Hammond, John (Henry, Jr) (1910-1987)

US music producer. As a talent scout and record producer, he helped launch the careers of Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, and Charlie Christian. An ardent civil libertarian, he covered the Scottsboro Boys trials for the New Republic and the Nation in 1933 and 1935. Hammond also promoted Goodman's trailblazing interracial band in 1935. In 1937 he joined the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He produced the Spirituals to Swing concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1938-39. Hammond worked as a producer of classical and jazz recordings for Vanguard and Columbia between 1946-60, and subsequently was involved in promoting the careers of a new wave of musical talents in the 1960s and 1970s.