Composer or Arranger

(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 Osaka, Japan, Dec 17, 1960). Japanese vibraphonist, arranger, and leader. He learned organ from an early age, studied arranging at the age of 15, and took up piano and vibraphone to play in an extracurricular college big band, the High Society Orchestra, at Waseda University in Tokyo. After gaining his degree in electrical engineering (1984) he had private lessons on vibraphone, first in Japan and then in the USA with Gary Burton, the latter while majoring in composition at the Berklee College of Music. He graduated from Berklee in 1988 and returned to Japan. In 1990 he formed his own trio and orchestra, consisting mainly of younger musicians – including schoolmates from Berklee; the orchestra may be heard on Riverside Music Garden (1997, Tei. 28513). Katori also performed with Yosuke Yamashita (from 1998), appearing on Yamashita’s television show, and he recorded with Mal Waldron (the album ...

(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 (...

(Wilhelm)

(b Helsinki, May 29, 1922; d Helsinki, Aug 27, 2015). Finnish composer, double bass player, vibraphonist, and pianist. He played in amateur swing bands during World War II, and with the drummer Ossi Aalto (1945–8), the bandleader Onni Gideon (1948–52), and his own groups (from 1952). He frequently accompanied visiting musicians and recorded with Peanuts Holland (1950, 1959) and Benny Bailey (1959). His Main Road 7 was among the first Finnish jazz compositions to be recorded (by Manu Teittinen, 1954, HMV TF50). Lindström wrote several of the most popular Finnish songs of the 1950s, including Muistatko Monrepos’n (“do you remember Monrepos”), recorded by Annikki Tähti in 1955. With compositions like Ranskalaiset korot (“French heels”), recorded by Helena Siltala (1958), he created a jazz-influenced style that was widely imitated by other songwriters. In 1974 he recorded an LP of his jazz compositions, ...

(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 ...

(Charles)

(b Ilford, England, Feb 13, 1945; d London, Jan 21, 2021). English trombonist, pianist, vibraphonist, arranger, and bandleader. He took up piano at the age of five, played accordion, and formed his first band, in which he played trombone, while still at high school. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music from 1964 to 1967, and from July 1964 to January 1966 was a member of a group led by the trumpeter Mike Daniels, with whom he made his first recordings, on trombone. He performed and recorded as a member of Dick Sudhalter’s Anglo-American Alliance and worked with a vaudeville band, the Levity Lancers (1967–73). He also led such bands as the New Sedalia and a swing sextet in which he played variously piano, trombone, and vibraphone. During a visit to the USA (1974) he performed and recorded on trombone with the New Paul Whiteman Orchestra and wrote arrangements for the New York Jazz Repertory Company, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, and Dick Hyman. He played in Sudhalter’s small groups, worked further with the New Paul Whiteman Orchestra from ...

(Everton)

(b London, Oct 13, 1960). English vibraphonist, marimba player, and composer. He played alto saxophone, trumpet, and drums before taking up tuned percussion. In the late 1970s and 1980s he was a member of various jazz-funk bands, including Savanna. He then worked with, among others, the Jazz Warriors (1985), Courtney Pine (late 1980s, touring the USA in 1987), Andy Sheppard’s big band Soft on the Inside (1988–90, including an appearance in the documentary video Soft on the Inside, 1990), Andy Hamilton (1992), Byron Wallen and the multi-cultural group Shiva Nova (both from 1993), David Murray (touring in May 1994), and the guitarist Alan Weekes and the reed player David Jean-Baptiste (both 1997). In the 1990s Robinson led several of his own bands, notably Annavas (named after his former group, Savanna), Nubian Vibes Ensemble, and Codefive. He wrote music for television and film and composed a suite for the Balanescu String Quartet (...