Harry
Hall
(September17, 1942 –
November 2, 2014)
I
did not know Harry, but when Dimitri-K informed me of his close friends
passing, I felt his sorrow and great lost. We have lost so many of our jazz
artists in the last few years. Even though not personally introduces, I may
have seen him on stage playing with the greats. With a history of playing with The OJays, the Dorsey Orchestras, Refuge led by
trombonist Bill Wartous and backed up Cab Calloway, Liberace, Eddie Fisher,
Rosemary Clooney, Lionel Hampton, Celia Cruz and Chaka Khan. If I did not see
him due to the distance and the crowd, I sure heard him.
Harry began his rich musical career in Los Angeles and in time
became much more than a sax player. You always knew who the professionals were
and Harry fit right in. If you were a true professional musician and played
Saxophone, you played all (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone) of them when
required, no matter what your specialty was in. You played clarinet, flute and
electrical portions of those instruments. You were a woodwind ensemble wrapped
up in one person. Professionals like Harry invented multi-tasking before the
word was even though of.
One of the beauties of life is that you get to leave portions of
yourself to live on in your memory. Harry was no exception and was blessed with
his marriage to Virlea Rodrigues that gave him three sons: Oliver, Anthony, and Abel.
Professionals
like Harry leave their mark upon the Earth long after they are gone. Not only
in the music they played, but the technique they used, the mentoring they
formed with others, and the character and philosophy they projected where
others saw and admired.
Someone
once said, that if you were a friend to only one person on the Earth, then you
were a friend to the Earth from which we all were born. Harry Hall was
Dimitri's good friend, therefore with much pride and honor, never have met him,
he was my friend too.
The following are Dimitri K's Harry Hall Collection Smooth Jazz
tunes:
Bill Sommerville