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lundi 31 octobre 2016

MASTERS OF BLUES GUITAR Vol. 2: RENE HALL




BLUES GUITAR MASTERS Vol. 2: RENE HALL

            Comme beaucoup de guitaristes de studio, Rene Hall n'a que assez peu enregistré sous son nom mais sa guitare swinguante, précise, fluide et inventive ainsi que ses arrangements ont largement contribué à la réussite de très nombreuses séances de blues, R&B, jazz ou Rock.
            Né à la Nouvelle Orléans le 26 septembre 1912, Rene Hall a appris dès l'enfance à lire et écrire la musique tout en pratiquant le banjo, le trombone et la guitare. Il fait ses premières armes de musicien sur les bateaux à roues à aube qui sillonnent le bas Mississippi. Il fait partie des orchestres de Papa Celestin et Joseph Robicheaux, enregistrant avec ce dernier 22 morceaux en août 1933! Hall, désormais musicien réputé, est le guitariste et tromboniste de l'orchestre de Ernie Fields puis remplace Floyd Smith à la guitare auprès du big band de James Jeter & Hayes Pillars, avant d'être embauché à New York par Earl Hines et d'enregistrer avec lui en 1946-47.
            A New York, Rene Hall participe à l'orchestre maison de l'Apollo Theater, accompagne Roy Milton, Louis Jordan, Billy Ward sur scène et en studio. Il crée enfin son propre sextette qui comprend des jazzmen aussi renommés que Reginald Jones, Buddy Tate et Bobby Donaldson avec lequel il enregistre ses premiers titres en vedette en 1950. Mais le formidable succès des trios à la Nat King Cole pousse Hall à former son propre Rene Hall Trio avec le guitariste et chanteur Courtland Carter et le contrebassiste Ted Sinclair, enregistrant dans cette formule pour Decca, RCA et Regent avec parfois l'adjonction d'un pianiste et d'un batteur.
            Mais les choses ne sont pas toujours faciles à New York pour un musicien de jazz. Et Rene Hall est le plus souvent à Las Vegas en tant que guitariste des Dominoes. Lassé de ce travail répétitif, en 1955, Rene Hall gagne Los Angeles où on a besoin d'arrangeurs et de musiciens "professionnels". Après sa rencontre avec Art Rupe, Rene Hall signe de solides contrats avec plusieurs labels comme Combo, Specialty, Del Fi et se consacre désormais essentiellement au travail de studio. S'entourant de certains des meilleurs musiciens de la Côte Ouest (Earl Palmer, Roy Montrell, Plas Johnson), Hall joue et arrange d'innombrables séances californiennes, en R&B et de plus en plus en Rock'n'Roll où ses solos de guitare derrière Don & Dewey, Little Richard, Bumps Blackwell, Larry Williams ou Ritchie Valens (son solo de guitare de La Bamba est certainement son plus célèbre) deviendront des modèles pour des centaines de guitaristes qui les reprendront souvent note pour note! Parallèlement, Rene enregistre aussi quelques titres sous son nom dont nous avons ici regroupé une grande partie. Durant les années 1960, Rene Hall accompagne et dirige l'orchestre de Sam Cooke qu'il avait contribué à découvrir et enregistrer pour Specialty.
           
Rene Hall a en fait continué à produire, arranger des séances, notamment pour Marvin Gaye, jusqu'à sa mort le 11 février 1988 à Los Angeles.
                        Merci à Robert H. et Red Rooster pour leur aide et à Tony Watson pour son expertise, ses corrections et ses amendements.
                                                    Gérard HERZHAFT

             






