Vibraphonist (and drummer) Lionel Hampton (1908-2002) was one of the most iconic figures in the history of jazz, with an acute sense of the type of material his audience would appreciate. In the Netherlands he became notorious for a time, because his performance in 1956 ended in riots, with the police having to break up the concert. That doesn’t look like a likely scenario for the 2025 concert by the Lionel Hampton Big Band though, a ‘tribute act’ that was revived in 2015, and received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2022 as one of the longest running orchestras in jazz history. One interesting detail about this formation is the presence of vibraphonist Jason Marsalis (1977), who was rather honored when asked to take the place of Lionel Hampton. The orchestra still includes musicians who were also active when Hampton himself was in charge, such as saxophonist (and bandleader) Lance Bryant.
