Two Sides Of Slide - Slide Hampton

 

Summertime

Two Sides Of Slide

Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton by special arrangement with Atlantic Record Corporation

Arranged by Slide Hampton

Cover Idea: Doris Parker

Cover Photo: Maurice Seymour, N.Y. Photographers

Cover Design: Reiss Art Studio

Engineer: Bob Simpson - RCA

Produced by Aubrey Mayhew

Charlie Parker Record Corporation PLP-803-S

Distributed by MGM Records

1961

From the back cover: The band is in the best shape it has been in since we've been together. I have learned to write for these particular men and what they play best: Hobart Dotson, our very wonderful lead trumpet was with the Billy Eckstine band – Willie Thomas was with the MJT plus 3 – George Coleman and I played together with the Maynard Ferguson band – Benny Jacobs - El just joined the group, his stay with Marshall Brown's Youth Band prepared him to fit in with us immediately - our rhythm section is composed of two guys who really meld together and put the foundation there that the band needs, without a piano player, they are Lex Humphries, who was with the Jazztet, Donald Byrd and Dizzy Cillespie; and Eddie Khan, a hard swinger with a big sound comparable to his big size (6' 7") I think it is important that each musician feel what his voice has to do with the chord structure at any given time. When he feels thereby he can enjoy playing his part as often as he's called upon to play it. This spells the difference between a band that apathetically goes through the motions night after night, and one where the musicians are interested and inspired by the music they're playing.

The baritone horn (or euphonium) adds a great deal to the sound of the band – when it isn't playing or doubling the melody, it can color the harmony more by playing the tonic or the fifth tones that have less color – or by playing obligato parts, moving where the other instruments stand still, as a cello might do; or it can be on the bottom, it is a very useful instrument. I've found that with the six instruments we have, we can get the same range as almost any orchestra of up to sixteen pieces.

In the Dance Suite of the Cloisters, I've utilized a very legitimate approach, learned over my entire composing career – the brass choir, the two clarinets, moving parts and extension, the brass section without the baritone horn in order to get a flatter sound – we start off with a small, pretty sound, trying to  build as we go along, building the excitement and the tempo until we get to the screaming pitch of the widest sound we've gotten from the orchestra in the last movement, then back to the original slow tempo. The Suite is in four movements: Part One "Impression"' Part Two "Obsession", Part Three "Expression" and Part Four "Possession". In writing the first movement "Impression" we tried to portray  the dancers as they listen and are slowly captured by the mood – In "Obession" the dancers are compelled by the waltz – In the fourth emotions are excited to the highest pitch as the dancers are completely possessed by the "Dance". This work has been choreographed why Matt Mattox, eminent New York dancer, and performed by his company.

Playing jazz definitely keeps a person's mind moving into new channels, this has to do with one's writing, too. The things that you find or hear find, in improvising, you can place in your writing, perhaps creating a new kind of orchestration or harmonization, or simply a unison or a rhythmic pattern. It is very much of an advantage to be a player-writer because it keeps your mind fresh. – Slide Hampton

The Cloister (Dance Suite) (Slide Hampton)

Part 1 – Impression

Part 2 – Obsession

Part 3 – Expression

Part 4 – Possession

There's A Boat Dat' Leavin' Soon For New York

Bess You Is My Woman

Summertime

I Love's You Porgy

It Ain't Necessarily So