Hampton Hawes was born in Los Angeles in 1928, the son of a Presbyterian minister. His mom was the church pianist, and he started selecting out tunes from her lap at house as a toddler. He taught himself to play, and by the point he was a youngster, bebop had arrived and he was gigging on Central Avenue with its West Coast progenitors, together with saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Wardell Grey, Artwork Pepper, and Teddy Edwards. Maybe his most notable collaboration early on, although, was with trumpeter Howard McGhee, whose quintet additionally included alto saxophonist Charlie Parker.
Hawes befriended Parker, and when he noticed what an terrible driver the saxophonist was, took on the duty of getting him to gigs. He wrote: “When I came early one night he motioned me to follow him to his room. I waded through piles of sandwich wrappers, beer cans, and liquor bottles. Watched him line up and take down eleven shots of whiskey, pop a handful of bennies, then tie up, smoking a joint at the same time. He sweated like a horse for five minutes, got up, put on his suit and a half-hour later was on the stand playing strong and beautiful.”
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You see, Hampton Hawes was not only a pianist; he was additionally the writer of one of the compulsively readable books ever written about jazz. Increase Up Off Me, co-authored with Don Asher and initially revealed in 1974, is an unflinching however darkly hilarious exploration of his life, encompassing music, habit, encounters with racism, army service, and jail time, in a tone someplace between Chester Himes and William Burroughs. It received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music writing the next yr. Sadly, Hawes died simply two years later, struggling a mind hemorrhage on Might 22, 1977, at 48.
As Hawes recounts within the ebook, he first recorded on his personal in 1952, however shortly thereafter joined the Military and served in Japan for 2 years. When he returned to the US, his solo profession took off in earnest. He signed with Lester Koenig’s Up to date label, and recorded three albums’ price of fabric in three periods between June 1955 and January 1956, with a trio that includes bassist Crimson Mitchell and drummer Chuck Thompson.
“We recorded our first album for Lester Koenig one night in June from midnight to dawn in the Los Angeles Police Academy gymnasium in Chavez Ravine,” Hawes wrote. “They had a good Steinway there that Artur Rubinstein used, and Lester wanted to get away from the cold studio atmosphere, experiment with a more natural sound. It was a relaxed session, the lights low, Jackie and Red [Mitchell]’s wife Doe sipping beer at a table behind the piano while we played…”
These three trio periods are about as thrilling a calling card as any in jazz. Hawes has a lightweight, dancing contact on the piano; the technical intricacy of Forties bebop is sometimes current in a few of his right-hand runs, however he’s intentionally slower than Bud Powell and quicker than Thelonious Monk, sitting in a cushty center zone the place he can swing with a seeming effortlessness. “Hamp’s Blues,” from the primary session, is an ideal instance. It’s speedy, however surprisingly exact; he drops the notes into place like they’re locked to a Professional Instruments grid, as Thompson lays down an equally immaculate beat and Mitchell glues all of it collectively. On the second album, This Is Hampton Hawes, his model of the usual “Yesterdays” begins with an ornate introduction – a collection of trills and extrapolations which sound solo at first, till you discover that Mitchell is creating low bowed drones behind him. After two minutes, the rhythm kicks in, a hard-swinging shuffle, and the foot-tapping groove is irresistible.
Hawes wrote two items for 1956’s All people Likes Hampton Hawes, the easy gospel-jazz exercise “The Sermon” and the album-closing bebop dash “Coolin’ the Blues.” In between, the trio explored variations of requirements like “Lover Come Back To Me,” “Embraceable You,” and the bouncing “Billy Boy,” a tune fellow pianist Ahmad Jamal had recorded a few years earlier. Hawes takes the same strategy, hitting the chords laborious, however makes it his personal.
On the evening of November 12, 1956, Hawes and Mitchell entered the studio with guitarist Jim Corridor and drummer Eldridge Freeman and recorded shut to twenty tracks which have been cut up between three albums known as All Night time Session! The guitarist, a refined accompanist able to speedy bebop runs, was an ideal front-line associate for Hawes, who sprinted via some tunes whereas enjoyable and letting others run a leisurely course. The primary album ended with the 11-minute “Hampton’s Pulpit,” a strutting blues with actual chew that will remind a number of the inventive dynamic that will develop between guitarist Grant Inexperienced and pianist Sonny Clark a half-decade later.
Hawes’ authentic Up to date run led to 1958, with the albums 4! and For Actual! The previous was recorded with guitarist Barney Kessel, Crimson Mitchell on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums; the model of “There Will Never Be Another You” has a twitchy, bouncing-ball vitality, and the lesser-known commonplace “Love Is Just Around The Corner” is lyrical and emphatically swinging without delay. For Actual! featured tenor saxophonist Harold Land, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Frank Butler. It was a gutsy laborious bop session with some surprisingly adventurous taking part in; LaFaro, who additionally labored extensively with Invoice Evans and briefly joined Ornette Coleman’s quartet, was an exploratory participant who gave even easy bluesy melodies a way of chance. The album’s first observe, “Hip,” is the one Hawes authentic, and it has the dancer’s vitality typical of his work, however the interplay between LaFaro and Butler is surprisingly superior for 1958.
For Actual! wasn’t launched till 1961, and by that point LaFaro was lifeless, killed in an car accident, and Hawes was in jail for heroin possession. He was sentenced to 10 years, scheduled for launch in 1969, however was pardoned in 1963 by then-President John F. Kennedy, lower than three months earlier than Kennedy’s assassination.
After his launch, Hawes struggled to rebuild his profession. He remained inventive, placing out a string of wonderful albums, however it’s debatable that he by no means totally regained the skilled momentum he had earlier than going inside. He even shifted to electrical keyboards for a time within the early 70s – “Josie Black,” from 1972’s Universe, is a compelling funk vamp that includes Arthur Adams on guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass, Leon “Ndugu” Chancler on drums, Harold Land on tenor sax, and Oscar Brashear on trumpet, very a lot within the vein of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band. Hawes acquired his begin as a bebopper, however he wasn’t caught previously.
Hampton Hawes’ Nineteen Fifties albums characteristic a number of the greatest jazz performances to ever come out of Los Angeles. And Increase Up Off Me is a typically harsh however different occasions riotously humorous take a look at a life in jazz, the military, and jail, on medicine and off – among the finest musicians’ autobiographies ever written. Hawes’ title ought to be written in daring kind within the historical past of American music.
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