Hampton Hawes

Contents
1 Early life
2 Later life and career
3 Style and influence
4 Discography
4.1 As leader/co-leader
4.2 As sideman
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links
Early life
Hampton Hawes was born on November 13, 1928, in Los Angeles, California.[2] 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.[citation needed]

Later life and career

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Hawes was self-taught;[3] 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 of 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.[citation needed] 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.[4]

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.[citation needed] 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[4] but
refused to cooperate[citation needed] and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
[4] 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.[4] With help from inside and outside the prison,
Hawes submitted an official request for a presidential pardon.[4] In an almost
miraculous turn, in August 1963, Kennedy granted Hawes Executive Clemency, the 42nd
of only 43 such pardons given in the final year of Kennedy's presidency.[4]

After being released from prison, Hawes resumed playing and recording. During a
world tour in 1967–68, he was startled to discover that he had become a
legend[citation needed] among jazz listeners overseas. 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 was the first book about
the bebop era written by a musician[citation needed], and won the ASCAP Deems
Taylor Award for music writing in 1975.[citation needed] 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."

In the 1970s, Hawes experimented with electronic music (Fender-Rhodes made a

special instrument for him), although eventually he returned to playing the
acoustic piano.

Hampton Hawes died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage in 1977, at the age of 48. He
was buried next to his father, Hampton Hawes, Sr., who had died five months
earlier. In 2004, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution declaring
November 13th "Hampton Hawes Day".[citation needed]

Style and influence

Hawes' playing style developed in the early 1950s.[3] 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."[3]
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."[3] His
technique featured "great facility with rapid runs and a versatile control of
touch."[3]

Hawes influenced a great number of prominent pianists,[citation needed] 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,[citation needed] however, his
principal source of influence was his friend Charlie Parker.