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Lionel Hampton

Usage Conditions Apply

Artist: Frederick J. Brown, 1945 - 2012
Sitter: Lionel Hampton, 20 Apr 1908 - 31 Aug 2002

Date: 1997

Type: Painting

Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Stretcher: 244.2 x 182.9 x 4.8cm (96 1/8 x 72 x 1 7/8"); Frame: 253.7 x 197.8 x 7cm (99 7/8 x 77 7/8 x 2 3/4")

Topic: Music\Musical instrument; Costume\Dress Accessory\Neckwear\Tie\Necktie; Lionel Hampton: Male; Lionel Hampton: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Jazz musician; Portrait

Place: United States\New York\Kings\New York

Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on behalf of the People of New York

Restrictions & Rights: Usage conditions apply

Object number: NPG.97.39

Exhibition Label: Born Louisville, Kentucky; Lionel Hampton began his musical career as a drummer until Louis Armstrong encouraged him to take up the vibraphone in the early 1930s. Hampton introduced that instrument to the jazz idiom and came to the attention of Benny Goodman in 1936. When Goodman formed the Benny Goodman Quartet, Hampton played “vibes” and went on to direct the group’s recordings of such favorites as “Dinah” and “Exactly Like You.” In 1940 Goodman disbanded the quartet, and Hampton struck out on his own, incorporating such musicians as Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, and Charlie Parker into the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. Among the top bands in the country, the orchestra played all the popular clubs, as well as Carnegie Hall and Harlem’s Apollo Theatre. Hampton’s high-energy spontaneity was legendary: “We got no routine,” he once said. “We just act the way the spirit moves us.”
Provenance: The artist; gift 1997 NPG

Data Source: National Portrait Gallery

Exhibition: Bravo!
On View: NPG, South Gallery 322 Mezzanine