Dana Hall (musician)
Encyclopedia
Dana Hall is an American jazz
drummer
, percussionist, composer
, bandleader
, and ethnomusicologist. After spending the first few years of his life in Brooklyn, New York (his birth place), he relocated with his family to his mother’s hometown of Philadelphia. There, Hall was exposed to jazz and soul music
at an early age through the recordings of his mother Diane, his uncle Earl Harris, and his large extended family. His family’s interest in creative music, and their “open door” policy toward the finest resident Philadelphia jazz musicians of the modern era also served to create the perfect environment to spark Hall’s curiosity, passion, and ultimately his career, in music.
and began studying drums under renowned drum instructor and educator Vincent “Jim” Hurley at Voorhees Middle School
, followed by study with award-winning educator and bassoon
ist Dennis MacMullin at Eastern Regional High School
in Voorhees Township. Hall also began playing the oboe
in high school, an instrument he continued to play throughout college. Another notable Eastern High alumna is Kelly Ripa
.
Hall attended Iowa State University
and double majored in aerospace engineering
and percussion. At ISU, Hall cultivated his interest in music, studying marimba
and vibes, timpani
, hand percussion
, and drumset under Professors John Harris and Michael Geary.
and his Masters degree in Composition and Arranging from DePaul University
in Chicago
, Illinois
. He is presently a distinguished Special Trustees Fellow pursuing his Doctorate in Ethnomusicology
at the University of Chicago
.
As a jazz drummer, Hall is primarily influenced by the work of Art Blakey
, Elvin Jones
, ‘Philly’ Joe Jones, Max Roach
, and Roy Haynes
, with whom he shares a birth date. He is also directly influenced by the work of Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Ralph Peterson, Jr.
, and Kenny Washington, among many others.
As an ethnomusicologist, Hall is principally interested in issues of ethnicity, identity
, and temporality
; popular musics of the world; music as protest and resistance; and musics of both the African continent and the African Diaspora
. His dissertation is a historical ethnography
of Philly Soul during the Black Power Movement
.
, Ray Charles
, Roy Hargrove
, Joshua Redman
, Horace Silver
, Michael Brecker
, Nicolas Payton, Kurt Elling
, Benny Green
, Frank Wess
, Ken Peplowski
, Wycliffe Gordon
, Russell Malone
, Frank Foster
, George Coleman
, Lin Holliday, Betty Carter
, Jimmy Heath
, Benny Golson
, Bobby Hutcherson
, Wallace Roney
, Diana Krall
, Harold Mabern
, Renee Rosnes
, Clark Terry
, the Mingus Big Band
, Steve Lacy
, Muhal Richard Abrams
, Jim Snidero
, Eric Alexander, James Spaulding, Buster Williams
, Gary Bartz
, Dick Oatts
, Melvin Rhyne
, Ira Sullivan
, David Murray
, Bobby Broom
, Lester Bowie
, Slide Hampton
, Charles Davis, James Moody
, David Hazeltine
, Henry Butler
, Shirley Scott
, Sonny Fortune
, Joe Williams
, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Billy Harper
, Brian Lynch
, Rick Margitza
, Tim Hagans
, John Swana, Ralph Bowen, Orrin Evans
, Bud Shank
, Phil Woods
, Von Freeman
, Ron Bridgewater, Kenny Barron
, Maria Schneider
, Jackie McLean
, Mulgrew Miller
, Marcus Belgrave
, Hamiet Blueitt, the Woody Herman Orchestra
, Patricia Barber
, Joe Henderson
, Curtis Fuller
, Charles McPherson, Oliver Lake
, and Steve Wilson, among others.
Additionally, Hall is both a member of the Terell Stafford Quintet
and the Music Director
of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. He is also a former regular member of the prestigious Grammy-nominated Carnegie Hall Jazz Band
under the Musical and Artistic Direction of trumpeter, and Dizzy Gillespie
protégé, Jon Faddis
, and has served as an extra in the percussion sections of the Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids Symphonies.
