Wynton Marsalis (front) leads musicians in a funeral procession for jazz great Lionel Hampton in...

Wynton Marsalis (front) leads musicians in a funeral procession for jazz great Lionel Hampton in New York, September 7, 2002. Hampton, an American jazz icon who pioneered the vibraphone as a jazz instrument and whose musical career spanned six decades beginning in the late 1920s, died on August 31, aged 94.[ Hampton, who played with many of the leading lights of jazz from Louis Armstrong to Benny Goodman to Charlie Parker, wrote more than 200 pieces of music, including the jazz standards "Flying Home," "Evil Gal Blues" and "Midnight Sun" and was also an inspiration to countless jazz musicians.]