Hampton Hawes

Hampton Hawes
Hawes in Japan in 1953
Background information
Birth name	Hampton Barnett Hawes Jr.
Born	(1928-11-13)November 13, 1928 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	May 22, 1977(1977-05-22) (aged 48) Los Angeles
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, soul jazz, jazz-funk
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Piano
Labels	Contemporary, Discovery, Fantasy

Hampton Barnett Hawes Jr. (November 13, 1928 – May 22, 1977) was an American jazz pianist. He was the author of the memoir Raise Up Off Me, which won the Deems-Taylor Award for music writing in 1975.

Early life

Hampton Hawes was born on November 13, 1928, in Los Angeles, California. His father, Hampton Hawes Sr., was minister of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. His mother, the former Gertrude Holman, was Westminster's church pianist. Hawes' first experience with the piano was as a toddler sitting on his mother's lap while she practiced. He was reportedly able to pick out fairly complex tunes by the age of three.

Later life and career

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. By late 1947, Hawes' reputation was leading to studio recording work. 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. 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, 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, 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 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. Hawes 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 Hawes Executive Clemency, the 42nd of only 43 such pardons given in the final year of Kennedy's presidency.

After being released from prison, Hawes resumed playing and recording. During a ten-month tour of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Hawes recorded nine albums, played sold out shows and concert halls in ten countries, and was covered widely in the press, including appearances on European television and radio.

Raise Up Off Me, Hawes' autobiography, written with Don Asher and published in 1974, shed light on his heroin addiction, the bebop movement, and his friendships with some of the leading jazz musicians of his time. It won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music writing in 1975. Critic Gary Giddins, who wrote the book's introduction, called Raise Up Off Me "a major contribution to the literature of jazz." The Penguin Guide to Jazz cites it as "one of the most moving memoirs ever written by a musician, and a classic of jazz writing."

Hampton Hawes died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage in 1977, at the age of 48.

Style and influence

Hawes' playing style developed in the early 1950s. He included "figures used by Parker and [Bud] Powell (but he played with a cleaner articulation than Powell), some Oscar Peterson phrases, and later, some Bill Evans phrases[...], and an impressive locked-hands style in which the top notes always sang out clearly." He also helped develop "the double-note blues figures and rhythmically compelling comping style that Horace Silver and others were to use in the mid-1950s." His technique featured "great facility with rapid runs and a versatile control of touch."

