Gary Giddins Introduction to Hampton Hawes' RAISE UP OFF ME

© Introduction Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

In my continuing efforts to share with you the work of guest writers and critics on the subject of Jazz in conjunction with my own musings, here’s the esteemed and distinguished author Gary Giddins’ Introduction to the re-publication of Raise Up Off Me: A Portrait of Hampton Hawes by Hampton Hawes and Don Asher [2001].

Gary’s piece provides a context for understanding the significance of the book as a major contribution to the literature of jazz.

I will follow it with a posting of the AT THE HI-DE-HO Club chapter so that you can sample the actual tone and tenor of the work in Hampton Hawes’ own words.

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved, used with permission.

Introduction

“Hampton Hawes was playing San Francisco's Both/And club in 1966, when Don Asher dropped by to hear him. That year Asher published his first novel and was playing piano in a comedy revue, while Hawes, one of California's most admired and influential musicians in the '50s, was struggling to revive his career after five years' imprisonment on a heroin bust. Asher introduced himself, remembering a night at Boston's Storyville club more than ten years before, when Hawes's first album was garnering enthusiastic reviews and jazz polls were falling in his lap. Asher "had never heard any pianist crackle and burn up a club like this." Now it was different — Hampton looked tired and the place was practically empty. Asher invited him to the show where he was working and when Hawes walked in a few nights later, they reminisced until dawn. The writer said, "Let's do a book on your life."