In 2004, Hall joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Music. He has served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago
and at Columbia College Chicago
, and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Band Director’s Academy and Essentially Ellington faculties. Hall also taught in the Ravinia Festival’s Jazz in the Schools Mentoring Program, the Merit School of Music
in Chicago, and is currently an educator and mentor in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz’s
Jazz in America Program and the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s
Artists Residency Program.
w/ Terell Stafford
:
w/ The Malachi Thompson Freebop Band
:
w/ Ralph Bowen:
w/ The Chicago Jazz Ensemble:
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, percussionist, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, and ethnomusicologist. After spending the first few years of his life in Brooklyn, New York (his birth place), he relocated with his family to his mother’s hometown of Philadelphia. There, Hall was exposed to jazz and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
at an early age through the recordings of his mother Diane, his uncle Earl Harris, and his large extended family. His family’s interest in creative music, and their “open door” policy toward the finest resident Philadelphia jazz musicians of the modern era also served to create the perfect environment to spark Hall’s curiosity, passion, and ultimately his career, in music.
Early life
At the age of 12, Hall moved from Philadelphia to Voorhees Township, New JerseyVoorhees Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 28,126 people, 10,489 households, and 7,069 families residing in the township. The population density was 2,424.0 people per square mile . There were 11,084 housing units at an average density of 955.2 per square mile...
and began studying drums under renowned drum instructor and educator Vincent “Jim” Hurley at Voorhees Middle School
Voorhees Middle School
Voorhees Middle School is the only middle school in the township of Voorhees, New Jersey. It has over 1,500 students and a large number of teachers, resources, and activities....
, followed by study with award-winning educator and bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
ist Dennis MacMullin at Eastern Regional High School
Eastern High School (New Jersey)
Eastern High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school for students in grades 9 - 12 from three communities in Camden County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Eastern Camden County Regional High School District...
in Voorhees Township. Hall also began playing the oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
in high school, an instrument he continued to play throughout college. Another notable Eastern High alumna is Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa is an American actress and television host. Since February 2001, she has served as the co-host of talk show Live with Regis and Kelly, along with Regis Philbin and now solo host of Live! With Kelly...
.
Hall attended Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
and double majored in aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
and percussion. At ISU, Hall cultivated his interest in music, studying marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
and vibes, timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
, hand percussion
Hand percussion
Hand percussion is a term used to indicate a percussion instrument of any type from any culture that is held in the hand. They can be made from wood, metal or plastic and are usually either shaken, scraped or tapped with fingers or a stick...
, and drumset under Professors John Harris and Michael Geary.
Education and influences
After completing his education in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University, Hall received his Bachelor of Music degree from William Paterson College in Wayne, New JerseyWayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, located less than from midtown Manhattan. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 54,069....
and his Masters degree in Composition and Arranging from DePaul University
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private institution of higher education and research in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He is presently a distinguished Special Trustees Fellow pursuing his Doctorate in Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
As a jazz drummer, Hall is primarily influenced by the work of Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....
, Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, ‘Philly’ Joe Jones, Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, and Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
, with whom he shares a birth date. He is also directly influenced by the work of Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Ralph Peterson, Jr.
Ralph Peterson, Jr.
Ralph Peterson, Jr. is an American jazz drummer and bandleader.Four of Peterson's uncles and his grandfather were all drummers, and Peterson himself began on percussion at age three. He was raised in Atlantic City, where he played trumpet in high school and worked locally in funk groups...
, and Kenny Washington, among many others.
As an ethnomusicologist, Hall is principally interested in issues of ethnicity, identity
Identity (philosophy)
In philosophy, identity, from , is the relation each thing bears just to itself. According to Leibniz's law two things sharing every attribute are not only similar, but are the same thing. The concept of sameness has given rise to the general concept of identity, as in personal identity and...