Like so many session musicians, Rene Hall has recorded only a limited tracks under his own name. But his swinging, fluid and inventive guitar playing as well as his arrangements have largely contributed to the success of numberless recordings whether in R&B, jazz, blues, pop or Rock'n'roll.
            Born in New Orleans on 6 September 1912, Rene Hall learned as a child to read and write music and play trombone, banjo and guitar. Still a teenager, he is playing on the Riverboats and is hired by several New Orleans bands like Papa Celestin's and Joel Robicheaux with whom he recorded 22 tracks in August 1933. Now enjoying a strong reputation as a musician, Rene is then hired by the Ernie Fields Orchestra, replaces guitar jazz pioneer Floyd Smith on the James Jeter & Hayes Pillars Territory band before going to New York to join (and record) with Earl Hines in 1946-47.
            In New York, Rene Hall is constantly on demand, playing in the Apollo Theater house band, backing on stage and in studio Roy Milton, Louis Jordan, Billy Ward among many others. He also forms his own Sextet with such luminaries as Buddy Tate, Reginald Jones, Bobby Donaldson and records at last six jazz sides under his own name in 1950. To catch on the great success of trios a la Nat King Cole, Rene Hall launches his own Rene Hall Trio with singer/ guitarist Courtland Carter and Ted Sinclair on the string-bass. The Trio records several numbers for Decca, RCA, Regent with sometimes an extra pianist and drummer to get a fuller sound but the sales are not very strong.
            Things being not always easy in New York, Hall earns his bread and butter playing lead guitar with The Dominoes in Las Vegas, a well paid job but that he is not satisfied with. In 1955, aware of many opportunities for an arranger/ musician of his calibre and experience, Rene Hall settles in Los Angeles where, quite quickly and after a meeting with producer Art Rupe, he becomes A&R man and session musician for several successful labels like Specialty, Combo or Del-Fi. Being mainly in the studio, Rene Hall brings with him some of the best West Coast musicians (Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer, Roy Montrell...) and arranges and plays on innumerable sessions, more and more in the teenage Rock'n'roll vein of the era. His guitar solos behind Little Richard, Don & Dewey, Bumps Blackwell, Larry Williams or Ritchie Valens (his famous guitar part on La Bamba) certainly play a major part in the commercial success of many hits and will be reproduced note for note by hundreds of guitarists in the USA and abroad (among the British Rock future stars).
            At the same time, Rene Hall records also a handful of tracks under his name that we have gathered here. During the early 60's, Rene is on tour with one of his find for Specialty, the great Sam Cooke, directing his band and recording behind him until the untimely death of Cooke.
            Rene Hall will never stop to produce and arrange sessions for a lot of artists, mainly Marvin Gaye. Rene died in his Los Angeles home on 11 February 1988.
                                   Thanks to Robert H. and Red Rooster for their help.
                      And also thanks to Tony Watson for corrections, additions and expertise

                                                                       Gérard HERZHAFT


BLUES GUITAR MASTERS Vol. 2    RENE HALL
Rene Hall, g; Reginald Jones, tpt; Buddy Green, t-sax; Buddy Tate, t-sax; Edwin Swanston, pno; Bill Swanston, bs; Bobby Donaldson, dms. New York City, janvier 1950
01. Rene's boogie
02. Chitlin' switch blues
03. Blowing awhile
04. Blue creek hop
05. Downbeat
06. Jubilee stomp
Rene Hall, g; Courtland Carter, vcl/g; Ted Sinclair, bs; Jimmy Crawford, dms. New York City, 26 avril 1951
07. My kind of rockin'
Rene Hall, g; Courtland Carter, vcl/g; Howard Biggs, pno; Ted Sinclair, bs; Jimmy Crawford, dms. New York City, 29 mai 1952
08. Do it up right
Rene Hall, g; Courtland Carter, vcl/g; Harry Van Walls, pno; Ted Sinclair, bs; Francisco Da Silva, dms. New York City, avril 1953
09. Two guitar boogie
10. Mind reader (wrongly credited to Rene Hall, it's sung by Tommy Dodson and is a 1965 track)
Googie Rene (Rafael Rene), vcl/pno; Rene Hall, g; Plas Johnson, t-sax; Ted Brinson, bs; Earl Palmer, dms. Los Angeles, Ca. 1957
11. Break it up
12. Big time
13. Rock a boogie
14. Sidetrack
Rene Hall, g; Jewell Grant, b-sax; Plas Johnson, t-sax; pno; Willie Joe Duncan, g; Ted Brinson, bs; Earl Palmer, dms. Los Angeles, Ca. 1957
15. Twitchy
16. Flippin'
17. Thunderbird
Rene Hall, g; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1958
18. Frankie and Johnny
19. Cleo
Rene Hall, g; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1959
20. Adalene
21. South gate
22. 0 sole mio rock
23. A Smitty's toy piano
Rene Hall, g; Babette Bain (Riselle Bain), vcl; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1959
24. That's it
Rene Hall, g; Plas Johnson, t-sax; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1960
25. La Cubalibra
26. Night fright
27. Turf

21 commentaires:

  1. Rene Hall/ Masters of Blues Guitar 2

    http://www52.zippyshare.com/v/wrpD9dEv/file.html

    OK?

