Spoiler : Hampton, Lionel (birth name was Lionel Leo Hampton) Born in Birmingham, Alabama 4/20/1913; died 8/31/2002 of heart failure at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Hampton's birth was listed as 4/20/1908, as well there have been disagreements where he was born. Many say he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but his manager (Bill Titone) gave Hamp's birth, and birth place as I have it listed here.

Spoiler : Married to Gladys Riddle (1936-1971 her death). Master of many instruments including the vibraphone which was his instrument of choice from 1930. Hampton was nicknamed the "Chief Rabbi Of Jazz." Hamp attended a Roman Catholic grade school in Kenosha, Wisconsin where a nun taught him to play a snare drum, and to twirl the sticks. Hamp began his career by moving to Chicago,  hawking news- papers on street corners while playing drums for the Chicago Defender newspaper children's band. He became a member of Les Hite's band after high school, following Hite to Los Angeles. Hamp began playing vibes when Hite's band was backing Louis Armstrong in a 1930 Culver City recording session. Having never played the vibraphone, or vibraharp as it is sometimes known, there was a set in the studio, and after a bit of fiddling around with it, Hamp backed Armstrong on vibes when he was singing, and while Armstrong was playing his trumpet, Hamp played his drums. The name of the tune is Memories of You.

Spoiler : Hampton formed his own band in 1934, then was a member of Benny Goodman's band (1936-1940). Reformed another band in 1940. Hamp's most famous composition was, "Flying Home," which he wrote in 1937, and he estimated he played it some 300 times a year after he wrote it until he died. Hampton appeared on radio from the middle 1930s until the early 1950s. Hamp was a regular performer on All-Star Jazz for CBS-TV (1958).

Spoiler : Appointed "ambassador of music" to the United Nations in 1985. Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1986. Recipient of the National Medal of the Arts in 1997.