‘Flying At The Olympia’, by Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra
[From the daily log of the Leidseplein Police Station, Amsterdam, March 25th, 1956]
‘…The necessary police personnel supervised a performance at The Concertgebouw (Concerthall, ed.) by the orchestra of Lionel Hampton. During the final piece (at around a quarter to three in the morning) disorder broke out, because the orchestra started to walk around on stage. The audience became so enthusiastic that it stood up and pressed forward. When the manager of The Concertgebouw asked the impressario to put a halt to this and the orchestra nonetheless kept on playing, the police, with gentle insistence, escorted Lionel Hampton to the dressing room. The audience calmed down again and left the auditorium in an orderly fashion…’
One of my first posts on Tumblr were about the book these pictures are taken from. I never fully understand why the audience was so excited at Lionel Hampton’s concerts, but if you listen to today’s track ‘Flying At The Olympia’ (although taken from the rare album ‘Live In Paris’, recorded the same year) you’ll understand. Six minutes of red hot, steaming, frantic jazz punk rock!
