Hampton Hawes (November 13, 1928 – May 22, 1977) was an African American jazz pianist.
The highly regarded bebop and hard-bop pianist Hampton Hawes was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father, Hampton Hawes, Sr., was minister of Westminster Presbysterian Church, and the first African-American to be voted into the National Presbyterian Senate. His mother, Gertrude, was the church pianist.
Hawes' first experience with the piano was as a toddler sitting on his mother's lap while she practiced; he was reportedly able to pick out fairly complex tunes by the age of two. Entirely self-taught, by his teens Hawes was playing with some of the leading jazz musicians on the West Coast, including Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, and Sonny Criss. His second professional job, at 19, was playing for eight months with the Howard McGhee Quintet at the Hi De Ho club, in a group that included Charlie Parker.