All too often, great jazz musicians have died much too young. That is true of
John Coltrane,
Eric Dolphy,
Booker Little, and
Fats Navarro, and is equally true of everyone from
Clifford Brown to
Jaco Pastorius to the seminal
Charlie "Bird" Parker. But
Lionel Hampton, thankfully, wasn't among the jazz greats who died in his twenties or thirties; the vibist/bandleader was 94 when he died of heart failure on August 31, 2002.
Hampton not only lived a very long life -- he also lived an amazingly productive life. One of the
Hampton tributes that has been recorded since his death is
Tribute to Hamp, which finds Chicago vibist
Duane Thamm joining forces with clarinetist
Chuck Hedges and three of
Hedges' regular Windy City sidemen: guitarist
Frank Dawson, bassist
John Bany, and drummer
Charles Braughan. Recorded live at Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center in 2002,
Tribute to Hamp fondly recalls
Hampton's work with
Benny Goodman during the Swing Era. The quintet sticks to familiar standards from the classic
Goodman/
Hampton repertoire, including "Seven Come Eleven," "Avalon," "The Man I Love," and "Memories of You" -- and the musicians are quite faithful to the spirit of
Goodman's small groups. Apart from
Thamm playing the chimes as a second instrument, few surprises occur at this concert; no one will accuse
Thamm or
Hedges of trying to reinvent the jazz wheel. But the performances are consistently inspired --
Thamm and
Hedges' sincere affection for
Hampton always comes through -- and diehard
Hampton fans will find a lot to enjoy about this pleasing, if conventional, disc.