Obituary: Slide Hampton (21/04/1932 – 18/11/2021)

NEA Jazz Master and Grammy Award-winner Locksley ‘Slide’ Hampton covered the gamut of African American music from big bands to r&b and combo jazz as bandleader, performer, and composer/arranger. A fluent, agile jazz trombone soloist, with a confident, assertive style, Slide, who exuded a kind of boisterous bonhomie as he played, was possibly the most gifted left-handed exponent of this often-recalcitrant instrument. Caught up in the wake of JJ Johnson’s prowess as the definitive bebop trombone soloist and influenced by him, Slide may have been underrated but his many qualities were never in doubt. He died at his home in Orange, New Jersey, in November, aged 89.

One of twelve children born to Laura and Deacon Hampton in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, all of whom were taught a musical instrument by their parents, Slide was playing trombone in the family band, the Duke Hampton Orchestra, later known as the Hamptonians, based in Indianapolis, by the age of 14. With local dance hall residencies and road trips around the Middle-West, they did well, recording in 1953, and occasionally made it to New York and the Apollo Theatre. Slide, who had attended the same school as JJ Johnson, then toured with the popular Buddy Johnson band in the 1950s, recording often, and with Lionel Hampton [playing in London in 1956]. Even so, it was his association with star trumpeter Maynard Ferguson’s stirring big band from 1957 that put him firmly on the New York jazz map and advanced his career, his charts and compositions for the band a key factor in their success. Its lengthy periods at Birdland and Roulette recordings opened doors for Slide and he began to feature on albums by the likes of Charles Mingus, Melba Liston, Randy Weston, and McCoy Tyner and many, many more, including a clutch under his own name.

After travelling with Dizzy Gillespie’s band, Slide ran his own all-star octet including Freddie Hubbard and played with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers for a year.  He then worked as music director for Tamla Motown Records – he was back in London in 1966 conducting for the Four Tops – and having directed the Lloyd Price Orchestra for two years, then re-committed to jazz.  In 1968, he travelled to Europe with Woody Herman, again touring the UK, and settled in Paris and Amsterdam for seven years, performing, recording and writing for many pan-European artists and orchestras.

Back in the US, he formed and ran his multi-horn World of Trombones and appeared ever more frequently with all-star big bands, touring with Dizzy Gillespie’s 75^th Anniversary group and then travelling with the trumpeter’s United Nations Orchestra and performing with the Smithsonian, Carnegie Hall and Vanguard Orchestras, while serving as an educator at a variety of US academic institutions. In a career bristling with achievements and standout associations, Hampton’s rich arranging capabilities, which earned him a pair of Grammy Awards, were as substantial as his compelling trombone skills. Approachable and jovial, Slide Hampton’s legacy is considerable; he was a true Jazz Master. RIP Slide Hampton.