Hampton Hawes

Who Was Hampton Hawes?

Although one rarely hears of Hampton Hawes today hewas a significant presence on the jazz scene in the mid-50s then again from the mid-60s on until his death in1977. A direct descendant of bebop who had beenvariously classified as "West Coast" and "funk-jazz" or"rhythm school," Hawes transcended all thesecategories. He was famous for his prodigious right hand,his deep groove, his very personal playing, his profoundblues conceptions, and his versatility within a mainstreamcontext. He remained anchored in chord-change basedjazz with chord changes his whole career.

A mostly self-taught musician, he matured early musicallyand late personally-by his own admission. His lifeunfolded as an impassioned story of a rise from povertyinto prominence, then a fall due to a heroin addiction,which had come right out of his native culture, five yearsin prison and a miraculous Presidential pardon, thenpersonal transformation and return to world-wide artisticprominence for a decade before his early death.

Origins

Hampton Hawes was born in Los Angeles, November 13,1928. His father was a very successful pastor and hismother played piano in the church. Hampton was raisedin a strict religious environment. As a child he would sit onthe piano bench next to his mother and watch her play.His earliest musical influence, therefore, was gospelpiano music. The street environment was not aparticularly wholesome. He later reflected that most ofthe people he knew in his neighborhood growing up wereheroin addicts.

Hawes taught himself piano as a child. His earliestmusical influences were boogie-woogie, which wasintensely popular in the U. S. between 1938 and 1946,Nat Cole, Fats Waller and Art Tatum. Later he cameunder the spell of Bud Powell, and came to play more inhis style. Throughout his life he regretted that he neveracquired a classical background and never became afast music reader. Perhaps as a result his musicremained intensely personal.

Growing up with music he learned by jamming with hisfriends. They would hang out at each other's houses andplay. Fascinated with bebop, they fervently pursued it astheir form of teenage rebellion against the music of theirparents. Hawes regretted that his family neverunderstood his music, never attended his performances.When he sent them his albums later on, if they liked thecover art they'd frame it and put it on the wall.

Turning Pro

By the time he was in high school he was acceptingprofessional gigs, working with Big Jay McNeely in 1944.He even had to leave his high school graduation early toget to a job. At that time in his life he played with CharlieParker, Billie Holiday, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, ArtPepper and Short Rogers. Pepper hired him for anextended engagement at the Surf Club in Hollywood in1952. By that time he had become a heroin addict. As heput it:

You see everybody going down the street in a greenBuick, and you start thinking, "What is it with these greenBuicks?" You know, you just got to find out for yourself.Well, I found out all right, I sure did. (Official biography,1974).

Hawes was sent to the Far East during his stint in thearmy, 1952 to 1954, which only furthered his addiction.Once back in civilian life he formed a trio with bassistRed Mitchell. They developed a rare musical affinity. Heperformed with Mitchell in gigs throughout the U. S., from1955-58, including runs at the Embers in New York(where he drew $1500 per week), Storyville in Bostonand the Blue Note clubs in Chicago and Philadelphia.Remaining within the bebop style, they used a variety ofdrummers, and during one six-month period, KennyBurrell on guitar.

Successful Recordings

During that period Hawes got to know Lester Koenig,owner of the Los Angeles-based Contemporary label.Koenig recorded Hawes on a series of brilliant albums,including Hampton Hawes, Vol. 1: The Trio in 1955 andAll Night Session (3 LPs) on Hawes' birthday in 1956,both of which garnered five stars from Down Beat. In1957 jazz critic and teacher John Mehegan classedHawes as part of the "rhythmic (funky) school of jazzpiano," of which Horace Silver was the acknowledgedinnovator, and attributed to him "the best blues in jazzpiano today" (Mehegan, 17). He even composed a blues,"Hampton's Pulpit," very similar to Silver's famous "Opusde Funk," and plays it on Vol. 1 of the All Night Session.The title makes the connection clear between funk in jazzand Hawes' gospel roots. But Hawes's fluidity of melodicinvention strained the rhythmic/funky categorization,despite his clear talent for this approach. Hawes was amaster at constructing solos beginning with a phrase andgradually building, drawing the listener in. When hereached the peak of his energy he was at a level fewoutside of Bud Powell could approach.