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    Réponses
    1. Track 20 is Adalene with an 'e', not AdalOne

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    2. New link for Rene Hall/ Masters of Blues Guitar 2
      https://mega.nz/#!WEJnwAyD!RvPVQxCCCX4WHMJcDJig66qC9FpPhQPKmY82YT7sU_w

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  2. Merci beaucoup pour cette nouvelle collection , THANKS !

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  3. Merci Gerard!

    DrHepcat

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  4. I can´t believe! Thank you so much!
    I really appreciate Rene´s work

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  5. Un grand merci Gérard. Une découverte pour ma part.

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  6. Gerard,
    A lot of work has gone into this and it is much appreciated.
    It seems amazing that his first six recordings were reissued (now deleted) but only one (Two Guitar Boogie) of the next twenty has seen any reissue. The others are incredibly rare or unisssued with only a few turning up via YouTube, etc.
    Anyway – a little nit-picking, ausman is correct – 45cat is wrong – label shows ADALENE.
    Track 10 – “Mind Reader” is a 1965 song arranged by Rene – a long way from 1957
    Keep up the good work.

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  7. Tony Watson added some infos and corrections about this article and comp:
    Gerard
    Thanks for posting the Rene Hall comp, however there are some errors -
    Track 20 - Adalone is incorrect, it is ADALENE (see attached 45 scan).
    Track 13 – ‘Rock A Boogie’ does not fade-in at the start.
    Track 22 - ‘O Solo Mio Rock’ is running too SLOW.
    Track 10 – ‘Mind Reader’ is NOT Rene Hall - (he has no involvement with this soul recording from the mid 60s).

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  8. Thanks to Tony Watson (from his personal collection), here are better and more accurate versions of two songs by Rene Hall:
    13 O Sole Mio Rock
    http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/TptLjncK/file.html

    22 Rock a boogie
    http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/hWIOcyMu/file.html

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  9. Merci mille fois, Gerard. My laptop is rockin' to these fine sounds even as I type this.

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  10. Outstanding Gerard, many thanks for putting together this collection of such rare material. I've been away this past fortnight and didn't take my laptop with me, so I have a lot of downloading & listening to do as I catch up on all the recent posts on all my favorite blues blogs. You'll be pleased to know that your blog is the first I checked.

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  11. Grâce à Tony Watson, voici trois autres morceaux par Rene Hall: une version de "When the Saints", Moritat et la musique du film de Jacques Tati "Mon oncle'...
    Thanks to Tony Watson, here are three other titles by Rene Hall: one version of "When the Saints", a version of the soundtrack of Jacques Tati's film "My Uncle" and "Moritat"
    Rene Hall, g; Jewell Grant, b-sax; Plas Johnson, t-sax; pno; Willie Joe Duncan, g; Ted Brinson, bs; Earl Palmer, dms. Los Angeles, Ca. 1957
    Saints go marching in
    Rene Hall, g; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1959
    Moritat
    My uncle

    http://www32.zippyshare.com/v/PEB7kH9Z/file.html

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  12. (My first ever comment here, after much "lurking"...!)

    Tony is likely the planet's leading Hall-ologist, er, Rene-o-phile.

    After lobbying hard to get them to do it up ala Earl Palmer ("Backbeat," CDCHD 719), etc., he was unable to convince "The Kings of the Reissue Market" to go forward with an All-René CD. Oh well, at least we have this cracking compilation!

    - B._B.

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    Réponses
    1. Thanks B.B. (and all others hardcore Rene Hall's fans)! I didn't expect such a following for Rene is certainly not well known outside small circles. But this is what this blog is all about...

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  13. Thanks so much, Gerard. All best wishes to you.

    !ggy

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  14. Muchas gracias por este preciado regalo, señor Herzhaft.

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