SFGATE
Philip Elwood, EXAMINER MUSIC CRITIC
Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 9, 1995
VENERABLE VIBIST Lionel Hampton may call his cookin' band at Kimball's
East the "Jazz Inner Circle," suggesting a bigger group's small
combo, but the hard swinging, jumping boogie-beat sounds I heard
roaring out over the noisily appreciative Tuesday night audience
were big-band all the way.
The Inner Circle ensemble, with Hamp's
vibes and drums front-and-center, numbers 12 in all - four saxes,
three trumpets; a trombone, piano, bass and drums. Add another
trombone or two (now there's only one, Mike Grey) and a guitar and
you'd have a "big band," in swing-era terminology.
No musician has
done more to keep alive the upbeat boogie-blues rhythms than Hampton,
nor has any other living musician done more - over a longer time -
to introduce the African American "blues" forms to white popular
music fans. Hamp's vocal on "Vibraphone Blues," recorded in the
summer of 1936 on the Benny Goodman Quartet's first sessions - "If
the blues was whisky, babe, I would be drunk all the time . . . "
- was the first time thousands of white "swing" fans had ever heard
an African American blues singer.
Hampton still sings blues lines,
occasionally inserting them, Louis Jordan-style, into "Hamp's
Boogie," "Hey Ba Ba Re Bop" and "Beulah's Boogie." And, at nearly
86 years of age, he's still got more than a little of the Cab
Calloway "Hi-De-Ho" spirit left, too. Trombonist Grey is only one
of the Inner Circle's outstanding soloists. Like his famous father,
Al Grey (who starred for years with Hampton around 1950), Mike blows
clean and hard, maintaining both pitch and tone - a difficult
trombone task when soloing over a wild boogie-beat band.
The Inner
Circle not only swings and jumps, it also features some elegant,
distinctively scored ballad material. Tenor sax Lance Bryant, an
impressive all-around performer, soloed often and always brilliantly.
On Richard Rodgers' "Where or When," he was as beautifully emotional
as old-timers Chu Berry or Hershal Evans; on the up-tempo Hampton
stuff, Bryant takes off like Charlie Parker playing tenor.
Also
included in the opening-night set was a fascinating ensemble
arrangement of "When I Fall in Love" that included a segment scored
for three flutes and clarinet. On a couple of other selections,
clarinetist Cleve Guyton (who is officially an alto saxist) plays
solo piccolo, and on "Over the Rainbow," another of the ballads in
the neatly structured set, pianist Kuni Mikami laid down gorgeous
chords behind the especially mellow trumpet solo of Patrick Rickman,
a tall, remarkably inventive soloist with an informal, winning
manner. High-note specialist Patrick Hession and James Rotondi, a
solid bebopper, complete the trumpet section.
Hampton, shifting
from the vibes and playing his own kit, joined the band's superb
veteran drummer, Brian Grice, on a flag-waving "Sing, Sing, Sing"
that featured everyone on the bandstand, and as a closer, he sang
Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World," reminding us all that
Satchmo's "Memories of You" recording in 1930 was the first on which
he played vibes - 65 years ago. The Kimball's gig runs through
Sunday.
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