Dawn Hampton

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Dawn Hampton whistling

Dawn Hampton (* 1928 in Middletown , Ohio ; † September 25, 2016 ) was an American cabaret and jazz singer , saxophonist , dancer and songwriter .

Life

Dawn Hampton came from the musical Hampton family and has been on stage from childhood. Her father, Clark Deacon Hampton, Sr., ran a family band with his twelve children; the youngest was the trombonist Slide Hampton (* 1932). In early childhood, the Hampton Dawn family left their hometown, roamed the country as Deacon Hampton and the Cotton Pickers, performing ragtime , blues , Dixieland and polka numbers. Dawn's family then settled in Indianapolis in 1938 , where the children received musical training at the McArthur School of Music .

During the Second World War, Dawn and her older sisters Carmalita († 1987), Aletra (1915-2007) and Virtue (* 1921) founded the short-lived formation The Hamptonians . After the end of the war she played alto and tenor saxophone in her brother Clark's jazz band "Duke" Hampton. This band played mostly in the Midwest and the southern United States; In 1950 she also appeared in New York's Carnegie Hall , the Apollo Theater and the Savoy Ballroom ; otherwise she played as a house band in the Cotton Club of Cincinnati . She then performed as The Hampton Sisters with her sisters .

In 1958 she moved to New York City to begin a career as a cabaret singer and songwriter . Soon after her arrival, she took part in the off-Broadway production Greenwich Village, USA , which was played for a year in the Bon Soir musical theater . An album of music from the piece was also released, which included songs with Dawn Hampton.

In the early 1960s, she had a longer engagement as a singer in the nightclub Lions Den . Although damage to her vocal cords in 1964 initially endangered her further singing career, she continued to perform as a cabaret singer in New York for another 20 years, albeit with a limited vocal volume, but also increasingly worked as a songwriter. So she wrote u. a. her signature song Life Is What You Make It . In 1972 she had a joint appearance with Bette Midler , Cab Calloway and Barry Manilow . In 1989, she wrote Red Light with Mark Nadler , an opera in honky-tonk that won the Cabarat Association's MAC Award . In 1992, she appeared with Frankie Manning as a dancer in Spike Lee's film Malcolm X on. She worked u. a. with the Swedish dance company Hot Shots and with the Herräng Dance Camp in New York, which is particularly dedicated to the Lindy Hop dance , and held numerous workshops in and outside the United States, such as in England in 2001.

In honor of her 80th birthday, the Dance Manhattan company hosted a gala, where she whistled and danced.

Prizes and awards

Hampton received the Lifetime Achievement in Cabaret Award . In 1988 she was nominated for the Distinguished Achievement Director and Composer Award from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets .

Web links

Commons : Dawn Hampton  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Hampton, Dawn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and dancer
DATE OF BIRTH 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Middletown , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2016