Busted

Hawes' heroin addiction was pulling him down at the time,and in 1958 he was arrested for possession andsentenced to 10 years in a prison hospital in Fort Worth,Texas. He had pled guilty, noticing that friends who werecaught and pled not guilty were usually sentenced totwice that. In a 1972 article in Harper's which gives aforetaste of Hawes' hard-hitting and award-winningautobiography, Raise Up Off Me, he describes thedistance he felt from the psychiatrists who interviewedhim during his incarceration:

In an innocent, ungreedy kind of way those doctors werelike the jackleg preachers, all robes and ceremony. Itwasn't that any of them was dumb or incompetent, but ifyou start with someone like me who has come out of thehaven of the church into the streets, playing jazz andmessing with dope, why there's no white psychiatrist inthe wide world qualified to analyze me because,wherever he would start from his thinking is going to bealien and wrong. There is no way he can possiblyconceive where I'm coming from. So it isn't his fault thathe doesn't know what he's doing (3).

In January, 1961, two years into his time, he waswatching President Kennedy's inauguration on TV."Something about the look of him the voice and the eyes,way he stood bring and coatless and proud in that coldair...I thought, That's the right cat, my troubles are nearingan end" (Hawes, 3). Hawes decided to apply for aPresidential Pardon, against all advice of the prison staff.One of them even told him his intention to apply indicatedthat he had problems accepting reality, which wouldprobably end him up back on dope once he got out.

He finally received the application towards the end of1962, sending it in with many letters of recommendationin April of the following year. That August the pardoncame through, and it seemed like a miracle to everyonethere but Hawes. He considered it simply the properrighting of a wrong. It was only the third such Presidentialpardon in 40 years.

Return

Back in circulation, Hawes had to fight an uphill battle,both against his own depression and against the musicscene which had drastically changed. He started byworking locally around Los Angeles. Of an early post-release performance Down Beat's John Tynan wrote:

When Hawes tore into his solos, it was as if the piano hada life of its own; it was a performance that scorched.These were moments to be long remembered by thoseattending. One listener, a well-known drummer,commented: "It's about time we had a real piano playerback" (Feather, 16).

Jazz was struggling against the growing rock market,which by the end of the decade had lured manyprominent jazz artists into modifying their approach in itsdirection. The commercial pressures were heavy, butHawes resisted, sticking with his high-energy bebop-based style. He just couldn't get into the more rock-based music of Ramsey Lewis or Les McCann.

Hawes stuck to the music he loved, knowing that recordcompany executives had been wrong many time in thepast. He began working again with Red Mitchell, butreplaced him in 1966 with Jimmy Garrison. In 1967 hebegan getting gigs outside southern California. In 1968he made a duo piano recording with Algerian pianistMartial Solal, another brilliant trend resister. In 1971 hetoured Europe, with stops in London, Paris andCopenhagen. From then on he divided his time mainlybetween Los Angeles area gigs and foreign tours. Herecorded a duo album with Charlie Haden, Turnaround,released in 1977, and began experimenting withelectronic music around that time. He died in LosAngeles on May 22, 1977.

Show less

Hampton Hawes: For Real!

Read "For Real!" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 21, 2024

There are, Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, no second acts in American life. For pianist Hampton Hawes, born in 1928, there was scarcely a first. No sooner was he established as an up-and-coming talent than he was drafted into the Army. When he got out, he tried to pick up where he left off. A heroin habit he had acquired prior to military service led to a harsh incarceration because he refused to become an informer. Only a grant of clemency ...

Album Review

Shelly Manne & His Men: Jazz From The Pacific Northwest

Read "Jazz From The Pacific Northwest" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
April 11, 2024

Shelly Manne & His Men are presented in two iterations in never-before-released live recordings from the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival and from a 1966 date at The Penthouse in Seattle entitled Jazz From The Pacific Northwest. In this deluxe limited edition 180-gram 2LP set, co-produced for release by the estimable Zev Feldman and Cory Weeds, the band captivated the audience with intricate melodies and vibrant improvisations driven by Manne's virtuosic drumming. The band on LP1 from ...

