Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Lionel Hampton began his musical career as a drummer in Les Hite's band, but that changed in the early 1930s, when he tried playing a vibraphone in an idle moment at a recording session. The vibraphone was soon his instrument of choice, and over the next several years, his skill on it earned it a significant place in the jazz idiom. In 1940, after playing for four years with the Benny Goodman Quartet, Hampton formed his own band. Claiming a roster of musicians that included such jazz notables as Quincy Jones and Charlie Mingus, the group became one of America's most highly regarded big bands. Hampton's most endearing trait was his high-energy spontaneity that sometimes raised audience enthusiasm to a fever pitch. "We got no routine," he once said, "We just act the way the spirit moves us."
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Andre Da Miano, 3 Jun 1908 - ?
- Sitter
- Lionel Hampton, 20 Apr 1908 - 31 Aug 2002
- Date
- 1937
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 25.9 x 33.9 cm (10 3/16 x 13 3/8")
- Sheet: 25.9 x 33.9 cm (10 3/16 x 13 3/8")
- Mat: 71.1 x 55.9 cm (28 x 22")
- Type
- Photograph
