Midnight Sun

Steyn On-line ^ | August 30, 2020 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

When Chicago burned, I offered a song about Chicago. So, with Kenosha burning, I thought I'd offer a song about Kenosha - figuring the way things are going in America this format should keep me going till retirement. Alas, I failed to anticipate that there are apparently no songs about Kenosha. Oh, well. There must be a songwriter or two born in Kenosha. But again, apparently not. There is, however, a very great instrumentalist who, while not born in Kenosha...

After his father's death in the Great War, Hamp spent his boyhood in Kenosha, in the second decade of the twentieth century. He attended Holy Rosary Academy, whose mission was to educate black and Indian children. Young Lionel fell into the former category: He was black, and his life mattered because, at a time of far fewer opportunities, he didn't piss it away looting Macy's and burning Wendy's. Instead, a Dominican sister taught him the basics of percussion, and he went on to play fife and drums in various school bands. At fifteen he left for Los Angeles, and one day, booked as a drummer on a Louis Armstrong session, he noticed a vibraphone over in the corner of the studio. He had never before played such a thing, but he wandered over and started noodling around, and the guys listening liked it so much they had him play vibes on one of the tracks.

Over a career stretching beyond three-quarters of a century, Lionel Hampton wrote just one standard song, which took its sweet time becoming first a song and then a standard. But this is how it was introduced to the world, in 1947, and with not just Hampton but a young Wes Montgomery on guitar:

[Maris Crane]

The song...Midnight Sun...is beautiful.