For Real! (Remastered 2024) Hampton Hawes & Harold Land, Scott La Faro, Frank Butler

• 1 Hip (Remastered 2024) 06:14
• 2 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (Remastered 2024) 09:20
• 3 Crazeology (Little Benny) (Remastered 2024) 06:43
• 4 Numbers Game (Remastered 2024) 08:04
• 5 For Real (Remastered 2024) 11:21
• 6 I Love You (Remastered 2024) 03:59
• Total Runtime 45:41

Info for For Real! (Remastered 2024)

Hampton Hawes, For Real! wurde 1958 aufgenommen, aber erst 1961 auf dem Label Contemporary Records veröffentlicht. Mit Hawes (Klavier) an der Seite von Harold Land (Tenorsaxophon), Scott LaFaro (Bass) und Frank Butler (Schlagzeug) enthält das Album eine Mischung aus Jazzstandards und Eigenkompositionen.

"Obwohl For Real! immerhin Hampton Hawes' 11. Platte als Leader war, war es seine erste (und eine seiner relativ wenigen), auf der ein Bläser zu hören war. Der Pianist harmoniert sehr gut mit dem Hard-Bop-Tenor von Harold Land (zu hören in seiner frühen Blütezeit), und das Quartett, zu dem auch der Schlagzeuger Frank Butler gehört, wird durch das Spiel des brillanten Bassisten Scott LaFaro bereichert. Der Pianist Hawes, der drei Bop-Standards (darunter Crazeology") und drei Eigenkompositionen (von denen zwei von Land mitgeschrieben wurden) vorträgt, klingt inspiriert von den anderen Spielern und ist während des gesamten denkwürdigen Auftritts in Topform." (Scott Yanow, AMG)

Hampton Hawes, Klavier
Harold Land, Tenorsaxophon
Scott LaFaro, Kontrabass
Frank Butler, Schlagzeug

Digitally remastered

Hampton Hawes
Anyone genuinely interested in the story of Hampton Hawes should read his autobiography, Raise Up Off Me (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan), which he wrote in conjunction with Don Asher. The book is simply brilliant. Although plagued with an inflation-dominated $7.95 list price, Raise Up Off Me is quickly becoming an underground sensation and should be read by anyone who claims an interest in this music we call jazz.

Hamp’s story is phenomenal. Raised in a strict, religious environment, Hamp taught himself piano as a child. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing professionally. His enormous talent brought him into contact with great players, not the least of whom was Charlie Parker. Hamp played with Charlie, Billie Holiday, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, and Art Pepper and Shorty Rogers.

Most of the people Hamp knew as a young man were heroin addicts. Hamp soon followed, although Billie did try to dissuade him. Why did he ever try it in the first place? “You see everybody going down the street in a green Buick, and you start thinking, ‘What is it with these green Buicks?’ You know, you just got to find out for yourself. Well, I found out all right. I sure did.” Hamp’s stint in the Army doing duty in the Far East furthered the addiction.

In 1955, after the Army, Hampton cut several brilliant albums for the Contemporary label in Los Angeles. His talent has always been recognized; his addiction always ruined everything.

In 1958, Hampton Hawes was in jail in Fort Worth, Texas, serving a ten-year sentence. Halfway through the term, Hamp accomplished the impossible. He applied for a presidential pardon from John F. Kennedy and got it. As Hamp says: “That man was the President, and he’s supposed to be keeping everything straight. He saw that the judge had written me onto the wrong page. I wasn’t no criminal; I was just hurting myself! JFK got me out, and I’m not hurting myself anymore.”

The road back has not been easy for Hampton. It has taken about five years to regain his position as a leader amongst jazz pianists. The Hampton Hawes trio works together on the West Coast regularly. He has had three successful albums on Prestige, the last of which was recorded at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

This album, Northern Windows, is Hampton’s fourth album for Prestige, and it is, without a doubt, his best work to date. David Axelrod produced the LP, which features a highly talented and very beautiful lady bassist, Carol Kaye. Hawes and Axelrod immediately hit it off. They were both raised in the same section of Los Angeles and discovered many mutual friends. But no one at the Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone studios had seen Hampton looking so good, so ebullient, so happy, as he did that day he played back the tapes of this album. In Hamp’s words: “This motherfucker is a bitch! This Axelrod is too much! This is it!’’

No doubt there will be much more to hear from Hampton Hawes, but Northern Windows is the definitive statement about how high this amazing man is.

Hampton Hawes died on May 22, 1977.

This album contains no booklet.