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The family jazzBell’s palsy afflicts jazz trumpeter Marcus Hampton, but his family’s back yard jam sessions still go on.
By LINDA GIBSON © St. Petersburg Times, published May 11, 2001 TAMPA -- For 52 years, Marcus Hampton played the trumpet every day. Blessed with talent, born into a musical family that includes jazz vibraphone player Lionel Hampton, he molded his life around music. The trumpet is his first love and jazz his calling.
He still tries to practice every day, hoping the rest of his muscles won't go soft and that the paralyzed ones will come back. But he has to pinch shut the slack right side of his mouth so his breath doesn't leak out when he blows into the instrument. The sound that emerges is a weak, one-note mimicry of the music he could make just a few months ago. Hampton, 60, and his wife, Rose, are well-known in the jazz community. For six years, they have hosted monthly jam sessions in the back yard of their Seminole Heights house. On the appointed day, relatives and friends turn the yard into an outdoor cafe. Tables and chairs are set up, tablecloths and candles set out along with soft drinks, ice and cups, napkins, plates and plastic cutlery. Rose, an experienced chef, oversees the food. No hamburgers or hot dogs here. Her guests feast on such fare as smoked Cornish hens and a half-dozen or more side dishes: black beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, greens, vegetables, pasta salad, potato salad, meatballs, sliced Italian bread and dessert. Marcus and helpers set up instruments and speakers on the homemade stage. Someone lists the musicians playing that night on a message board facing the street. Little white lights strung overhead pop on.
The crowd includes toddlers and old folks, blacks, whites and Hispanics. Rose moves among the tables, greeting everyone, hugging the regulars, urging all to eat more. "It's all a big family thing here," Marcus Hampton said. For four hours, straight-ahead jazz classics ring out in the open air. Hampton is on stage much of the time, playing the trumpet, introducing musicians, mopping sweat from his brow. "Marcus plays jazz the way it's supposed to be played," says Nick Lagos, who hosts a weekly jazz program on WMNF-FM 88.5. "His efforts are one reason we've been able to keep real jazz happening in Tampa." Hampton's father gave him his first instrument when he was 8 years old, in 1949. It was a cornet, a smaller version of the trumpet. Hampton learned to play by imitating what he heard on the radio. He played by ear; he couldn't read music. During summers in the '50s, he and his cousins traveled with their parents, aunts and uncles in a family-owned bus. The kids performed during intermissions for the Hamptonians, the band of grown-up Hamptons. They played Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Apollo and the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem and clubs across the South. They ate and slept on the bus because no hotel would rent a room to black people. Between sets, they waited in the kitchen; it was unthinkable to let them mingle with white customers. Despite the racism, music for Marcus Hampton had been mostly about fun. When the Army drafted him in 1961, it offered him a chance to get serious about music. He took it. The Army taught him to read music. He played with Army bands all over the country and in Europe. "We played everything," he said. "Dixieland, funk, marches, classical, show tunes, rock 'n' roll." Hampton left the Army after a few years but couldn't earn a living playing jazz. He went back into the Army because it gave him the freedom to play the trumpet without worrying about a paycheck. The Hamptons have made their jam sessions a haven for musicians. Depending on donations, Hampton might not be able to pay them more than gas money. They come anyway. "You go to any club, and they tell you what and how to play," he said. "You can play here any way you want." This weekend, the Hamptons will host their most ambitious project yet: a two-day, backyard festival featuring another famous relative, trombone player Slide Hampton, a cousin. Vocalist Turk Nelson will be master of ceremonies. Cousin Paula Hampton, a drummer, will be there, as will Marcus' sister Charisse Hampton, a vocalist, and a number of well-known local musicians. It has been two years since Marcus played with his cousin, Slide. But it's unlikely he'll have recovered enough to play at his own jazz festival. He expects to recover someday, as do most victims of Bell's palsy. This is just one more temporary limitation, like the dead-end jobs he left for the Army and the play-it-safe club owners he has worked for. In the meantime, there are more jam sessions to organize and a trumpet to practice every day, no matter what. - Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382. Find out moreFor information about the Hamptons' jazz festival, call (813) 222-0023.
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