Lionel Hampton: Flying Home

Jazz's most indefatigable showman, legendary vibist Lionel Hampton, routinely whipped "Flying Home" to such a frenzy that one such performance climaxed with his entire sax section jumping fully clothed off a cruise boat and into the Potomac River. For this exciting studio version of his clamorous closer, Hamp keeps everyone on board, energetically deploying such familiar Swing Era devices as call-&-response patterns, riffing saxes, upward-smearing trombones and ear-piercing trumpets (led by Ernie Royal). Tenorman Illinois Jacquet, though, steals the show with a roguish proto-R&B solo guaranteed to leave you as wringing wet as a late-night dunk in the Potomac.