Pete Hampton

Pete George Hampton (August 7, 1871 – March 16, 1916) was an American vocalist, harmonicist, banjo player, and vaudevillian from Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was part of various Vaudeville groups of which the most important was his own Darktown Entertainers. In 1903 he starred in the landmark Broadway musical In Dahomey, a work which he had toured in previously the year prior. He made more than 150 recordings during his career in the United Kingdom and Germany between 1903 and 1911. In 1904, he made the first harmonica recording by an African American, regarded as a pioneering example in the development of the blues harmonica style.

Biography Hampton was born in 1871 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. During his teenage years he was part of a banjo quartet that appeared in medicine shows in Ohio.

In the 1890s, Hampton toured with minstrel troupes and became associated with Bert Williams and George Walker, and by 1902 became part of the Broadway musical In Dahomey.

In 1903, the group went on touring the United Kingdom, where Hampton fell in love with Laura Bowman, a fellow troupe member, with whom he engaged in a common-law marriage. He toured with the company in many European countries including Germany, Hungary, Austria, France, Switzerland, and Russia, playing a variety of musical styles. The increasing political unrest in Russia forced the group to leave the state and return to England, where they finally were disbanded. After returning for a short period in the United States, Hampton with Bowman got back in London where they joined the second company of In Dahomey, this time with Hampton as one of the principal actors. In his performances he played the five-string banjo and the harmonica. Besides being an instrumentalist he was also a composer and singer. Many of his recordings are in the minstrel tradition of the African Americans in which he was raised, such as "When You Die You Are a Long Time Dead" a "jumpy and swinging tune" among others of Hampton's compositions inspired by gospel and camp songs. Among his most successful work as a composer is "Lindy, Lindy, Sweet As Sugar Cane" which he sold to the husband-and-wife duet Charles Johnson and Dora Dean. In his career he made over 150 phonograph cylinders and 78rpm records, mostly recorded in the United Kingdom and Germany.