Over the years, Duke Ellington hired more
than 30 vocalists to sing with his bands. Al Hibbler, a rich-toned
baritone whose over-stated style was full of idiosyncrasies, was
undoubtedly the best of the men. Blind from birth, he formed a
special relationship with Ellington during his eight years with the
band. "He has ears that see," said Ellington.
"He'd guide me out to the mike from the wings by talking. I'd walk
straight to his voice. I'm the straightest walker you'd ever see, and
I never used a cane," said Hibbler. "When it was time for me to come
off, Duke would talk from the wings, and I'd follow his voice again.
When we walked in the street, he'd put his shoulder to mine every so
often, and I'd follow again. That way a lot of people never knew that
I was blind." Ellington was not always able to protect his
protégé, however. On one occasion whilst the band was
playing onstage at the San Francisco Opera House, Hibbler stepped
outside the stage door for some air. The band heard his screams and
when the musicians rushed out found that someone had sneaked up to
him, squashed out a cigarette in his face, and run off.
It's not quite clear whether it was pianist Mary Lou Williams or
trumpeter Ray Nance who first brought Hibbler to Ellington's
attention. At the time, in 1943, Ellington already had four girl
vocalists and certainly didn't need another. "A smart business mind
would never have considered it," said Ellington. "But the first time
I heard him I told him 'You're working for me.' He learned song after
song, and soon he was our major asset."
"I liked Hibbler with Duke," said Quincy Jones. "He had the same
sound as Harry Carney's baritone sax in the band - that coarseness,
the deep-rooted earthiness and warmth."
"I learned a lot from Hibbler," said Ellington. "I learned about
senses neither he nor I ever thought we had. He had so many sounds
that even without words he could tell of fantasy beyond fantasy.
Frank Sinatra calls Hibbler and Ray Charles his two ace pilots."
When Sinatra established his Reprise record company in 1961 Hibbler
was one of the first solo artists he recorded.
Hibbler had perfect pitch and demonstrated it to me once as we walked
along Liverpool's Lime Street when he called out the notes in the
cries of circling seagulls. He was proud of his unsighted abilities,
and when someone asked him if he would ever want to see, answered
"No, I want to see the world as I see it in my mind and not see it
like it actually is."
In 1972, Hibbler made an album with another fiercely independent
blind musician, the multi-instrumentalist Rahasaan Roland Kirk. Kirk
used to insist on choosing his own postcards and then dictating the
message to his wife. I have a card from Tokyo congratulating me on
being a big girl now that I am three and another from Paris showing
the Duke of Wellington examining the corpse of Napoleon. Playing
three reed instruments simultaneously to accompany Hibbler, Kirk
sounded like the entire Ellington band.
Hibbler studied voice at the Conservatory for the Blind in Little
Rock. After working with local bands he was granted an audition with
the Ellington band in 1935 but turned up drunk and didn't get the
job. He returned to working with local bands until he joined the one
led by Jay McShann in 1942.
"It was a gas to have Hibbler on the stand," remembers McShann. "He
was outgoing and he loved people."
In May 1943, eight years after the disastrous audition, he finally
joined Ellington. Never a jazz singer, he recorded a string of hits
with Ellington that included Don't You Know I Care?, I'm Just A
Lucky So And So, and I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues. In
1947 he sang the opening part of Ellington's "Liberian Suite", I
Like The Sunrise which turned out to be one of his best
recordings. That same year he recorded two instrumentals that
Ellington had written in 1940 now with added lyrics and retitled
Don't Get Around Much Any More and Do Nothin' till You Hear
from Me.
"Duke's tenor player taught me a lot about singing," Hibbler said. "I
would sit beside him and he'd take that horn and blow low notes right
in my ear. 'Get down there, way down,' he'd say."
Whilst with Ellington Hibbler won the Esquire New Star Award and the
Downbeat Award for Best Band Vocalist.
In 1950 when Mercer Ellington, Duke's much less talented son, formed
his own band. Duke gave him Hibbler to be his singer and that year
Hibbler had a hit when he recorded White Christmas with
Mercer. Frightened that Mercer was doing too well, Duke snatched the
singer back. But the long association ended unhappily in September
1951 with a squabble over whether Hibbler, who had taken a job as a
solo at the Hurricane Club in Boston where Duke had first heard him,
was allowed to freelance. Ellington was furious. "How dare you sing
without me? Who d'you think you are? Billy Eckstine? Frank Sinatra?"
Hibbler's reply was imaginatively obscene.
He took off on a successful solo career which included recordings
with Count Basie, Johnny Hodges, Gerald Wilson and his records under
his own name figured highly in the charts. The million-seller
Unchained Melody (1955) went to fifth in the Hit Parade and
four other songs of him won places in the US Top 30. In all he made
18 albums under his own name between 1952 and 1982.
Steve Voce
Albert Hibbler, singer: born Little Rock, Arkansas 16 August 1915;
married; died Chicago, 24 April 2001. This obituary was first
published in the Independent.
The following remarks are taken from Al Hibbler's biographical
notes, about 20 pages.
Al was not blind from birth. The wrong eye medication was used when
he was an infant.
It was Ray Nance who first brought Hibbler to Ellington's attention.
Al joined Ellington on 15Apr43.
In 1943, Al married Laura Lovely. She left him in 1947. About the
time that Unchained Melody hit the charts (1955), he wasmarried
to Jeanette? at which time they purchased a home in Teaneck, NY.
I met Al in 1971. Jeanette had left him. Al still lived in Teaneck
with a teacher named Cetire. One Christmas, while Al was visiting his
mother in Chicago, his house burned down. Cetire and the dog died in
the fire. The house was re-built, sold and Al moved in with his
sister in Chicago.
Jane Vollmer
According to interviews Phil Schaap had with Al Hibbler on WKCR,
Duke saw Al sing when Al was in the school he attended in Little
Rock. This was in the late 1930's, even before Herb Jeffries was
hired.
Richard Ehrenzeller