Search - Teddy Charles :: Salute to Hamp

There are two kinds of tribute recordings: those that simply try to simulate the original and those that seek their own approach to a celebrated artist's material. All the interesting ones, of course, are in the second category, and that's where vibraphonist-arranger Teddy Charles's tribute to Lionel Hampton belongs. Hampton's bands were hard-riffing explosions of energy with ballads often reserved as features for vocalists. No one ever accused them of refined good taste. Charles takes a subtler approach to Hampton's best-known repertoire with a group of musicians largely distinguished by restraint and harmonic invention, including Art Farmer on trumpet, Hank Jones on piano, and Bob Brookmeyer on valve trombone. Only Zoot Sims, a compulsively swinging tenor saxophonist in a Lester Young vein, really fits the original mold. The result is an engagingly cool take on some strong repertoire with Charles's own vibraphone, more liquid-sounding than Hampton's percussive approach, standing out. --Stuart Broomer