, and temporality
Temporality
Temporality is a term often used in philosophy in talking about the way time is. The traditional mode of temporality is a linear procession of past, present, and future....
; popular musics of the world; music as protest and resistance; and musics of both the African continent and the African Diaspora
African diaspora
The African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world—predominantly to the Americas also to Europe, the Middle East and other places around the globe...
. His dissertation is a historical ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
of Philly Soul during the Black Power Movement
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
.
Career
The list of exceptional artists that Hall has performed, toured, and/or recorded with directly reflects the diverse and varied approaches of his music-making in the fields of jazz and popular music and include Branford MarsalisBranford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
, Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...
, Horace Silver
Horace Silver
Horace Silver , born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer....
, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
, Nicolas Payton, Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church...
, Benny Green
Benny Green (pianist)
Benny Green is a hard bop jazz pianist who was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He has been compared to Bud Powell in style and counts him as an influence. As a boy he grew up in Berkeley, California and studied classical piano from the age of seven...
, Frank Wess
Frank Wess
Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...
, Ken Peplowski
Ken Peplowski
Ken Peplowski is a jazz clarinetist born in Cleveland, Ohio, known primarily for playing in the swing music idiom. He is sometimes compared to Benny Goodman in terms of tone and virtuosity...
, Wycliffe Gordon
Wycliffe Gordon
Wycliffe Gordon is a jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, trumpet, tuba, piano and sings.In 1995, he re-orchestrated the theme song for NPR's All Things Considered...
, Russell Malone
Russell Malone
Russell Malone is an essentially self-taught swing and bebop jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988, and went on to work with Harry Connick, Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s...
, Frank Foster
Frank Foster (musician)
Frank Foster was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.-Biography:...
, George Coleman
George Coleman
George Edward Coleman is an American hard bop saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, known chiefly for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Lin Holliday, Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
, Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
, Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney is an American hard bop and post-bop trumpeter.Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis from 1985 until the latter's death in 1991...
, Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
, Harold Mabern
Harold Mabern
Harold Mabern is a hard bop and soul jazz pianist.Early in his career, Mabern played in Chicago with Walter Perkins' MJT + 3 in the late 1950s before moving to New York in 1959. Mabern has worked with Jimmy Forrest, Lionel Hampton, the Jazztet , Donald Byrd, Miles Davis , J. J...
, Renee Rosnes
Renee Rosnes
Irene Louise Rosnes , professionally known as Renee Rosnes , is a pianist, composer and arranger in the hard bop and post-bop mediums.-Biography:...
, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
, the Mingus Big Band
Mingus Big Band
The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus and represented by Tree Lawn Artists, Inc.. In addition to its weekly Monday night appearance at the Jazz Standard in New York City,...
, Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
, Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...
, Jim Snidero
Jim Snidero
Jim Snidero is an American jazz saxophonist.Snidero studied at the University of North Texas before moving to New York City in 1981. After touring with Jack McDuff, he joined Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra in the early 1980s in New York, working in the group for twenty years...
, Eric Alexander, James Spaulding, Buster Williams
Buster Williams
Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...
, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
, Dick Oatts
Dick Oatts
Richard "Dick" Oatts is a jazz saxophonist from Jefferson, Iowa. He became interested in saxophone due to his father Jack Oatts. To this day he still plays on the same Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone his father gave to him. He began his professional career in Minneapolis in 1972 and in 1977 he joined...
, Melvin Rhyne
Melvin Rhyne
Melvin Rhyne , is a jazz organist best known for his work with Wes Montgomery.-Early Years:Melvin Rhyne was born in Indianapolis in 1936 and started playing the piano shortly thereafter...
, Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan is a bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, flautist, saxophonist and composer born in Washington, D.C.. An active musician since the 1950s, he may be best known for his extensive work with Red Rodney and Lin Halliday among others....
