Hal Singer
Encyclopedia
Harold Joseph "Hal" Singer (born 8 October 1919) is an American
R&B
and jazz
bandleader
and saxophonist.
, Oklahoma
, Singer studied violin
as a child but, as a teenager, switched to clarinet
and then tenor saxophone
, which became his instrument of choice. From the late 1930s he began playing in local bands, including Ernie Fields
', before joining Jay McShann
's orchestra in 1943 and then moving to New York
. After working in other bands, he joined Oran "Hot Lips" Page's band in 1947 and began working as a session musician
with King Records
.
In early 1948 he left Page, formed his own small group, and was signed to Mercury Records
where he cut his first single "Fine As Wine" with a B side "Rock Around the Clock" (not the same title made famous by Bill Haley
). For the Savoy label
of Newark, New Jersey
he recorded the instrumental "Corn Bread," which made #1 on the R & B
charts in September 1948, and gave Singer a new popularity and nickname. His follow-up the following year, "Beef Stew," was a much smaller hit.
In the early and mid 1950s he recorded with Mercury
, toured with R&B artists such as The Orioles
and Charles Brown
, and increasingly worked as a session musician. In 1958 he began recording with Prestige Records
as a jazz soloist and performing at the Metropole Club in New York with leading jazz musicians such as Roy Eldridge
and Coleman Hawkins
.
In 1965, after touring Europe
with Earl "Fatha" Hines' band, Singer stayed in France
to settle near Paris
. He continued to record and also toured extensively around Europe and Africa
, performing with various bands including Charlie Watts
' and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. His 1969 album, Paris Soul Food, featuring Singer on saxophone and singing; Robin Hemingway, vocals, arrangements and album production; and Manu Dibango
, saxophone, organ and arrangements won a French Record Academy award for best international LP in 1969.
In 1974 he went on a State Department tour of Africa with Horace Parlan
.
Singer appears on the 1981 live recording Rocket 88
with the UK-based boogie-woogie
band Rocket 88
. Also in the summer of 1981 Singer visited London, where he recorded two albums for John Stedman's record label, JSP. The first album, "Swing on it" (JSP 1028), was recorded with a compatible group of British musicians, including Jim Mullen
, Peter King
, Mike Carr and Harold Smith, while the second, recorded a day later with the same group, also featured Jimmy Witherspoon
("Big Blues
", JSP 1032).
Singer shares artist billing on a recording made in 1989, along with Al Copley, "Royal Blue", released on the Black Top label in 1990.
He appeared as an actor
in the award-winning 1990 feature film Taxi Blues and, in 1992, was awarded the prestigious title of "Chevalier des Arts
" by the French government.
A documentary film
, Hal Singer, Keep the Music Going, was made by Haitian-American director Guetty Felin in 1999. It was made in collaboration with the CNC in France (Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie) and the French cable music network Muzzik. The documentary wove into the narrative Singer's personal super 8 movies, archival images of the jazz era, and footage of Singer's home in Paris, in concert and teaching jazz to the younger generation of musicians in France. Spoken word poet Jessica Care Moore
is featured in a duet
with Singer. This documentary is the only film on Singer's career to date.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and jazz
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...
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 saxophonist.
Biography
Born in TulsaTulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, Singer studied violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
as a child but, as a teenager, switched to clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and then tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, which became his instrument of choice. From the late 1930s he began playing in local bands, including Ernie Fields
Ernie Fields
Ernie Fields was an African American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader. He first became known for leading the Royal Entertainers, which were based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and toured along a circuit stretching from Kansas City, Kansas, to Dallas, Texas.-Early life and career:Fields was born...
', before joining Jay McShann
Jay McShann
Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
's orchestra in 1943 and then moving to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. After working in other bands, he joined Oran "Hot Lips" Page's band in 1947 and began working as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
with King Records
King Records (USA)
King Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.-History:At first it specialized in country music, at the time still known as "hillbilly music." King advertised, "If it's a King, It's a Hillbilly -- If it's a Hillbilly, it's a...
.
In early 1948 he left Page, formed his own small group, and was signed to Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
where he cut his first single "Fine As Wine" with a B side "Rock Around the Clock" (not the same title made famous by Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
). For the Savoy label
Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...
of Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
he recorded the instrumental "Corn Bread," which made #1 on the R & B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
charts in September 1948, and gave Singer a new popularity and nickname. His follow-up the following year, "Beef Stew," was a much smaller hit.
In the early and mid 1950s he recorded with Mercury
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, toured with R&B artists such as The Orioles
The Orioles
The Orioles were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....
and Charles Brown
Charles Brown (musician)
Charles Brown , born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s...
, and increasingly worked as a session musician. In 1958 he began recording with Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
as a jazz soloist and performing at the Metropole Club in New York with leading jazz musicians such as Roy Eldridge
Roy Eldridge
Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...
and Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
.
