Jazz Great Lionel Hampton, 94, Dies

Associated Press, via Yahoo! News ^ | 31 August 2002 | Larry McShane

[Lurking Libertarian]

Btw, have you ever heard the Wolf's London Sessions? A surprisingly good album (especially considering his age), and he's joined by the likes of C. Watts, B. Wynman, and Eric Clapton. Anyway, right before they go into "Little Red Rooster," The Wolf lectures them all about "finding the groove"...and it's just priceless. Those Englishmen were a bit out of their league.

A great record, which I haven't heard in years. Thanks for reminding me.

[weegee]

Books and movies weren't meant to be perpetual industries either. The works of Shakespeare, Poe, Mark Twain, etc. are all public domain. It helps to make the works be accessible. It also allows the culture to build off of the works.

Consider it like a patent. You get exclusive control for an extended period. When the creator has had 80 years with the work, he's reaped his benefits. His family have his earnings, they don't need to sponge off of the works themselves.

Some nations have copyrights that do not expire and as a result there are some classical pieces of music that still require a royalty to be paid.

The founding fathers of this nation were inventors and authors. They still saw the merit in works having a finite copyright/patent use.

[weegee]

And finally, Lionel Hampton is here, and it's such an honor. (Applause.) Laura and I are honored to welcome him to Washington, just like Harry and Bess Truman did, when he played at their inaugural ball in 1949. The Johnsons, the Nixons and the Reagans all invited Lionel here as well. Presidents come and go, but there's only one "Vibes" President of the United States. (Applause.)

Lionel Hampton is an old friend of our family's, going all the way back to my dad's boyhood. On a couple of occasions, he and my grandfather did a few numbers together. My grandfather was quite a singer, as Lionel would tell you. And, as Laura would tell you, the gene pool didn't spread this far. (Laughter.)

Remarks by the President in Honor of Black Music Month

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Peter Frampton once said his most prize possession was a Gibson acoustic guitar that once belonged to Django Reinhardt, whom Frampton's father is said to have known once.

That's an interesting bit of trivia. I'll have to check it out - thanks Blues.

[BluesDuke]

I don't argue with the premise by any means; I don't believe there should be such a thing as an infinite copyright or patent. But the man who made the music or wrote the book or devised the device or technology or what have you should have at least the first right to the disposal of his work's commercial beneficience if any following his death, and then again for a certain finite period. And I hardly think a man bequeathing an estate to his family equates to his family's "sponging"; if I write a book, for example, and I elect to renew its copyright for the benefit of my family, that should certainly be my first right, because why should I wish sales of any book I write if not for the benefit of my family equal to any benefit to literature as a whole? (Yes, I am also against estate taxes).

The culture, the society, is no less bereft of the works because their creator's family enjoys at least a pair of subsequent generation's first right to his bequest, and it seems to be the case that in the case of music or literature their creators' families do well enough in keeping the works available for general consumption.

[weegee]

Copyrights protect for roughly 25 years and can be renewed several times; I have no issue with this.

Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan lapsed into the public domain a long time back but the ERB estate will sue anyone who seeks to do an adaptation (or right a sequel) without their approval. I believe that they attempted to trademark the literary character. A trademark does not expire but we are not talking about a graphic for commercial sales, we are talking about a concept of a man raised by apes.

Marilyn Monroe's foster parents outlived her but the inheritor of her estate was her psychiatrist. When he died his wife inherited it. The lawyers have extended that estate to include the visual perception of Marilyn (as the Elvis estate includes Elvis' look). I have no problem with the Presley estate going after singers trying to collect royalties on his songs, but there is no justification for a "look" of a dead man. There are some rights that you as an individual hold that cannot be passed along to your heirs.

If the kiddies would either hold a better control on the investments of the estate or find their own jobs they wouldn't need to make a career out of granddad's creative efforts.

There are plenty of devotees to Frank Baum's Oz books. People who are very talented writers, people who have a working knowledge of the characters. One of Baum's decendents picked up a pen and wrote some new Oz books (as others have done) and got a lot of notice for it. Let him write, no problem, but don't preclude others who may be more talented from doing so.

As it stands, much of America's cultural history is the creative works of the 20th century (there are others but recorded/published media has made us a post-1920 focused culture). Many of these works reside in the hands of a few corporations. They want to keep things from being released/circulated (some in the name of political correctness, some so as not to compete with some of their other catalog offerings). I say bust up the logjam on our cultural history and let the public domain works continue to be made available. The government retroactively renewed the expired copyrights on some older works in the 1990s. It did not help the creative talents, it did not help the general public, it did help the corporations that acquired catalogs of films and recordings from companies that they had bought out.