, David Murray
David Murray (jazz musician)
David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
, Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom
Bobby Broom , birthname Robert Broom, Jr., is an American jazz guitarist, composer and educator born and raised in New York City. Broom performs and records with jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins as well as his Bobby Broom Trio and the Deep Blue Organ Trio...
, Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...
, Slide Hampton
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton is an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.He was a 1998 Grammy Award winner for "Best Jazz Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist", as arranger for "Cotton Tail" performed by Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Charles Davis, James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
, David Hazeltine
David Hazeltine
David Hazeltine is an American jazz pianist.Today a major pianist in the New York and Japan scenes, David Hazeltine has been playing gigs since he was thirteen. He did not seriously consider going into music until right before college. Once he entered into the jazz world he was encouraged by Chet...
, Henry Butler
Henry Butler
Henry Butler is an American jazz pianist.He is known for his technique and his ability to play in many styles of music. Referred to by Dr...
, Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott
Shirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
, Sonny Fortune
Sonny Fortune
Sonny Fortune is an American jazz alto saxophonist and flautist. He also plays soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone and clarinet.-Biography:...
, Joe Williams
Joe Williams (jazz singer)
Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Billy Harper
Billy Harper
Billy Harper is a Jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.-Biography:...
, Brian Lynch
Brian Lynch (musician)
Brian Lynch is a Grammy Award-winning New York based Jazz trumpeter, currently touring and recording as a member of the Phil Woods Quintet and Eddie Palmieri's Afro-Caribbean Jazz group, as well as leading his own groups and appearing with various other bands including the "Latin Side Of Miles"...
, Rick Margitza
Rick Margitza
Rick Margitza is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Margitza began playing violin at age four; his grandfather was a cellist and his father played violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Following this he played piano and oboe, and settled on tenor sax while in Fordson high school...
, Tim Hagans
Tim Hagans
Tim Hagans is a jazz trumpeter and composer.He has been nominated for Grammys for Best Instrumental Composition for "Box of Cannoli" from The Avatar Session ; and Best Contemporary Jazz CD for Animation*Imagination and Re-Animation .He grew up in Dayton, Ohio...
, John Swana, Ralph Bowen, Orrin Evans
Orrin Evans
Orrin Evans is an American jazz pianist.Evans was born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia. He attended Rutgers University, and following this studied with Kenny Barron. He worked as a sideman for Bobby Watson, Ralph Peterson, Duane Eubanks, and Lenora Zenzalai-Helm, and released his...
, Bud Shank
Bud Shank
Clifford Everett "Bud" Shank, Jr. was an American alto saxophonist and flautist. He rose to prominence in the early 1950s playing lead alto and flute in Stan Kenton's Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra and throughout the decade worked in various small jazz combos. He spent the 1960s as a first...
, Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Von Freeman
Von Freeman
Earle Lavon Freeman Sr. is an American hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist. He is the father of jazz saxophonist Chico Freeman.-Biography:...
, Ron Bridgewater, Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...
, Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (musician)
Maria Schneider is an American arranger, composer, and big-band leader who has won multiple awards. In 2005, her album Concert in the Garden won a Grammy for "Best Large Ensemble Album"...
, Jackie McLean
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator, born in New York City.-Biography:McLean's father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra...
, Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller is an American jazz pianist who performs in a number of jazz idioms. He began his career as member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.-Biography:...
, Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave
Marcus Belgrave is a jazz trumpet player from Detroit, born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He has recorded with a variety of famous musicians, bandleaders, and record labels since the 1950s. Notable among them are: Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, Gunther Schuller, Motown Records, Tribe Records, Blue Note...
, Hamiet Blueitt, the Woody Herman Orchestra
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
, Patricia Barber
Patricia Barber
-Discography:* Split Premonition Records * Distortion of Love Antilles * Cafe Blue Blue Note, Premonition Records * Modern Cool Blue Note, Premonition Records...
, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Curtis Fuller
Curtis Fuller
Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...
, Charles McPherson, Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and poet. He is known mainly on alto saxophone but also performs on soprano saxophone and flute....
