Adelaide Hall

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Adelaide Hall was an American jazz singer and entertainer who later lived in England. She was born in 1901 in Brooklyn, New York, and began her career in 1921 in the chorus of the Broadway musical Shuffle Along. It was an enormous success and gave her career a push. She then sang in other Black revues, such as Runnin' Wild in 1923. In 1925 she travelled through Europe with the revue Chocolate Kiddies, with songs by Duke Ellington. In Berlin she also sang at the Eldorado Café.

Music and breakthrough

Her best-known recording she made in 1927 with the orchestra of Duke Ellington: Creole Love Call. She sang no words in it, but used her voice as an instrument alongside the horns. The record became a worldwide hit and brought both Hall and Ellington to a large audience. She also recorded with Fats Waller and performed with artists such as Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway. After 1938 she lived in England, where she continued to perform well into the twentieth century.

Influence

Her career lasted more than seventy years, from 1921 until her death in 1993. In 2003 she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the artist who had released records in eight consecutive decades. She was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and shows how early jazz could turn the voice into an instrument.

Listening

In School of Rock

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