Biography
Though his professional life spanned many decades and styles, Edgar Sampson earned lasting renown almost entirely through the inventive writing he supplied during a brief mid-1930s tenure with Chick Webb. Compositions such as “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and “Don’t Be That Way” continue to summon the intimate yet buoyant spirit of the swing era more vividly than most, while “Blue Lou,” “Lullaby in Rhythm,” “Blue Minor,” and “If Dreams Come True” further attest to his melodic gift. He took up the violin at six and later studied alto saxophone in high school. Professional work began in 1924 when he formed a violin-and-piano duo with Joe Coleman; the following year he spent a season alongside Duke Ellington at the Kentucky Club. Subsequent engagements took him through ensembles led by Bingie Madison, Billy Fowler, Arthur Gibbs at the Savoy Ballroom, Charlie Johnson, Alex Jackson, Fletcher Henderson, and Rex Stewart before he joined Webb in 1933. It was there that Sampson established himself as both composer and arranger. After departing the band in July 1936 he found steady freelance demand from Benny Goodman, whose orchestra scored major successes with several of his pieces, as well as from Artie Shaw, Red Norvo, Teddy Hill, Teddy Wilson, and Webb himself. Following Chick Webb’s death in 1939, Sampson served briefly as musical director for the orchestra that Ella Fitzgerald inherited. In 1943 he played alto and baritone saxophone with Al Sears, then fronted his own New York group from 1949 to 1951. By the late 1940s his interests had turned toward Latin music, and throughout the 1950s he supplied arrangements for Marcellino Guerra, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez; toward the end of that decade he also began leading small combos. His sole album under his own name, Swing Softly, Sweet Sampson, appeared on Coral in 1956. Illness that necessitated the amputation of a leg led to his retirement from music in the late 1960s.