Search - Lionel Hampton :: Air Mail Special

Bootleg but a good one

Chris Gulhaugen | New York, NY | 11/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If the liner notes here are accurate, this is a bootleg. It was recorded in Dresden, East Germany (as it was then), in May, 1983, and I was on the band then. I remember the date very well; it was a spooky trip through Checkpoint Charlie and a barren landscape, and Dresden full of harsh concrete buildings put up after the firestorm. The audience was great, but we were a little wigged out when someone at the reception after the show tried to get us to smuggle her out of the country on the bus. I know we were not planning a recording that night, and none of us were paid anything for it.

This was the finest set of sidemen Hamp had during my time, but for some reason we never got officially recorded. The drummer was Frankie Dunlop, the best drummer I ever played with. He always laid down rock solid time and controlled the band like a magician. The personnel roster had been stable for some time and we knew the music backwards.

This CD is not well mixed and for some reason someone thought it was a good idea to add heavy reverb occasionally. But it captures the hard swinging, raucous energy the boys could put out when they wanted to. The only official recording as good as this bootleg is called Made in Japan, recorded live in Tokyo the year before with many of the same cats.

The cuts here are mostly standards with a couple of Hamp's early hits, arranged by Frank Como, but Hamp also played charts we sidemen brought in: Paul Jeffreys did the JJ Johnson Turnpike, and I did the Gigi Gryce Sans Souci to feature Tom Chapin on flute. I mention this because the notes don't credit the arrangers, always a sore point for us.

The performances are a bit rough-edged and noisy, and you can tell when we're goofing, but for us it was just another show and we played how we wanted to. When it sounds good, it's because we are loving what we are doing.

We didn't get paid for this and we didn't get much credit, so what's new? It's a fine document and I'm glad to hear it."