Slide Hampton

Jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger Locksley Hampton – born April 21, 1932, in Jeanette, Pennsylvania – is better known by his stage name Slide Hampton. Born into a musical family, he began playing the trombone at a very young age. In 1938, his family moved to Indianapolis where he performed with his family’s group, the Duke Hampton Band. By the time he was 20, his musical career was in full swing. In 1952, he performed at Carnegie Hall as a member of the Lionel Hampton Band. He also spent time in the 1950s playing in Buddy Johnson’s R&B band and Maynard Ferguson’s group. His recording career as a leader began with 1959’s Slide Hampton and His Horn of Plenty (1959) and continued into the 1960s with Sister Salvation (1960), Somethin’ Sanctified (1960), Jazz with a Twist (1962) and Explosion! The Sound of Slide Hampton (1962). At the end of the 1960s, he moved first to Paris, then to Berlin, where he joined a radio orchestra. During this time, he revealed his exceptional talents as an arranger, especially when he accompanied touring American jazz artists such as Art Blakey, Mel Lewis, Woody Herman, and others. Beginning in the 1970s, he split his activities as a soloist and arranger between the United States and France. Slide Hampton has also found time to continue his career as bandleader with albums such as World of Trombones (1979), Roots (1985), Inclusion (1998), Slide Plays Jobim (2002), and many others. Slide Hampton won a Grammy Award in 1998 for Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the song “Cotton Tail” by Dee Dee Bridgewater. He won another Grammy in 2005 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for the album The Way: Music of Slide Hampton with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Slide Hampton died on November 18, 2021, at the age of 89.

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