Famous Trombonist, Composer and Arranger Slide Hampton, Dies

Slide Hampton, a jazz trombonist, composer and arranger who debuted at the end of the Bebop era and was sought after for decades, was found dead at his Orange, NJ home on Saturday. He was 89 years old.

His grandson, Richard Hampton, confirmed the death.

Mr. Hampton made his name in the late 1950s with bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, and others. He was considered a triple threat – not only a virtuoso trombonist, but also the creator of unforgettable compositions and arrangements.

He won Grammy Awards in 1998 and 2005 for his arrangements, the same year the National Endowment for the Arts named him Master of Jazz.

In the 1980s he led a group called the World of Trombones, consisting of up to nine trombones and a rhythm section. He wasn’t in favor of big, brass jazz at the time, but by then he had been an old statesman of jazz and was able to insist on bringing his entire band to clubs that were more interested in small, intimate bands. Once in the door, it was almost always a hit.

He was also a fixture on university campuses, teaching composition and theory to the next generation of jazz musicians, and instilling in them a respect for jazz and trombone that went far beyond music.

“Playing a trombone makes you realize that you have to depend on other people,” said Mr Hampton. New York Times in 1982. “If you’re going to need help, you can’t abuse other people. That’s why there’s a real sense of camaraderie among trombonists.”

Locksley Wellington Hampton was born on April 21, 1932, in Jeannette, Pa., approximately 48 miles east of Pittsburgh. She was the youngest of 12 children, and her parents, Clarke and Laura (Buford) Hampton, included most of them in the family group she manages – Locksley joined as a singer and dancer when she was just 6 years old.

In 1938 the family moved to Indianapolis to look for more work. The city had a thriving jazz scene, and they soon began touring the Midwest.

They were never lacking for concerts, but there was a shortage of a trombonist, a shortage that the elderly Mr. Hampton corrected when he was 12 years old by giving the instrument to his youngest son and teaching him to play. He picked up the instrument—no easy task for a kid—and it wasn’t long before he earned the nickname Slide.

He studied at a local conservatory, but most of his musical education came through his family and other musicians. In particular, it was shot by JJ Johnson, a leading trombonist of the sophisticated jazz school known as bebop, who lives in Indianapolis. Mr. Hampton later recalled that one evening, he was standing outside a club with his instrument, too young to enter, when Mr. Johnson passed by. He was supposed to play that night, but he didn’t have his trombone with him. Mr Hampton gave him his own.

Mr. Hampton later adapted some of Mr. Johnson’s compositions. He kept “Don’t Cry”, one of them, in his repertoire for decades.

After his father died in 1951, the family group was run by Locksley’s brother, Duke. In 1952 the band won a playing competition at Carnegie Hall for Lionel Hampton (no relation).

While in New York, Mr. Hampton and one of his brothers went to the legendary jazz club Birdland, where they saw bebop pianist Bud Powell playing. He later said that this experience made a much greater impression than his performance at Carnegie.

Mr. Hampton married Althea Gardner in 1948; They divorced in 1997. Survived by his brother Maceo; their children Jacquelyn, Lamont and Locksley Jr.; five grandchildren; and 13 grandchildren. His son Gregory died before him.

The Hampton family group later returned to New York to play at the Apollo Theatre, and Slide urged them to relocate to the city. When they objected, he made his own plans.

A friend suggested a once-a-week gig in Houston, and Mr. Hampton took the opportunity. It paid well enough that he could spend the rest of the week working and composing.

In 1955, rhythm and blues pianist Buddy Johnson recruited him for his band and he moved to New York. He joined Lionel Hampton’s band a year later and joined Maynard Ferguson’s a year later. He composed some of the better-known pieces of the Ferguson band, such as “The Fugue” and “Three Little Foxes.”

Mr. Hampton found himself in high demand and single-handedly emerged as leader of the Slide Hampton Octet in 1962. Although this group only lasted a year and later said he had done a poor job as its leader, it greatly increased its visibility.

As a leader, Mr. Hampton was humble. In order not to overshadow the other band members when it was his turn, he was usually in the audience after playing solo. Once, when a television crew came to film the group, he cut his solo short to make sure everyone had the camera on.

In the early 1960s he bought a sandstone in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood; it quickly became a popular spot for jam sessions and a crash pad for some of the country’s best musicians. Saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Eric Dolphy and guitarist Wes Montgomery lived there for a while.

After the octet broke up, Mr. Hampton worked as music director at Motown Records and collaborated on productions for Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, and others. There he encountered firsthand the growing popularity of pop and R&B and concluded that jazz was excluded from the American music scene. After touring Europe with Woody Herman in 1968, he settled in Paris, where he found not only a thriving jazz listener but also public subsidies to support the music.

Mr. Hampton told The Times in 1982: “The conditions in Europe and the respect for the artist were so incredible that I was overwhelmed. In Europe they saw jazz as an art form long before they saw it here.”

He returned to the United States in 1977, initially writing arrangements for saxophonist Dexter Gordon, who himself had just returned from Europe. By then, jazz had shifted—big record labels were starting to take an interest, government grants were being made, and colleges were adding jazz to the curriculum.

Mr. Hampton was once again in demand as a musician and now as an educator. In the following years he taught at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, De Paul University in Chicago, and elsewhere. And continued to play in New York venues throughout the 2010s.

When asked what explains his success in such a long career, Mr. Hampton insisted it was not just talent but also practice – he practiced four to five hours a day and would have done even more if he had the time.

“Anything that is truly quality takes a lot of work,” he said. 2007 interview with the National Endowment for the Arts. “Things that come easy don’t have the highest level of quality attached to them.”