John Henry Hammond Jr. (December 15, 1910 – July 10, 1987) was an American record producer, civil rights activist, and music critic active from the 1930s to the early 1980s. As a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century popular music. He is the father of blues musician John P. Hammond.
Hammond sparked or advanced numerous musical careers, including those of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Big Joe Turner, Fletcher Henderson, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Freddie Green, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Russell, Jim Copp, Asha Puthli, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mike Bloomfield and Sonny Burke. He is also largely responsible for the revival of delta blues artist Robert Johnson's music.
Hammond was born in New York, christened John Henry Hammond Jr., although both his father and paternal grandfather shared the name. He was the youngest child and only son of John Henry Hammond and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane. His mother was one of three daughters of William Douglas Sloane and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, and a granddaughter of William Henry Vanderbilt. The family lived at the John Henry Hammond House in Manhattan.
His father attended Yale University, and graduated with a law degree from Columbia Law School. His grandfather was Civil War General John Henry Hammond, who married Sophia Vernon Wolfe. His father was a brother of Ogden H. Hammond, ambassador to Spain, and uncle to politician Millicent Fenwick. Despite the family fortune from his mother's side of the family, which included wealth from the W. & J. Sloane chain, his father worked to provide for his family and maintain the family fortune. He worked "as a banker, lawyer, and railroad executive".
Hammond had four sisters: Emily, Adele, Rachel, and Alice. The youngest, Alice, married Arthur Duckworth in 1927, and then, after divorcing him, the musician Benny Goodman in 1942. Well-known clergyman and peace activist William Sloane Coffin Jr. was a cousin.
Hammond showed interest in music from an early age. At four he began studying the piano, then switched to the violin at age eight. He was steered toward classical music by his mother but was more interested in the music sung and played by the servants, many of whom were black. He was known to go down to his basement to listen to the upbeat music in the servants' quarters. He loved Sir Harry Lauder's "Roamin' in the Gloamin'". While he was in the basement, the rest of his family in the greater part of the five-story mansion would listen to "the great opera tenor Enrico Caruso, as well as to standard classics by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart".
Hammond became interested in social reform at a young age. His mother also promoted social reform as a means to give back some of her fortune to the community. She often found solace in religion. Hammond shared her desire to help the community with his privilege.
Hammond said he first heard jazz music in London during a 1923 trip with his family. He heard The Georgians, a white Dixieland jazz group; and saw an African American show, From Dixie to Broadway, that featured Sidney Bechet. The trip changed how he thought about music. Upon his return to the States, Hammond searched for records by black musicians but could not find them in his neighborhood. He learned that African American music was sold in different stores, so he began to look for this music in Harlem.
In 1925, 14-year-old Hammond graduated from the elementary St. Bernard's School, then persuaded his family to send him to Hotchkiss School due to its liberal curriculum. Hammond's love for music flourished. However, he felt limited by boarding school. Hammond convinced the headmaster to allow him to go into New York City every other weekend, a rare privilege, so that he could take lessons from Ronald Murat. However, the headmaster was not aware that outside his formal lessons, Hammond would go up to Harlem to hear jazz. During this time, he said, he heard Bessie Smith perform at The Harlem Alhambra, but her biographer disagrees about the dates.
After graduating from Hotchkiss in 1929, Hammond took a summer job at the Portland Evening News newspaper in Maine. Its editor Ernest Gruening, Hotchkiss class of 1903, was also interested in social issues and social justice.
In the fall of 1929, Hammond entered Yale University as a member of the class of 1933. He studied the violin and, later, viola. He felt a disconnect with his fellow students and felt that he was already well acquainted with the professional world. He made frequent trips into New York City and wrote regularly for trade magazines. In the fall of 1930, Hammond had to withdraw due to a recurring case of jaundice. Hammond had no desire to a repeat a semester, which contributed to his dissatisfaction with the university lifestyle. Much to the disappointment of his father, a Yale alumnus, in 1931 he dropped out of school for a career in the music industry, first becoming the U.S. correspondent for Melody Maker.
In 1931, Hammond funded the recording of pianist Garland Wilson, marking the beginning of a long string of artistic successes as record producer. He moved to Greenwich Village, where he claimed to have engaged in bohemian life and worked for an integrated music world. He set up one of the first regular live jazz programs, and wrote regularly about the racial divide. As he wrote in his memoirs, "I heard no color line in the music. ... To bring recognition to the Negro's supremacy in jazz was the most effective and constructive form of social protest I could think of." In 1941, he helped found the Council on African Affairs.
In 1932, Hammond acquired a nonpaying job on the WEVD radio station as a disc jockey. He did not discriminate when choosing which musicians to air; the station allowed Hammond complete freedom on the station as long as he paid for his time slot. Through this position, Hammond gained a reputation as a well-educated jazz fan. Various musicians were guests on his show, including Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, and Art Tatum. When the station transferred from the Broadway Central Hotel to the Claridge Hotel, the new venue would not allow the black musicians to use the main elevator. For this reason, Hammond quit his work with WEVD.
By 1932–33, through his involvement in the UK music paper Melody Maker, Hammond arranged for the faltering US Columbia label to provide recordings for the Okeh Columbia label, mostly using the specially created Columbia W-265000 matrix series. Hammond recorded Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter, Joe Venuti, Benny Goodman, and other jazz performers during the Great Depression, when few would otherwise had the opportunity to enter a studio and play jazz. (A handful of these recordings were issued in the US.)
In 1934, Hammond introduced Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson. It is said that Hammond convinced the musicians to "swing" the current jazz hits, so that they could play in a free manner like the original New Orleans Jazz.
Hammond always strived for racial integration within the musical scene. For this purpose, he frequently visited musicians in Harlem in order to connect with musicians in their own area. While initially his race proved a problem in connecting with this community, he formed relationships with various musicians that allowed him to surpass this barrier. His friendship with Benny Carter gave him a status that allowed him to enter this musical community.
He played a role in organizing Benny Goodman's band, and in persuading him to hire black musicians such as Charlie Christian, Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hampton. In 1933 he heard the seventeen-year-old Billie Holiday perform in Harlem and arranged for her recording debut, on a Benny Goodman session. Four years later, he heard the Count Basie orchestra broadcasting from Kansas City and brought it to New York, where it began to receive national attention.
In 1938, Hammond organized the first From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall, presenting a broad program of blues, jazz and gospel artists, including Ida Cox, Big Joe Turner, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Count Basie orchestra, Sidney Bechet, Sonny Terry, James P. Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy (who took the place of the deceased Robert Johnson). He coordinated a second From Spirituals to Swing concert in 1939.