Slide Hampton® Ultra Big Band

Slide Plays Jobim

By Dr. Judith Schlesinger

Slide Hampton Plays the Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim came out in 2002, but like many indie releases, it continues to be “discovered” through chance and good fortune. I stumbled upon it after a series of happy coincidences, and as a confessed Jobimaniac, I was delighted to find a fresh approach to the material I know so well.

The novelty is due to Slide Hampton’s fluid, swinging arrangements and the prominence of his wonderful trombone, not a common instrument in most Jobim interpretations. Hampton, the musical director of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band and a 2005 NEA Jazz Master, jazzifies Jobim with subtle differences in pulse, texture, and musical vocabulary (such as quotes, trades, and endings). The result is even more impressive since the band assembled by Hampton and producer John Lee features some of the busiest first-call Brazilian musicians in New York, all of whom hold this music firmly in their DNA: Helio Alves, Claudio Roditi, Duduka da Fonseca, and Maucha Adnet.

Adnet is a terrific singer with a sensuous, smoky voice that (to these ears) has never been recorded adequately until now; at last, her vocals are fully as nuanced on disc as they are live. Adnet, who sang with Jobim for ten years, describes this music as Jobim with “more movement, more jazz. I love the way Slide used the melodic lines without repeating or forcing it. The essential aspects of the music are always there, but he’s added these beautiful harmonic elements.” Exactly

The Jobim fan will delight in this CD, which contains twelve of his most beloved songs; a meditative version of Dori Caymmi’s beautiful “O Cantador” ends the set without breaking the mood. Well-paced and recorded with clarity and warmth, Slide Plays Jobim is a real find, and highly recommended.

Note: this CD is available from slidehampton.com.

Track Listing: Stone Flower; Agua de Beber; Desafinado; Voce Vai Ver; Children’s Games; Useless Landscape; Brigas Nunca Mais; How Insensitive; Quiet Nights; Waters of March; Tereza My Love; Once I Loved; O Cantador.

Personnel: Slide Hampton: trombone, arrangements; Andres Boiarsky: soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, flute, clarinet; Claudio Roditi: trumpet, flugelhorn; Douglas Purviance: bass trombone; Helio Alves: piano; Guilherme Monteiro: guitar; John Lee: bass; Duduka da Fonseca: drums, percussion; Maucha Adnet: vocals.

Style: Brazilian

Review Published: November 27, 2005

- All About Jazz.com

Slide Hampton plays the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Slide Hampton, the arranger and composer who is also a trombone marvel, works by inspiration. It was his inspiration to create a tribute to Brazil’s great composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim. “Slide plays Jobim” is a collaboration built on the members shared passion for Jobim’s music. Hampton has assembled a fine cast of players for the project, including Andres Boiarsky on reeds, Helio Alves on piano, and Marty Ashby on guitar with John Lee on bass. The ensemble is tied together with Slide Hampton displaying his talent on the trombone and the beautiful vocals from Maucha Adnet. Hampton’s arrangement skills create rich textures--ones that specially enhance the beauty of Jobim’s compositions. Their shared passion for Jobim’s music makes each song exciting, and gives the performance continuity and strength.
- www.animalcrackersjazz.com

Musicians: Earl Gardner, Joe Mosello, Frank Greene, Glenn Drewes & Scott Wendholt (trumpet), John Mosca, Luis Bonilla, Jason Jackson & Douglas Purviance (trombone), Dick Oatts, Billy Drewes, Rich Perry, Ralph Lalama & Gary Smulyan (reeds), Jim McNeely (piano), Dennis Irwin (bass) and John Riley (drums)

Review: Every bit a New York institution as say, the Yankees, Carnegie Hall or better yet, the falafel the Vanguard Orchestra has been a regular fixture at the swank Village Vanguard where they can be seen and heard every Monday night delighting the patrons with their rich sound, dense harmonies and stable of first-rate soloists. And now they have teamed up with the trombone’s greatest player and jazz’s most gifted writer-arranger the incomparable Slide Hampton who brings his considerable knowledge and experience before this renowned orchestra in a CD simply entitled, the Music of Slide Hampton. In it Hampton delivers an ensemble of suites and tunes dedicated to some of jazz’s most gifted and influential players and undersung arranger-composers. And if that isn’t enough, he even manages to squeeze out time to play the bone.
Guiding the orchestra under his swinging baton Hampton delivers with a jaunty opener You Asked For It written for tenor great John Coltrane which charges ahead with its gutsy solos that are characteristic of Coltrane’s fervor and spirit, if not style. Hampton writes a four-part movement with each section dedicated to his unheralded peers. Thad Jones who was famously known for his Pop Goes The Weasel quote in Vernon Dukes’ April in Paris is recognized here for his arranging talents and rich sound (he is the brainchild of the Vanguard Orchestra, the other being Mel Lewis). In One For Thad there is a beautiful succession of solos by tenor man, Ralph Lalama and trumpeter Schott Wendholt (both of whom have their own leader dates).

Strayhorn soothes us with a trio of warm flutes at the hands of Dick Oatts, Belly Drewes and Rich Perry whose unison trills is suggestive of the brilliant warmth and harmonic subtlety of Duke Ellington’s prolific writing partner and close friend Billy Strayhorn. Similarly, Gil introduces with a pallet of oblique colors. Check out the intoxicating soprano work of Drewes in this work’s nod to one of jazz’s most influential and illustrative arrangers, Gil Evans. Enough can’t be said of the man who collaborated with the oft difficult and mercurial Miles Davis to create works of lasting beauty and substance.

Tadd Dameron in many ways helped to refine the neurotic pulse of bebop with his warm arrangements and understated compositions. The rip saw opening of Dameron helps to set the beboppish and playful mood which prompts an energized Perry on tenor followed by a controlled attack by the excellent baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan.

Past, Present & Future opens with the reflective horns which shift to a good old swing that adds fuel to the wrenching solos by Sumulyan and Wendholt, two strong examples of today’s musicians both of whose playing declares that jazz is strong and in fine form now and well into the 21st century. His tour de force, Frame For the Blues, Hampton never fails to deliver on this war-horse blues. He digs deep with an earthy solo giving treat to his facile work on trombone and proclaiming that Slide Hampton not only pens alluring and tasteful compositions but can still play with the best of ‘em.

Tracks: You Asked For It, Part 1: One For Thad, Part 2: Strayhorn, Part 3: Gil, Part 4: Dameron, Past Present & Future, The Way and Frame For The Blues.

- JazzReview.com

Locksley Wellington Hampton - hereinafter and forever known as Slide - has been a respected soloist, composer, arranger and general man about music since the 1950s. Over the past four decades, he has performed and recorded with every major jazz musician, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Oscar Peterson, to name just three of dozens.

This CD demonstrates loud and clear why he's been so busy. World of Trombones was recorded in 1979 and featured Slides' superb group of the same name nine trombonists and a rhythm section. And what trombonists! Curtis Fuller held down one of the chairs, and he was joined by such luminaries as Clifford Adams, Jr., Steve Turre and Earl McIntyre. Also notable was bassist Ray Drummond, best known today for his rich collaborations with pianist Kenny Barron.

World of Trombones showcases these formidable talents in a gaggle of familiar jazz anthems- Lester Leaps In, Con Alma, Round Midnight in beautiful, ever - fresh arrangements by the leader. The set begins with a Hampton original, the brief and haunting Chorale, highlighted by gorgeous harmonies and sensitive ensemble playing.

The ensemble then cuts loose with Lester Leaps In. The playing is tight, driving and virtuosic, and every member of the band gets to show his stuff. That same astonishing ensemble work is beautifully front and center in the closing cut, John Coltrane s Impressions, which also features solos by Slide, Adams and Fuller and some propulsive work by drummer Leroy Williams and pianist Albert Dailey. "Gives Smoove B his Smoove" - Sessions Man AB Gazpacho

In between the driving bookend cuts, is a wealth of musical riches- the dense, lovely harmonies and shifting rhythms of Thelonious Monk s classic Round Midnight (listen especially to Slide s wonderful introductory solo); the varied tone colors in Charlie Parker s Donna Lee; Drummond s nifty bass work in Dizzy Gillespie¹s Con Alma; the loving treatment of J.J. Johnson¹s Lament, which first warmed our hearts in the Miles Davis-Gil Evans classic Miles Ahead.

What this CD demonstrates above all is that Slide Hampton was and remains an artist of rare gifts - beyond category, in Duke Ellington's happy phrase. Slide s writing is fresh and surprising, his harmonies piquant and beautiful. His tone is warm and full, and his command of his instrument is staggering. World of Trombones was aptly named, for it gives us a whole world of music.




- www.1201music.com

Dave Brubeck is a tough musician to figure out. He can spend 10 minutes reducing a piece to hamburger, then turn around and be amazingly graceful and agile. One piece can have no conception at all, just four musicians bruising a tune into submission, then he'll play an oddly structured composition that suggests musical intelligence. Mr. Brubeck was the headliner at Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday night for the JVC Jazz Festival, and if it hadn't been for Slide Hampton's band, the concert would almost not have existed.

Mr. Hampton is one of jazz's finest living arrangers, and at the rare appearances he makes with his small big band, he has proved to be an exceptional leader as well. Mr. Hampton borrows from Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron and Gil Evans for his basic sound and makes it modern; a piece of his overflows with harmonies and textures and melodies, all brought together without seams. He has an idea and it permeates his work, making it consistent.

He also has a band bristling with exceptional soloists, including Jimmy Heath, Jerome Richardson and David Sanchez on reeds, Doug Perviance and Mr. Hampton on trombones and Claudio Roditi, Mike Mossman and Byron Stripling on trumpets. And they play well together; on the opening piece, which combined a handful of themes by Dizzy Gillespie, then opened up into Mr. Gillespie's "Blue and Boogie," the musicians swept through tempo changes and soft riffs and biting horn lines in a display of orchestral virtuosity.

Mr. Hampton invited the trumpeter Roy Hargrove out to solo, and he did, turning in a perfectly controlled and formed improvisation, as did Mr. Heath on several solos and Mr. Sanchez. Mr. Richardson improvised twice, and swung harder than anybody, with rounded and gleaming alto lines.

The concert opened with a set by the pianist Peter Delano, backed by Gary Peacock on bass and Joe Chambers on drums. It was soft, pretty music, that in its blurriness couldn't have existed without Keith Jarrett. He didn't seem to want to swing much, and with his note choices consonant and drifting, leaving the impression of a reverie, not much happened.

Mr. Brubeck closed the show, and he and his quartet, clomping through its material, hardly ever sounded like a band. The bassist Jack Six, who has a strong sense of swing and a fat sound, never seemed to find his way with the the drummer Randy Jones, who never found his way with Mr. Brubeck. On virtually every solo, Mr. Brubeck retreated into heavy, two-handed figures. The audience that remained liked what he was doing: Mr. Brubeck is an entertainer who clearly puts energy into creating an event. It's just not clear what kind of an event it is he creates. - The New York Times