1. Bye Bye Blues
2. Someday My Prince
Will Come
3. Take the "A"
Train
4. Blues for Jazz
Beaux
5. Walkin' Uptown
6. Honeysuckle Rose
7. Mostly Blues
8. Limehouse Blues
9. Gone With the
Wind
Lionel Hampton -
Vibes
Bobby Scott - Piano
Joe Beck - Guitar
Grady Tate - Drums
(tracks 1-5)
Bob Cranshaw - Bass
(tracks 1-5)
Chris Parker- -Drums
(tracks 6-9)
Anthony Jackson
- Bass (tracks 6-9)
Lionel Hampton was never one to give up. Marshall Royal said that Lionel
was liable to just topple off the bandstand one night while playing
the vibes and everybody would say "Well, that's the way he wanted
to go out". Recorded in early 1988, as Hamp was approaching his
80th birthday, this was one of Lionel's last albums, although he didn't
actually die until 2002. But his last years were exacerbated by arthritis
and a stroke, which diminished his power to play.
In fact, parts of this album are sad, since Hamp shows signs of decreasing
dexterity at the vibraphone. Sometimes he sounds tentative and he
occasionally gets out-of-synch with the rest of the band (ass he does
in Someday My Prince Will Come). Yet his spirit was still undaunted
and he never lost the innate ability to swing. He was one of those
jazzmen who improvised in such a way that you could always sense the
tune behind the solo. Even when he falters, he finds an adroit way
of getting out of it.
The album is mis-named, since several of the tunes are not blues at
all. But Blues for Jazz Beaux is a genuine blues and it swings
magnificently, thanks especially to the propulsive drumming by Grady
Tate. Having started tentatively, Hamp seems to warm up by the time
we reach Walkin' Uptown, another blues where his vibes artistry
is undimmed. And Hamp's shouts and grunts prove that he is really
enjoying himself. Lionel starts Honeysuckle Rose unaccompanied;
Joe Back contributes a Wes Montgomery-like solo; and Hamp interpolates
the well-known vamp which apparently originated with Fletcher Henderson
in 1932.
Beck's guitar introduction to the title-track is bluesily funky, followed
by an equally potent piano solo from Bobby Scott. Lionel revels in
the leisurely tune, while unafraid to step adventurously across bar-lines.
Limehouse Blues is given an unusual jazz-rock beat, and
the CD ends with Gone With the Wind, which has a hint of a
rocky rhythm and a theme which is actually only stated towards the
end. Here Lionel exhbits his familiar agility on the vibes.
Both groups accompany Hampton sympathetically, with Bobby Scott and
Joe Beck taking a lot of the solos. Sonny's piano backing is just
right to support Hamp's unpredictability. Despite Hamp's increasing
age, this album still lifts one's spirits as so many Hampton albums
do.
Tony Augarde
Jonathan Woolf has also listened to this disc
Lionel Hampton laid down these nine tracks, the products
of two sessions in March and April 1988, with two quintets. Guitarist
Joe Beck and pianist Booby Scott remained constant but there were
changes in the bass and drums. Ted Macero was the producer for both
sessions and he and his engineers ensured a fine aural ride.
There are three Blues and six standards in the running
order and there are plenty of opportunities for Hampton and Scott
in particular to stretch out at leisure. Scott is an especially adept
performer and his bluesy solo on the opening track bisects Hamp's
own solos. Someday My Prince Will Come can still cause some problems
for improvisers due to its metre - and here the band switches from
3/4 to 4/4 for the ride-out - which makes it even more interesting.
Hampton shows us something of his range here, going from filigree
intimacy to the relaxed but driving intensity of his blues chorus;
relaxed intensity here not resulting in contradiction but zestful
drama.
Fortunately interest in time signatures and imaginative
arrangements were something of a hallmark of the dates. Blues for
Jazz Beaux for instance goes into a shuffle beat over which there
are some fine blues licks on show. And Joe Beck, rather underused
throughout the dates if truth be known, at least opens the title track,
whereupon he's followed by the rolling, blues-drenched playing of
Scott, a consummately articulate performer. When Hamp joins they all
lock into a solid groove. A small problem; I'm not a huge fan of the
sound of Bob Cranshaw's bass.
Limehouse Blues gets a funky makeover with another
good guitar and an even better piano solo. Gone with the Wind melodically
speaking goes around the houses until the final statement of the tune,
in a way that not even that master of the baroque tease, Erroll Garner,
would have envisaged. As you'd probably expect Walkin' Uptown is one
of those up-tempo finger-popping, twelve-bar evergreens.
This is not to be written off as yet another latter-day
Hampton session. The arrangements are buoyant, varied and sometimes
unusual and the solos are often high class.
Jonathan Woolf
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