Album Review

Sonny Rollins: Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums

Read "Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
July 26, 2023

Apparently, the median age of a jazz listener is in his or her mid to late 40s. So, perhaps, the representative listener was born in the mid-1970s. Sonny Rollins first recorded in 1949. The recordings reviewed here were made in the late 1950s, well before many contemporary listeners were born. While there have been ample reissues of Rollins' work, most coincided with the still-active phase of his career. Much of his work has appeared since “Skylark" on The Next Album ...

Radio & Podcasts

Outstanding Hampton

by Patrick Burnette
June 9, 2022

It's time for a deep dive, listeners, and the subject this round is underappreciated West Coast keyboard wizard Hampton Hawes. Hawes did most of his best-known recordings for Contemporary Jazz, and we'll look at a couple of releases on that storied (but also underappreciated) label, as well as a collaboration with Charles Mingus and a sample of Hampton's seventies output, when the sideburns got longer and the keyboards got plugged in. Playlist General discussion of Hampton Hawes 6:15 ...

Album Review

Charles Mingus: Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)

Read "Mingus Three (Deluxe Edition)" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 8, 2022

The 100th anniversary of the birth of the Promethean genius Charles Mingus falls on April 22, 2022--and Rhino/Parlophone are releasing a 2 x CD edition of Mingus Three (aka Trio, Jubilee, 1957) to coincide. Disc one contains the original LP, vibrantly remastered by Dominique Brethes at Flow Mastering in London. Disc two consists of six previously unreleased outtakes, recently discovered in the Parlophone tape library and mastered by Brethers; also included are two untitled blues from the same session.

Album Review

Harold Land: Westward Bound!

Read "Westward Bound!" reviewed by Peter J. Hoetjes

by Peter J. Hoetjes
July 24, 2021

One can't help but wonder how large the stage may have been for tenor saxophonist Harold Land had he not tethered himself to the west coast for the majority of his career. In 1954 Land moved from Santa Monica to Los Angeles and quickly earned himself a place in the immensely popular Clifford Brown/Max Roach band, beginning with the aptly named Jam Session (EmArcy, 1954). Called back to Los Angeles in 1956 by the responsibilities of being a ...

Album Review

Harold Land: Westward Bound!

Read "Westward Bound!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 17, 2021

Until 1954 Harold Land was a relatively unknown tenor saxophonist. He experienced a surge in his standing with the release of Clifford Brown & Max Roach (Emarcy 1954) when he was part of this high-profile, but short lived, bebop quintet (1954-56). A decade later, this hard-bop player was recognized for his engaging ideas and robust tone and is the center of Westward Bound! a Reel To Real Limited Edition 180 gram 2LP gatefold release produced by Cory Weeds and Zev ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Who Was Hampton Hawes? Although one rarely hears of Hampton Hawes today he was a significant presence on the jazz scene in the mid- 50s then again from the mid-60s on until his death in 1977. A direct descendant of bebop who had been variously classified as “West Coast" and “funk-jazz" or “rhythm school," Hawes transcended all these categories. He was famous for his prodigious right hand, his deep groove, his ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2018

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2017

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Recording

Hampton Hawes: All Night

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 8, 2017

I've never been a huge fan of pianist Hampton Hawes. His keyboard assault on many leadership trio albums are frantic and more concerned with speed and percussive impact than harnessed intensity. The result is a jarring listen followed by a headache. Dazzling jazz pianists who skillfully held their emotional horses include Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Al Haig, Erroll Garner and Billy Taylor, to name just a few. The burner under Hawes's proverbial pan was up way too high when he ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2016

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Hampton Hawes

Source: Michael Ricci
November 13, 2015

All About Jazz is celebrating Hampton Hawes' birthday today! Who Was Hampton Hawes? Although one rarely hears of Hampton Hawes today he was a significant presence on the jazz scene in the mid- 50s then again from the mid-60s on until his death in 1977. A direct descendant of bebop who had been variously classified as “West Coast" and “funk-jazz" or “rhythm school," Hawes transcended all these categories. He was famous for his prodigious right hand, his deep groove, his ...
read more