Michael Hampton plays guitar on “Susie Saxophone”, “Angeldelic” and “Elixir”. I met him in 2010 or 2011, after a George Clinton & Parliament Funkadlic concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam. We stayed in touch throughout the years. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
Hampton (1956) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and started his professional career when he was recruited as a seventeen-year-old guitar prodigy by the band Funkadelic, which found itself in need of a lead guitarist after original guitarist Eddie Hazel left the band. Hampton impressed Funkadelic's George Clinton by performing a note-for-note rendition of Hazel's ten-minute solo "Maggot Brain". He made his debut with the band's album “Let's Take It to the Stage” in 1975, which is dominated by his guitar. Hampton's playing included fuzzy, Hendrix-inspired licks and wailing harmonics. Due to his young age, Hampton was nicknamed 'Kidd Funkadelic'. Photo: Buffalo Bullet
Hampton became a fixture in Funkadelic, and he continued his role as lead guitarist even during Hazel's sporadic returns to the band. Hampton's performances of "Maggot Brain" — which had become more improvised – became regular features of live Parliament-Funkadelic shows, and the song became his signature concert performance. The bonus-EP of Funkadelic's “One Nation Under a Groove” (1978) included a live version of the song featuring Hampton. The 12" single version of the title track was the first notable Funkadelic song to feature Mike Hampton on lead guitar. One of his most celebrated performances is the lead guitar solo on the Funkadelic hit single "(Not Just) Knee Deep" from 1979, as well the title track to the Brides of Funkenstein's second album “Never Buy Texas From A Cowboy”. La Defense, Paris 2013
In 1981 Clinton was forced to disband the P-Funk musical empire due to financial and legal difficulties. In 1993, he performed on the album “Under the 6” with Slavemaster. Hampton performed on the albums released under Clinton's name, which featured many other P-Funk mainstays as well, and he became a member of the P-Funk All-Stars. In 1998, he released his first solo album entitled “Heavy Metal Funkason” through the P-Vine label in Japan. As of 2014, Hampton continues to perform with the All-Stars, and his performance of "Maggot Brain" remains a staple of their concerts but for the first time in years, he's not on the 2015 tour. (Source: Wikipedia)
Today is the official release of my latest album Dark Horse!Pictured here: Susanne Alt and Dark Horse drummer Willie Jones III in The Hague a few weeks ago.Dark Horse, along with all other previous albums, is available in my shop. If you want to support me, this is the best way, apart from buying the items after a concert. If you order your CD or LP here you will get a handwritten card from me and I will post it personally :-) 100% of the revenue will go to the artist and her label.But Susanne, I thought Dark Horse was already released 2 weeks ago at your concert at Bimhuis?That was a sort of pre-release concert. I chose this moment to sell physical merchandise there because once there's a digital release, for some people it will lead to less physical sales. On the other hand, digital platforms are a chance to let people listen and let them decide how they want to listen. I get it, it's convenient, and I also use a lot of streaming media for learning music and teaching. Personally, I choose to buy an album when I really love the music and/or want to support the artist, especially if it's self-released. Did you know that it takes more than 2000 Spotify streams to equal a revenue of €10? Sometimes, at concerts I get into discussions, why I sell my cd's and vinyls so cheap?People tell me I should be charging €15 or even €20 per cd and €30 or €35 for an album. I feel I don't have to make more profit on top. I rather want to encourage you to buy some of my previous albums... and carry it the brand new tote bag :-)Also, we used the concert at Bimhuis for shooting video material. In about 2 weeks I will send a newsletter with an overall update, also including brand new footage of this new music, so stay tuned. Subscribe here (Subscribe form on the website).Other ways to buy Dark Horse:If you happen to have a gift voucher from bol.com, order it from there. There's distribution in Germany for the people that like to order it via WOM, HHV and other shops.Super happy to make this happen, also extra shout out to German distributor Plattenfirma to go. I wish there was a service like that in Benelux and other countries as well! I definitely can recommend their services.And, how convenient, since today Dark Horse is out on all digital platforms.Reviews and radio airplay are coming in one by one, mostly involved, interesting and positive responses. Sometimes I read that the expectations of the writer was different, or sometimes things are misunderstood, but you know, what really counts is that people take the effort to write about it!!! Writing about culture is important, wherefore thank you everyone who makes it happen. I really appreciate it and feel humbled. Thank you Jazzfuel once more again for the outstanding service and communication.From time to time, Incoming press will be added to the press section, so if you come back sometimes, you can see that it will be filling up. Also, if you want you can read around in our archives with all the articles about previous albums. - Paradiso, Amsterdam 2011Michael Hampton plays guitar on “Susie Saxophone”, “Angeldelic” and “Elixir”.I met him in 2010 or 2011, after a George Clinton & Parliament Funkadlic concert at Paradiso, Amsterdam. We stayed in touch throughout the years. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.Hampton (1956) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and started his professional career when he was recruited as a seventeen-year-old guitar prodigy by the band Funkadelic, which found itself in need of a lead guitarist after original guitarist Eddie Hazel left the band. Hampton impressed Funkadelic's George Clinton by performing a note-for-note rendition of Hazel's ten-minute solo Maggot Brain. He made his debut with the band's album “Let's Take It to the Stage” in 1975, which is dominated by his guitar. Hampton's playing included fuzzy, Hendrix-inspired licks and wailing harmonics. Due to his young age, Hampton was nicknamed 'Kidd Funkadelic'.Photo: Buffalo BulletHampton became a fixture in Funkadelic, and he continued his role as lead guitarist even during Hazel's sporadic returns to the band. Hampton's performances of Maggot Brain — which had become more improvised – became regular features of live Parliament-Funkadelic shows, and the song became his signature concert performance. The bonus-EP of Funkadelic's “One Nation Under a Groove” (1978) included a live version of the song featuring Hampton. The 12 single version of the title track was the first notable Funkadelic song to feature Mike Hampton on lead guitar. One of his most celebrated performances is the lead guitar solo on the Funkadelic hit single (Not Just) Knee Deep from 1979, as well the title track to the Brides of Funkenstein's second album “Never Buy Texas From A Cowboy”.La Defense, Paris 2013In 1981 Clinton was forced to disband the P-Funk musical empire due to financial and legal difficulties. In 1993, he performed on the album “Under the 6” with Slavemaster. Hampton performed on the albums released under Clinton's name, which featured many other P-Funk mainstays as well, and he became a member of the P-Funk All-Stars. In 1998, he released his first solo album entitled “Heavy Metal Funkason” through the P-Vine label in Japan. As of 2014, Hampton continues to perform with the All-Stars, and his performance of Maggot Brain remains a staple of their concerts but for the first time in years, he's not on the 2015 tour.(Source: Wikipedia)Website:http://www.michaelwhampton.com/Here's the whole 96min concert they did at Loreley for Rockpalast in 1985.A video from 21 years later:
