LA Vibe Summit Videos

I got to attend the very first one and that had to be in '86 or '87 - can't remember which year. I do remember that the honoree was Lionel Hampton who performed, and that it was outside, and that I was sitting between DJ Chuck Niles and Leonard Feather. Now what was really unusual was that everybody brought their own vibraphone, so there were around 30 sets of all different makes and models set up in several horseshoe configurations. They counted off "Hamp's Boogie Woogie" and Lionel took a microphone around to each player who played a chorus into Hamp's mic.

I was young and I just thought that's the way things were done in LA, so little did I appreciate how unique this situation was. I asked to be a participant but was told I was too late in applying plus they already had 30 players lined up and assigned a spot. I wish I had a photo of it.