The Complete Lionel Hampton Quartets and Quintets with Oscar Peterson on Verve

Album Review

Lionel Hampton did a series of quartet and quintet sessions for Verve Records in 1953 and 1954, the group featuring Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich, with either Buddy DeFranco or Herb Ellis joining in for the quintet recordings. Verve released the sessions on a batch of LPs in 1957 (King of the Vibes, Air Mail Special, Flying Home, Swingin' with Hamp) and 1958 (Lionel Hampton '58, Hallelujah Hamp, The High and the Mighty), but they are gathered together here on a five-CD set that includes a couple of previously unreleased alternate takes and includes shorter and longer versions of some songs done for single and album release. Typically of sessions produced by Verve head Norman Granz, the song list is full of classic pop standards, along with remakes of some of Hampton's better-known songs. The lineup is, of course, stellar, and Hampton and Peterson in particular spark each other on vibes and piano, interacting with seemingly endless creativity. (They even take one tune, "The High and the Mighty," by themselves.) The normally showy Rich mostly restricts himself to accompaniment (he can't help taking off during the totally improvised "Blues for Norman," but even then doesn't play all that long), while Brown provides his usual solid support. At a time when Hampton was traveling the world leading an orchestra, these recordings were a reminder that he could be at his best (as in the Benny Goodman Quartet) with a small group.