John H. Hammond

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John Henry Hammond (December 15, 1910–July 10, 1987) was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th Century popular music.

He was instrumental in discovering and developing the careers of many of the most important musicians over the period, including Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Big Joe Turner, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Career 3 Legacy 4 References 5 External links 6 Bibliography

[edit] Early years

Born in New York City to great wealth as the great-grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt, Hammond showed interest in music at an early age. At age four he began studying the piano, only to switch to the violin at age eight. He was steered toward classical music by his mother, but was more interested in the music sung and played by the servants, many of whom were black. In his teens he began listening to black musicians in Harlem, who adopted him as a novel mascot ^[1] , and in 1927 heard Bessie Smith sing at the Alhambra Theater, a performance which influenced the rest of his life.

In 1928 Hammond entered Yale University, where he studied the violin and, later, viola. He made frequent trips into New York and wrote regularly for trade magazines. Eventually he dropped out of school for a career in the music industry, first becoming the US correspondent for Melody Maker.

[edit] Career

In 1931 he funded the recording of pianist Garland Wilson, marking the beginning of a long string of artistic successes as record producer. He moved to Greenwich Village, where he engaged in bohemian life and began working for an integrated music world. He set up one of the first regular live jazz programs, and wrote regularly about the racial divide. As he wrote in his memoirs ^[2], "I heard no color line in the music....To bring recognition to the negro’s supremacy in jazz was the most effective and constructive form of social protest I could think of".

He played a role in organizing Benny Goodman's band, and in persuading him to hire black musicians including Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton. In 1933 he saw the 17 year old Billie Holiday perform in Harlem, and rushed her into the studio to produce her first recordings. Four years later, he heard the Count Basie orchestra broadcasting from Kansas City and personally brought the orchestra to the East Coast, where it began to receive national attention.

In 1938, he brought Goodman and black pianist Teddy Wilson together at Carnegie Hall, the first time a racially integrated group appeared onstage at a major American music hall. In the same year, he organised the "From Spirituals to Swing" concerts, with a range of blues, jazz and gospel acts that included Big Joe Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Count Basie, and Big Bill Broonzy (who took the place of the murdered Robert Johnson).

After serving in the military during World War II, Hammond felt unmoved by the bebop jazz scene of the mid-1940s. He spent much of his time in Europe concentrating on classical music, although he also introduced Count Basie at the Newport festival in 1957.

Rejoining Columbia Records in the late 1950s, he signed Pete Seeger and Babatunde Olatunji to the label, and also discovered Aretha Franklin, then an eighteen year-old gospel singer. In 1961, in Greenwich Village, he discovered folk singer Bob Dylan, signing him to Columbia despite the protests of executives - who referred to Dylan as "Hammond’s folly" – and producing his early recordings including "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" . Hammond also oversaw the highly influential posthumous reissues of Robert Johnson’s recorded work in the early 1960s, and signed Leonard Cohen to the label.

In 1972, Hammond auditioned Bruce Springsteen in his office, and subsequently offered him his first record deal. He retired from Columbia in 1975, though he continued to scout for talent for many years. In 1983, he signed guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan to the label and was credited as executive producer on his debut album.

[edit] Legacy

Hammond received a Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements in 1971, and in 1986 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He died in 1987 after a series of strokes. He was the father of John P. Hammond (better known as John Hammond Jr.), a noted blues musician and singer, and Jason Hammond.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• More information
• Induction to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

[edit] Bibliography

• John Hammond with Irving Townsend (1977) John Hammond On Record: An Autobiography, Ridge Press - Summit Books, ISBN 0-671-40003-7
• Dunstan Prial (2006) The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-11304-1