Hamp: An Autobiography

Lionel Hampton is my man, always has and forever will be. This book filled in a lot of gaps in his story, way before he made an impression on me playing "Shine" with Louis Armstrong and the Les Hite Orchestra in the early 1930s. Hamp had a first class seat as the jazz train left the station, he met and influenced all of his fellow passengers, because the train he rode wasn't segregated. There are many landmark volumes on jazz history, most lovingly written by close observers and record collectors. This book is even more important because is was penned by a main participant of over seventy years. We musicians say of jazz critics, "Those who can do and those who can't, write about those who can." Lionel Hampton could, did and has left us a document of a marvelous life that he and Gladys enjoyed together as royalty in the music world.