, and Steve Wilson, among others.
Additionally, Hall is both a member of the Terell Stafford Quintet
Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford is a professional jazz trumpet player and current Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University.Terell Stafford born in Miami, Florida and raised in both Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. He went on to get a degree in music education from University of Maryland in 1988...
and the Music Director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. He is also a former regular member of the prestigious Grammy-nominated Carnegie Hall Jazz Band
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
under the Musical and Artistic Direction of trumpeter, and Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
protégé, Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator renowned for both his highly virtuosic command of the instrument and for his expertise in the field of music education...
, and has served as an extra in the percussion sections of the Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids Symphonies.
In 2004, Hall joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Music. He has served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and at Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
, and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
Band Director’s Academy and Essentially Ellington faculties. Hall also taught in the Ravinia Festival’s Jazz in the Schools Mentoring Program, the Merit School of Music
Merit School of Music
Merit School of Music is a nonprofit organization located in Chicago, Illinois. The mission of Merit School of Music is to "provide high-quality music education to students in metropolitan Chicago...
in Chicago, and is currently an educator and mentor in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz’s
Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education-oriented organization co-founded in 1986 by the family of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and Thomas R...
Jazz in America Program and the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s
Jazz Institute of Chicago
The Jazz Institute of Chicago was founded in 1969 by a small band of jazz fans, writers, club owners and musicians who came together to preserve the historical roots of the Chicago's music and to ensure that opportunities for the music to be heard would not be lost in a time when rock was subsuming...
Artists Residency Program.
Equipment
- Drums: YamahaYamaha DrumsYamaha Drums is a subsidiary of the Yamaha Corporation founded in 1967. The company manufactures acoustic and electronic drum kits as well as percussion instruments, marching band equipment, and drum hardware.-Production:...
Maple Custom Absolute
- Cymbals: BosphorusBosphorus CymbalsBosphorus is a cymbal manufacturer based in İstanbul, Turkey and Kennesaw, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta in the United States. The foundry is located near the Bosphorus Strait, from which the company draws its name. It is owned by three master cymbalsmiths, Ibrahim Yakici, Hasan Seker, and Hasan...
Masters Series
- Drumsticks: Pro-Mark Drumsticks and Accessories
Selected discography
as a leader:- Into the Light, 2009 Origin Records
w/ Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford
Terell Stafford is a professional jazz trumpet player and current Director of Jazz Studies at Temple University.Terell Stafford born in Miami, Florida and raised in both Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. He went on to get a degree in music education from University of Maryland in 1988...
:
- Taking Chances: Live at The Dakota, 2007 MaxJazz Records
- New Beginnings, 2004 MaxJazz Records
w/ The Malachi Thompson Freebop Band
Malachi Thompson
Malachi Richard Thompson , was an American avant-garde jazz trumpet player.- Biography :...
:
- 47th Street, 1999 Delmark Records
- Freebop Now!, 1998 Delmark Records
- Rising Daystar, 1998 Delmark Records
w/ Ralph Bowen:
- Five, 2008 Criss Cross Records
w/ The Chicago Jazz Ensemble:
- The Chicago Jazz Ensemble, 1997 Chase Music
Sources
- Anne Mischakoff Heiles (Winter, 2006). From Rockets to Rackets. Sonorities: The News Magazine of the University of Illinois School of Music. Page 28-32.
- Kevin Whitehead (12-19-2002). Golson finds the perfect groove. Chicago Sun-Times.
- Kevin Whitehead (2-14-2004). Chicago Jazz Ensemble swings hard under Lovano's skillful direction. Chicago Sun-Times.
- Ed Hazell (1-10-2002). Review of Bobby Broom's Stand! The Portland Phoenix.
- Howard Reich (5-21-2004). Herbie's Blues. The Chicago Tribune Magazine.
- Matthew Lurie (1-26-2006). Hall or Nothing. Time Out Chicago.