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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZHALL, Adelaide(b 20 October c.1904 NYC; d 7 November 1993 London) Singer. Her father was a music teacher at the Pratt Institute; she appeared in Shuffle Along '21; went to Europe in the Chocolate Kiddies revue '25 ('with Josephine Baker at one end of the line and me at the other'); appeared in Desires Of 1927 in NYC. On the same bill with Duke Ellington in NYC she was humming backstage, picked up by an open mike; Duke asked her to record, and 'Blues I Love To Sing' and 'Creole Love Call' '28 with her wordless vocals were landmarks in Duke's output. By then she had given up dancing to concentrate on singing. She recorded 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love' from Blackbirds Of 1928, thereafter associated with her, and went back to Europe with that show; she toured the USA, starred in the Cotton Club Review etc; to Europe for the fourth time '38. Her husband Bert Hicks (d 1963) opened clubs in Paris and London; she had a radio show with Joe Loss and lived in London from then on, re-established in cabaret at posh hotels in the '80s, still gigging as late as 1988. Her films included appearance on screen singing in Korda's Thief Of Bagdad '42. She recorded in London '70: That Wonderful Adelaide Hall on Monmouth; there were also compilations There Goes That Song Again on Decca UK; Red Hot From Harlem on Pearl '32-40 included tracks with Art Tatum; The Croonin' Blackbird '27-39 on EPM, Hall Of Fame on ASV. |