Harold Joseph "Hal" Singer (born 8 October, 1919) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&B and
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
bandleaderA 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.
Born in
Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
, Singer studied
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
as a child, but as a teenager switched to
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. 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...
and then
tenor saxophoneThe 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, is the most common type of saxophone. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef,...
, which became his instrument of choice. From the late 1930s he began playing in local bands, including that of
Ernie FieldsErnie Fields was an African-American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader.From the late 1920s, he led a band in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area called the Royal Entertainers, and eventually began touring more widely, and recording. In 1939, he was invited to New York by John Hammond to record...
, before joining
Jay McShannJay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
's orchestra in 1943 and then moving to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. After working in various other bands, he joined Oran "Hot Lips" Page’s band in 1947, and also began working as a
session musicianSession musicians are instrumental performers or vocalists who are available for hire for live performances or recording sessions, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical ensemble or who have acquired fame in their own right as bandleaders...
with
King RecordsKing Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.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 King." One of the...
.
In early 1948 he left Page, formed his own small group, and was signed to
Mercury RecordsMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Music Group in the US, and are both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music...
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 HaleyBill 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"...
).
Harold Joseph "Hal" Singer (born 8 October, 1919) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&B and
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
bandleaderA 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
Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
, Singer studied
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
as a child, but as a teenager switched to
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. 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...
and then
tenor saxophoneThe 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, is the most common type of saxophone. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef,...
, which became his instrument of choice. From the late 1930s he began playing in local bands, including that of
Ernie FieldsErnie Fields was an African-American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader.From the late 1920s, he led a band in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area called the Royal Entertainers, and eventually began touring more widely, and recording. In 1939, he was invited to New York by John Hammond to record...
, before joining
Jay McShannJay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
's orchestra in 1943 and then moving to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. After working in various other bands, he joined Oran "Hot Lips" Page’s band in 1947, and also began working as a
session musicianSession musicians are instrumental performers or vocalists who are available for hire for live performances or recording sessions, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical ensemble or who have acquired fame in their own right as bandleaders...
with
King RecordsKing Records is an American record label, started in 1943 by Syd Nathan and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.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 King." One of the...
.
In early 1948 he left Page, formed his own small group, and was signed to
Mercury RecordsMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Music Group in the US, and are both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music...
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 HaleyBill 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"...
). For the
Savoy labelSavoy Records is the name of a US jazz record label. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.A separate label with the same name was once based in Manchester, UK...
of
Newark, New JerseyBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
he recorded the instrumental "Corn Bread", which made # 1 on the
R & BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
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
MercuryMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Music Group in the US, and are both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music...
, toured with R&B artists such as
The OriolesThe Orioles were a successful and highly 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 BrownCharles 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 also began recording with
Prestige RecordsPrestige Records was founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The label's name was initially New Jazz, but changed to Prestige Records the next year. Its catalog contains a significant number of jazz classics, including renowned works by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and many...
as a jazz soloist, and performing at the Metropole Club in New York with leading jazz musicians such as
Roy EldridgeRoy 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 HawkinsColeman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was the first important jazz musician to use the 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
EuropeEurope 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 water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
with Earl "Fatha" Hines' band, Singer stayed in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
to settle near
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is 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
AfricaAfrica 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. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, performing with various bands including
Charlie WattsCharles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is a jazz bandleader, record producer, commercial artist and horse breeder...
’ and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. His 1969 album,
Paris Soul Food, featuring himself on saxophone and singing; Robin Hemingway, vocals, arrangements and album production; and
Manu DibangoManu Dibango is a Cameroonian saxophonist and vibraphone player. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk and traditional Cameroonian music. He is a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, though his mother was a Duala...
, saxophone, organ & arrangements won a French Record Academy award for best international lp in 1969.
In 1974 he did a State Department tour of Africa with
Horace ParlanHorace Parlan is an American hard bop and post-bop piano player.Noted for his contributions to the classic Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots, Parlan often bridges the divide between the chordal sophistication of the bop idiom and the African-American "roots."- Biography :As...
.
Singer also appears on the 1981 live recording
Rocket 88Rocket 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-woogieBoogie-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...
band
Rocket 88Rocket 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....
. He appeared as an
actorAn actor or actress 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 ArtsThe 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.
Discography
- 1948: "Fine As Wine" & "Rock Around the Clock"
- 1948: "Corn Bread" - as leader
- 1949: "Beef Stew" - as leader
- 1959: Blue Stompin - Hal Singer - Charlie Shavers
Charlie James Shavers was a 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
- 1960: Blues by Lonnie Johnson - Lonnie Johnson
Alonzo "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.-Early career:...
Quintet
- 1969: Paris Soul Food - as leader
- 1981: Rocket 88
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 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....
External links