John H. Hammond - Early Years and Family

Early Years and Family

Hammond was christened John Henry Hammond, Jr., although both his father and grandfather shared the same name. He was the youngest child and only son of John Henry Hammond. His father attended Yale University, graduating 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, his father worked to provide for his family and maintain the family fortune. He worked in various jobs "as a banker, lawyer, and railroad executive".

Hammond's mother was the former Emily Vanderbilt Sloane, one of three daughters of William Douglas Sloane and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt. John H. Hammond, Sr. and Emily Sloane were wed on April 5, 1899. They also had four daughters: Emily, Adele, Rachel, and Alice, who married musician Benny Goodman in 1942.

Born in New York to great wealth as the great-grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt, Hammond showed interest in music from an early age. At age 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 servant's 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 had a large interest in 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.

Ironically, Hammond notes that the first jazz music that he was exposed to was in London on a trip with his family around 1922. He heard a band called The Georgians, a Caucasian improvisational jazz group, and saw a Negro show called "From Dixie to Broadway", that featured Sidney Bechet. This trip changed the way that he saw music. Upon his return to the states, he searched for records by Negro musicians but could not find them in the greater Manhattan area. He learned the Negro musicians had to sell within different stores, so he began to search for this music in Harlem.

In 1923, Hammond graduated from 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 even 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 of his formal lessons, he would sneak off to Harlem to hear the jazz music. During this time, he states that he heard the music of Bessie Smith at the The Harlem Alhambra, although this claim has been disputed by Smith's biographer.

In the fall of 1929, Hammond entered Yale University as a member of the class of 1933, where he studied the violin and, later, viola. He felt a disconnect with his fellow students at Yale and saw himself as a man already well acquainted with the professional world. He made frequent trips into New York and wrote regularly for trade magazines. In the fall semester of 1930, Hammond had to withdraw due to a re-occurring 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 alum, in 1931, he dropped out of school, for a career in the music industry, first becoming the U.S. correspondent for Melody Maker.