Lionel Hampton talking about recording on vibes for the first time
Thought this might be interesting to vibe players. Lionel talks about the instrument being a 'new addition to the percussion family'. That sounds weird to me!!!
This is from his Autobiography on Warner Books.
Right away Louis took us on a recording session with him. We did "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy," "I'm in the Market for You," "Confessin' (That I Love You)," and "If I Could Be with You for One Hour Tonight" for Okeh and Columbia in July, and then we did one cut, "Body and Soul," in early October. But the recording session I remember best was on October 16, 1930. We were recording for Okeh, and the recording studio was also the NBC studio and sitting in the corner was a set of vibes. Louis said, "What's that instrument over there?" And I said, "Oh, that's a new instrument that they're bringing into percussion, into the drum department. They call it a vibraharp, some call it a vibraphone." At that time they were only playing a few notes on it-bing, bong, bang-like the tones you hear for N-B-C. All that big beautiful instrument and nobody could do anything with it.
To give you a little history of the vibraharp: It was invented about ten years before that. It looks like a xylophone, but the vibrato is produced by the rotation of electrically operated fans at the upper ends of the resonator tubes. It hadn't been used for anything except incidental chime notes-the intermission signals on radio programs -but it was important in those early days of radio. With all the programs live, and since it took quite a bit of time to switch from one studio to another, the intermission signal filled the gap. I'd never played it, but I'd heard about it, seen it, and just hadn't gotten around to trying it out.
It is still probably the most misunderstood instrument in music. People don't know whether to call it a vibraharp or a vibraphone or a xylophone. Both vibraharp and vibraphone were originally trade names. Vibraharp was the oldest, and that's what I've always called it. To avoid the problem, just call it the vibes.
We started to record, and then the equipment broke down or something - equipment was always breaking down in those early recording studios. We're standing around waiting ofr the technecians to repair the equipment, and Louis noticed the vibraharp again. So he said, "Can you play it?" I was a young kid, full of confidence, and I said, "Sure." So I looked at it, and it had the same keyboard as the xylophone had. He said, "Pull it out in the middle of the floor and play something on it." So I pulled it out, and Louis plugged it in. Everybody's standing around waiting to record, and I played one of his solos, note for note, that I had taken off one of his records. That ear training came in handy. And boy, he fell out. He said, "Come on, we going to put this on a record. You can play on this record."
Eubie Blake had sent Louis a copy of his song, "Memories of You," and I played the introduction on it. I'm playing vibes all through that. That's the first time jazz had ever been played on vibes. Not long ago I met a guy who said he had the original record that I played on, and he's supposed to get it for me.
Cool huh.
This is from his Autobiography on Warner Books.
Right away Louis took us on a recording session with him. We did "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy," "I'm in the Market for You," "Confessin' (That I Love You)," and "If I Could Be with You for One Hour Tonight" for Okeh and Columbia in July, and then we did one cut, "Body and Soul," in early October. But the recording session I remember best was on October 16, 1930. We were recording for Okeh, and the recording studio was also the NBC studio and sitting in the corner was a set of vibes. Louis said, "What's that instrument over there?" And I said, "Oh, that's a new instrument that they're bringing into percussion, into the drum department. They call it a vibraharp, some call it a vibraphone." At that time they were only playing a few notes on it-bing, bong, bang-like the tones you hear for N-B-C. All that big beautiful instrument and nobody could do anything with it.
To give you a little history of the vibraharp: It was invented about ten years before that. It looks like a xylophone, but the vibrato is produced by the rotation of electrically operated fans at the upper ends of the resonator tubes. It hadn't been used for anything except incidental chime notes-the intermission signals on radio programs -but it was important in those early days of radio. With all the programs live, and since it took quite a bit of time to switch from one studio to another, the intermission signal filled the gap. I'd never played it, but I'd heard about it, seen it, and just hadn't gotten around to trying it out.
It is still probably the most misunderstood instrument in music. People don't know whether to call it a vibraharp or a vibraphone or a xylophone. Both vibraharp and vibraphone were originally trade names. Vibraharp was the oldest, and that's what I've always called it. To avoid the problem, just call it the vibes.
We started to record, and then the equipment broke down or something - equipment was always breaking down in those early recording studios. We're standing around waiting ofr the technecians to repair the equipment, and Louis noticed the vibraharp again. So he said, "Can you play it?" I was a young kid, full of confidence, and I said, "Sure." So I looked at it, and it had the same keyboard as the xylophone had. He said, "Pull it out in the middle of the floor and play something on it." So I pulled it out, and Louis plugged it in. Everybody's standing around waiting to record, and I played one of his solos, note for note, that I had taken off one of his records. That ear training came in handy. And boy, he fell out. He said, "Come on, we going to put this on a record. You can play on this record."
Eubie Blake had sent Louis a copy of his song, "Memories of You," and I played the introduction on it. I'm playing vibes all through that. That's the first time jazz had ever been played on vibes. Not long ago I met a guy who said he had the original record that I played on, and he's supposed to get it for me.
Cool huh.
posted by Tony at
1:10 PM
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