In 1965, after touring Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
with Earl "Fatha" Hines' band, Singer stayed in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to settle near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He continued to record and also toured extensively around Europe and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, performing with various bands including Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
' and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. His 1969 album, Paris Soul Food, featuring Singer on saxophone and singing; Robin Hemingway, vocals, arrangements and album production; and Manu Dibango
Manu Dibango
-External links:*...
, saxophone, organ and arrangements won a French Record Academy award for best international LP in 1969.
In 1974 he went on a State Department tour of Africa with Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan
Horace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.He is noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots....
.
Singer appears on the 1981 live recording Rocket 88
Rocket 88 (album)
Rocket 88 is an album recorded live in Germany in 1981 by the boogie-woogie band Rocket 88. The band had a casual line-up, and founder/producer/band-member Stewart in his liner notes makes reference to the other "permanent" band-members who were not present for that particular recording.Although it...
with the UK-based boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
band Rocket 88
Rocket 88 (band)
Rocket 88 is the name of a United Kingdom-based boogie-woogie band formed in the late 1970s by Ian "Stu" Stewart, Charlie Watts, Alexis Korner and Dick Morrissey....
. Also in the summer of 1981 Singer visited London, where he recorded two albums for John Stedman's record label, JSP. The first album, "Swing on it" (JSP 1028), was recorded with a compatible group of British musicians, including Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...
, Peter King
Peter King
-Politics:*Peter King , Australian politician*Peter T. King , U.S. Republican Congressman from New York*Peter King , British politician*Peter King, 1st Baron King -Politics:*Peter King (Australian politician) (born 1952), Australian politician*Peter T. King (born 1944), U.S. Republican...
, Mike Carr and Harold Smith, while the second, recorded a day later with the same group, also featured Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
("Big Blues
Big Blues
Big Blues is an album featuring Jimmy Witherspoon supported by a band of British jazz musicians. It was originally released in 1981, and was subsequently rereleased in 1997, the year Witherspoon died. - Track listing :#"You Got Me Runnin'"...
", JSP 1032).
Singer shares artist billing on a recording made in 1989, along with Al Copley, "Royal Blue", released on the Black Top label in 1990.
He appeared as an actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
in the award-winning 1990 feature film Taxi Blues and, in 1992, was awarded the prestigious title of "Chevalier des Arts
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
" by the French government.
A documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, Hal Singer, Keep the Music Going, was made by Haitian-American director Guetty Felin in 1999. It was made in collaboration with the CNC in France (Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie) and the French cable music network Muzzik. The documentary wove into the narrative Singer's personal super 8 movies, archival images of the jazz era, and footage of Singer's home in Paris, in concert and teaching jazz to the younger generation of musicians in France. Spoken word poet Jessica Care Moore
Jessica Care Moore
Jessica Care Moore is an African American poet born in Detroit, on October 28, 1971.-Career:Moore first won acclaim as the first poet to ever win the nationally televised Showtime at the Apollo competition 5 times in a row. That same year, she would be filmed for the documentary SlamNation...
is featured in a duet
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
with Singer. This documentary is the only film on Singer's career to date.
Discography
- 1948: "Fine As Wine" & "Rock Around the Clock" (Mercury)
- 1948: "Corn Bread" - as leader
- 1949: "Beef Stew" - as leader
- 1959: Blue Stompin - Hal Singer - Charlie ShaversCharlie ShaversCharles James Shavers , known as Charlie Shavers, was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday...
Quintet (Prestige) - 1960: Blues by Lonnie Johnson - Lonnie JohnsonLonnie JohnsonAlonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos...
Quintet(Bluesville) - 1963: Blues in the Night - as leader ((Fidelio)
- 1968: A funky day in Paris - Johnny Letman (Black and Blue)
- 1968: Milt and Hal -Milt BucknerMilt BucknerMilt Buckner was an American jazz pianist and organist, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was orphaned as a child, but an uncle in Detroit taught him to play...
(Black and Blue) - 1969: Paris Soul Food - as leader (Polydor)
- 1971: Blues and News - as leader (Futura)
- 1975: Soul of Africa - as leader (Chant du Monde)
- 1977: Le Grand Voyage / The Long Trip - as leader (Pastoral)
- 1981: Rocket 88Rocket 88 (album)Rocket 88 is an album recorded live in Germany in 1981 by the boogie-woogie band Rocket 88. The band had a casual line-up, and founder/producer/band-member Stewart in his liner notes makes reference to the other "permanent" band-members who were not present for that particular recording.Although it...
- Rocket 88Rocket 88 (band)Rocket 88 is the name of a United Kingdom-based boogie-woogie band formed in the late 1970s by Ian "Stu" Stewart, Charlie Watts, Alexis Korner and Dick Morrissey.... - 1981: Swing on it - as leader (JSP)
- 1990: Royal Blue- as co-lead with Al Copley - (Black Top)