “Arrival of the Year” in Metronome. The following year, he recorded in New York City with Charles Mingus on the album Mingus Three (Jubilee, 1957).
Struggling for many years with a heroin addiction, in 1958 Hampton Hawes became the target of a federal undercover operation in Los Angeles. Investigators believed that he would inform on suppliers rather than risk ruining a successful music career. He was arrested on heroin charges on his 30th birthday and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. In the intervening weeks between his trial and sentencing, Hawes recorded an album of spirituals and gospel songs, The Sermon.
In 1961, while at a federal prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, Hawes was watching President Kennedy’s inaugural speech on television, and became convinced that Kennedy would pardon him. With help from inside and outside the prison, Hawes submitted an official request for a presidential pardon. In August 1963, Kennedy granted Hampton Hawes Executive Clemency, the 42nd of only 43 such pardons given in the final year of Kennedy’s presidency.
Hampton Hawes died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage in 1977, at the age of 48.
If you didn’t before, now you know. It’s Sunday – grab a chair, sit back and relax – Hampton Hawes will explain it all to you.
