John Hammond (record producer)

Its editor Ernest Gruening was also a Hotchkiss alumnus, class of 1903, who was interested in social issues and social justice.

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.

In his service 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 was instrumental in sparking or furthering 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, 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 same 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.

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.

Hammond notes that the first jazz music that he heard was in London in 1923 on a trip with his family.

He heard a band called The Georgians, a white Dixieland jazz group, and saw an African American show called From Dixie to Broadway, that featured Sidney Bechet.

This trip changed the way that he thought about music.

Upon his return to the states, Hammond searched for records by black musicians but could not find them in the greater Manhattan area.

He learned that African American music was sold in different stores, so he began to search for this music in Harlem.

In 1925 Hammond graduated from the elementary institution St. Bernard's School at the age of 14.

He persuaded his family to allow him to attend Hotchkiss School due to its liberal curriculum.

Hammond's love for music flourished.

However, he felt limited within the confines of a boarding school.

Hammond succeeded in convincing the headmaster to allow him to go into the 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 that he heard Bessie Smith perform at The Harlem Alhambra, but her biographer disagrees about the dates.

The youngest, Alice, married first 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, only to switch 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.

The summer after graduating from Hotchkiss in 1929, Hammond went to work for a newspaper in Maine, the Portland Evening News.