* En anglais uniquement
Adelaide Hall is one of those forgotten singers, prominent between the two World Wars but overlooked in the years that followed. That she was one of the top black singers of her era makes her lack of recognition especially frustrating. During late 1927, Hall found herself booked on the RKO-Keith's theater circuit for a series of shows on the same bill with Duke Ellington. It was during this engagement that "Creole Love Call" became a celebrated collaboration between the two musical legends. They recorded it together, along with a handful of other tracks, in late October of 1927 for the Victor Record Company, and "Creole Love Call" went on to became a major Ellington hit -- his first -- and Hall's signature tune for decades. A year later, Hall introduced the song "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" to the world. She seemed unstoppable as the songs and the hits kept coming her way. A two-week engagement at the London Palladium in 1931 led to the beginning of a contractual relationship with the English Decca label, which resulted in recordings of eight new songs at the time and numerous records in the next dozen years. Hall was a very influential stylist as a performer from 1920s into the mid-'40s. Her early work, in particular, crossed over easily between jazz and pop without offending either camp's sensibilities, and she introduced more than her share of hits and pop and jazz standards. ~ Bruce Eder