Hawes influenced a great number of prominent pianists, including André Previn, Peterson, Horace Silver, Claude Williamson, Pete Jolly, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Hawes' own influences came from a number of sources, including the gospel music and spirituals he heard in his father's church as a child, and the boogie-woogie piano of Earl Hines. Hawes also learned much from pianists Powell and Nat King Cole, among others. By Hawes' own account, however, his principal source of influence was his friend Charlie Parker.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Recording date	Title	Label	Year released	Personnel/Notes
1955-06	Hampton Hawes Trio	Contemporary	1955	One track solo piano; most tracks trio, with Red Mitchell (bass), Chuck Thompson (drums)
1955-06, 1955-12, 1956-01	This Is Hampton Hawes	Contemporary	1956	Trio, with Red Mitchell (bass), Chuck Thompson (drums)
1956-01	Everybody Likes Hampton Hawes	Contemporary	1956	Trio, with Red Mitchell (bass), Chuck Thompson (drums)
1956-11	All Night Session! Vol. 1	Contemporary	1958	Quartet, with Jim Hall (guitar), Red Mitchell (bass), Eldridge Freeman (drums)
1956-11	All Night Session! Vol. 2	Contemporary	1958	Quartet, with Jim Hall (guitar), Red Mitchell (bass), Eldridge Freeman (drums)
1956-11	All Night Session! Vol. 3	Contemporary	1958	Quartet, with Jim Hall (guitar), Red Mitchell (bass), Eldridge Freeman (drums)
1957-04, 1957-05	Baritones and French Horns	Prestige	1958	Septet, with Curtis Fuller (trombone), Sahib Shihab (alto sax), David Amram and Julius Watkins (French horn), Addison Farmer (bass), Jerry Segal (drums); originally issued with other recordings; reissued as Curtis Fuller and Hampton Hawes with French Horns by Status
1958-01	Four!	Contemporary	1958	Quartet, with Barney Kessel (guitar), Red Mitchell (bass), Shelly Manne (drums)
1956-01, 1958-03	Bird Song	Contemporary	1999	Most tracks trio with Paul Chambers (bass), Larance Marable (drums); two tracks trio listing Scott LaFaro (bass), Frank Butler (drums)
1958-03	For Real!	Contemporary	1961	Quartet, with Harold Land (tenor sax), Scott LaFaro (bass), Frank Butler (drums)
1958-11	The Sermon	Contemporary	1987	Trio, with Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Stan Levey (drums)
1964-02	The Green Leaves of Summer	Contemporary	1964	Trio, with Monk Montgomery (bass), Steve Ellington (drums)
1965-05	Here and Now	Contemporary	1966	Trio, with Chuck Israels (bass), Donald Bailey (drums)
1966-04, 1966-05	The Seance	Contemporary	1969	Trio, with Red Mitchell (bass), Donald Bailey (drums)
1966-04, 1966-05	I'm All Smiles	Contemporary	1973	Trio, with Red Mitchell (bass), Donald Bailey (drums)
1967	Hamp's Piano	SABA	1969	also released as Hampton Hawes in Europe (Prestige)
1968-01	Key for Two	BYG Actuel	1973	with Martial Solal
1968-03	Spanish Steps	Black Lion	1971	Trio, with Jimmy Woode (bass), Art Taylor (drums). also released as Blues for Bud
1968-05	The Challenge	Victor	1968	Solo piano
1968?	Jam Session	Columbia	1968	with Isao Suzuki (bass), George Otsuka (drums), Shungo Sawada (gutar), Akira Miyazawa (ts), Hidehiko Matsumoto (ts)
1970?	High in the Sky	Vault	1970	Trio, with Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Donald Bailey (drums)
1971-09	This Guy's in Love with You	Freedom	1974	Trio, with Henry Franklin (bass), Michael Carvin (drums); in concert; also released as Live at the Montmartre (Freedom)
1971-09	A Little Copenhagen Night Music	Freedom	1977	Trio, with Henry Franklin (bass), Michael Carvin (drums); in concert
1972-06	Universe	Prestige	1972	With Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Harold Land tenor sax), Arthur Adams (guitar), Chuck Rainey (electric bass), Ndugu (drums)
1973-01	Blues for Walls	Prestige	1973	Two tracks quartet, with George Walker (guitar), Henry Franklin (bass, electric bass), Ndugu (drums); most tracks sextet, with Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Hadley Caliman (soprano sax, tenor sax) added
1973-06	Live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago Volume One	Enja	1981	Trio, with Cecil McBee (bass), Roy Haynes (drums); in concert
1973-06	Live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago Volume Two	Enja	1989	Trio, with Cecil McBee (bass), Roy Haynes (drums); in concert
1973-07	Playin' in the Yard	Prestige	1973	Trio, with Bob Cranshaw (electric bass), Kenny Clarke (drums); in concert
1974-07	Northern Windows	Prestige	1974	With Allen DeRienzo and Snooky Young (trumpet), George Bohanon (trombone), Bill Green, Jackie Kelso and Jay Migliori (saxes, flute), Carol Kaye (electric bass), Spider Webb (drums)
1975-06	Recorded Live at the Great American Music Hall	Concord Jazz	1983	Duo, with Mario Suraci (bass)
1976-01, 1976-08	As Long as There's Music	Artists House	1978	Duo, with Charlie Haden (bass)
1976-06	Something Special	Contemporary	1994	Quartet, with Denny Diaz (guitar), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Al Williams (drums); in concert;
1976-08	Hampton Hawes at the Piano	Contemporary	1978	Trio, with Ray Brown (bass), Shelly Manne (drums)
1977?	Memory Lane Live	JAS	1977	with Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Bobby Thompson (drums), Harry Edison (trumpet), Sonny Criss (as), Teddy Edwards (ts: B2), Joe Turner (vocals: A3,B1)

Compilations

• The Hampton Hawes Memorial Album (Xanadu, 1982) – rec. 1952–56
• Trio and Quartet 1951-1956 Live and Studio Sessions (Fresh Sound, 2005)[2CD] – rec. 1951–56

As sideman

With Dexter Gordon

• Blues à la Suisse (Prestige, 1974) – rec. 1973
• The Hunt (Savoy, 1977) – rec. 1947

With Barney Kessel

• Kessel Plays Standards (Contemporary, 1955)
• Let's Cook! (Contemporary, 1962) – rec. 1957

With Art Pepper

• Surf Ride (Savoy, 1956) – rec. 1952–54
• Living Legend (Contemporary, 1975)
• The Early Show (Xanadu, 1979) – rec. 1952

With Shorty Rogers

• Modern Sounds (Capitol, 1951)
• Shorty Rogers and His Giants (RCA Victor, 1953)

With others

• Gene Ammons, Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux (Prestige, 1973)
• Sonny Criss, I'll Catch the Sun! (Prestige, 1969)
• Art Farmer, On the Road (Contemporary, 1976)
• Wardell Gray, Live in Hollywood (Xanadu, 1978) – rec. 1952
• Warne Marsh, Live in Hollywood (Xanadu, 1979) – rec. 1952
• Charles Mingus, Mingus Three (Jubilee, 1957)
• Blue Mitchell, Stratosonic Nuances (RCA, 1975)
• Red Mitchell, Red Mitchell (Bethlehem, 1955)
• Sonny Rollins, Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders (Contemporary, 1958)
• Bud Shank, Bud Shank – Shorty Rogers – Bill Perkins (Pacific Jazz, 1955)
• Sonny Stitt, So Doggone Good (Prestige, 1972)

Bibliography

• Raise Up Off Me: A Portrait of Hampton Hawes by Hampton Hawes, Don Asher, and Gary Giddins
• Hampton Hawes: A Discography by Roger Hunter & Mike Davis. 127pp. Manana Publications, Manchester, England. 1986.

See also

• List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States

External links

• Hampton Hawes at Find A Grave
• Hampton Hawes Discography
• "Hampton Hawes and the Low Blues" by Ethan Iverson