[BluesDuke]

Personally, I'd like to see some of the creative people who did the work and created the works get to work in redressing that business of the corporate copyrights. I do think, however, that copyrighting Marilyn Monroe's or Elvis Presley's "looks" is so far over the top that whomever dreamed up those ideas should be dismissed as, the wheel's turning but the gerbil has died. The rights I spoke of passing to my heirs had nothing to do with those kinds of madness (and, anyway, if I even tried to pass along my looks to my heirs, they'd be justified in suing to challenge the will!)...

[weegee]

There are some creators (such as cartoonists and musicians) who's creations were one time declared to be "work-for-hire" but as the copyright renewal comes up, they are being given opportunity to reclaim their creations/renegotiate the sale with the owner.

Sad thing is that these creators are in their twilight years and having to spend too much time in court (some win, some don't). As I say, many times the works reside in the hands of the publisher/corporation and not with the creator. Extending copyrights generally doesn't do much good for the creators, only the corporations with which they made a deal when they had no bargaining position.

[nickcarraway]

Lionel Hampton was a brilliant musician with an infectious personality. I was always hoping to see him live again. I saw Milt Jackson as well, and I would put Hampton right up there.

[nickcarraway]

One note: They always say Benny Goodman's band was the first one that was integrated. But wasn't Ellington's already integrated with Juan Tizol and all?

[nickcarraway]

Benny Carter is still with us at 95 years old! (8/8/02)

Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal are still going strong and you couldn't ask for two better piano players. Peterson is as nice as he is talented. I advise anyone to see these musicians if they get the chance.

[BluesDuke]

One note: They always say Benny Goodman's band was the first one that was integrated. But wasn't Ellington's already integrated with Juan Tizol and all?

By "integration" they customarily meant white with black, not Latino or Carribbean with black (Tizol was a Latino, as was future marathon saxophone star Paul Gonsalves) and a few other players in the Ellington bands had been of Carribbean origin, such as trombone legend Tricky Sam Nanton. Ellington wasn't averse to whites playing with his bands, but very few actually sought to do so, underrated drummer Louis Bellson - whose "Skin Deep" became a near-permanent part of the Ellington band book from its 1951 premiere, when Bellson was the drummer anchoring the band between Sonny Greer and the equally underrated Sam Woodyard - being one notable exception.

Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, and (briefly - and tragically) Charlie Christian weren't the only black players Benny Goodman had an employers' eye for. He actually tried to hire Ella Fitzgerald, before she secured herself as the voice and, soon enough, the leader (following the drummer's premature death) of the Chick Webb band. Goodman wanted Ella in the worst way possible, but recording contractual obligations (Decca Records absolutely refused to sanction it if Fitzgerald were to go with the Goodman band, even if she agreed to continue recording for the label as a solo) prevented them from cutting more than a handful of sides, one of which - "Goodnight, My Love" - became a staple in the Goodman book for years.

[BluesDuke]

Ahmad Jamal's been a favourite for a long time; I wore out a copy of his album Wave, just his trio, in a breathtaking performance. I always respected Keith Jarrett for showing a Jamal influence without becoming a slave to Jamal's style. (Jarrett's album of improvised extensions based on modes drawn from certain pop standards - in fact, it was called Standards - with Miroslav Vitous on bass and Jack DeJohnnette on drums, is nothing short of breathtaking.)

[nickcarraway]

Louis Bellson is underrated. And he's another one who's still around. I guess Ellington only ended up getting him when Hodges took Greer for his solo act.

Speaking of Ellington and Hampton, when I saw Hampton in '98, onetime Ellingtonian Jimmy Woode was on bass. I was happy to say hi to him.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

I actually have "The Art Tatum Group Sessions" on Pablo, which I bought used on vinyl for $25. I flipped it over once I walked out of the store, only to find it was signed by Mr. Bellson himself (He plays on the album.) If the store had know that it was a signed copy, most likely they would have charged me $75 more.

[nickcarraway]

I didn't realize Bellson played with Tatum. Is that part of the same sessions that he played with a number of naotable musicians, including Ben Webster? Bellson was playing at Stanford a few years ago with a rather large band, doing some Ellingtonia.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

That's the one. It has: Louie Bellson : Drums
Red Callender : Bass
Benny Carter : Alto Sax
Buddy DeFranco : Clarinet
Bill Douglass : Drums
Harry "Sweets" Edison : Trumpet
Roy Eldridge : Trumpet
Lionel Hampton : Vibraphone
Jo Jones : Drums
Barney Kessel : Guitar
Buddy Rich : Drums
John Simmons : Bass
Alvin Stoller : Drums
Art Tatum : Piano
Ben Webster : Tenor Sax

It's worth the $83.67. You can buy it here:
http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=2034129963/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/ArtistID=TATUM*ART/ITEMID=300092