Air Mail Special – 1949

Lionel Hampton

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Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton was always a crowd pleaser, and was never shy about having his band go over the top.

This performance of “Air Mail Special” from 1949 has one of his trumpeters tossing his horn back and forth, a trombonist screaming through his horn, and a tenor-saxophonist (Johnny Sparrow?) leaping from the bandstand.

Of particular interest is that at the two–minute mark, guitarist Wes Montgomery has a short solo, his earliest appearance on film and about nine years before he was discovered playing in Indianapolis.

-Scott Yanow

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