Search Results

(b Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, Aug 31, 1937). German vibraphonist and composer. He studied music and architecture and formed his first group in 1958. In 1969 he established his own record company, Birth, which exclusively documents his own work. His involvement in forms of contemporary music besides jazz led to his working with the composer Krzysztof Penderecki, Don Cherry, and the New Eternal Rhythm Orchestra on the recording Actions (1971). In 1972 he formed the Galaxie Dream Band, an improvising collective. After working mainly with European musicians such as Manfred Schoof and Alex Schlippenbach, he formed lasting associations with several Americans, notably Perry Robinson and Jeanne Lee (whom he later married); Lee performed on many of his recordings and appeared regularly with the Galaxie Dream Band until her death in 2000. The saxophonist and flute player Thomas Keyserling was also a longstanding member of the group. Hampel toured widely in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America, often under the auspices of the Goethe Institute, and worked frequently in New York. He produced several videos of his performances, including ...

(b Grünstadt, Germany, June 8, 1919; d Stuttgart, Germany, March 20, 2010). German bandleader, arranger, and vibraphonist. He grew up in a musical family, played violin from the age of five and piano from the age of six, and took up clarinet about five years later; he studied clarinet and drums at the conservatory in Peine. His first professional engagement in big bands was as a saxophonist with Erhard Bauschke in Berlin in 1938–9, and he played piano and wrote arrangements for German radio bands from 1945. With Horst Kudritzki he led the Rundfunk Berlin Tanzorchester, with which he recorded in 1948. In the 1950s he began to play vibraphone, and from 1951 to 1991 he led the big band of Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR Big Band) in Stuttgart; he produced the jazz program “Treffpunkt Jazz” for the same station in 1955. Many famous guest artists performed with the SDR Big Band, and Wolfgang Dauner, Bill Holman, Manfred Schoof, Alex Schlippenbach, and Eberhard Weber are among those who wrote for it; bandmembers included Horst Jankowski (...

(b Kauia, Territory of Hawaii, Feb 2, 1932; d Ewa, HI, Feb 24, 2002). Hawaiian bandleader, vibraphonist, and arranger. Arthur Lyman’s musical career began on a toy marimba; he taught himself to play along with Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton recordings. At age 14, he joined a jazz combo called the Gadabouts and a few years later, he began playing the four-mallet vibes at a hotel bar in Honolulu. In 1955 he joined the ensemble of Martin Denny, a group famous among the Hawaii hotel circuit for its style of exoticist jazz, sometimes referred to as “Polynesian” music. To this group, Lyman contributed not only on the vibes, guitar and percussion, but also with vocalized imitations of birdcalls. In 1957, Lyman split from Denny’s group to form his own four-piece jazz band, joined by John Kramer (bass), Alan Soares (piano), and Harold Chang (percussion). The Arthur Lyman Group recorded a number of albums on the HiFi label between ...