Music Institute of Chicago LIONEL HAMPTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Preview

Music Institute of Chicago LIONEL HAMPTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Joe Locke by Joseph Boggess, Thaddeus Tukes courtesy of Thaddeus Tukes, Tammy McCann courtesy of Tammy McCann

When:

April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

 

Where:

Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue in Evanston

Tickets: $50 VIPs, $40 general admission; discounts for seniors and students; information and tickets available on the Music Institute of Chicago website.

 

The Music Institute of Chicago presents guest artists and members of its Jazz Studies faculty in a celebration of the late American vibraphonist and bandleader Lionel Hampton on Saturday, April 20—what would have been his 111th birthday.

Performers include jazz vibraphonist, composer and bandleader Joe Locke, who has performed and recorded with Grover Washington Jr., Kenny Barron, Eddie Henderson, Cecil Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Ron Carter, The Beastie Boys and many more. His most recent CD, Subtle Disguise, was released in November 2018.

Music Institute of Chicago LIONEL HAMPTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Photo by Richard Conde
Music Institute of Chicago LIONEL HAMPTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Photo courtesy of Tammy McCann

Jazz vocalist and Music Institute Artist-in-Residence Tammy McCann is also on the program. Shehas performed with Ramsey Lewis and Von Freeman and has toured as a “Raelette” with Ray Charles and to such premier jazz venues as Birdland, the Blue note, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and Chicago’s own Jazz Showcase.

And joining them is vibraphonist Thaddeus Tukes, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side, attended Whitney Young High School and graduated from Northwestern University in 2016 with the first-ever degree in jazz vibraphone. Tukes has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, Symphony Center in Chicago, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, and a host of other locations. He has been featured in concert with Victor Goines, Dee Alexander, Roy Hargrove, Nicole Mitchell, and many others.

Music Institute of Chicago LIONEL HAMPTON BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Photo courtesy Music Institute of Chicago.

Lionel Hampton spent some of his early years in Chicago. He started as a jazz drummer before discovering the vibraphone. He was a member of the first racially integrated jazz group, the Benny Goodman Quartet, in the 1930s and formed the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in 1940. He toured the world beginning in the 1950s and eventually founded two record labels, a music publishing business, and a company that built low-income housing in inner cities. He received the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton in 1997 and continued to perform well into his 90s. He died in 2002 in New York City.

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