1. Hampton Hawes was the author of the memoir Raise Up Off Me, which won the Deems-Taylor Award for music writing in 1975.
10 Facts About Hampton Hawes
1. 2.
Hampton Hawes was born on November 13,1928, in Los Angeles, California.
3.
Hampton Hawes was reportedly able to pick out fairly complex tunes by the age of three.
4.
Hampton Hawes was self-taught; by his teens he was playing with the leading jazz musicians on the West Coast, including Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, and Teddy Edwards.
5.
The next year, Hampton Hawes added guitarist Jim Hall for the All Night Sessions.
6.
Hampton Hawes was arrested on heroin charges on his 30th birthday and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
7.
In 1961, while at a federal prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, Hampton Hawes was watching President Kennedy's inaugural speech on television, and became convinced that Kennedy would pardon him.
8.
Hampton Hawes died unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage in 1977, at the age of 48.
9.
Hampton Hawes influenced a great number of prominent pianists, including Andre Previn, Peterson, Horace Silver, Claude Williamson, Pete Jolly, and Toshiko Akiyoshi.
10.
Hampton Hawes learned much from pianists Powell and Nat King Cole, among others.