Career Randy Hall

1 career

1.1 career
1.2 collaboration miles davis
1.3 post-miles davis

career
early career

randy hall grew in chicago. first instrument piano, @ age of 13 switched guitar, taking lessons british jazz guitarist peter budd. despite budd s best efforts, hall adopted playing technique similar wes montgomery, whereby thumb used pick. hall can play fast , explosively, in opening number 1 phone call/street scenes on esp 2 dvd tribute miles.

hall met miles s nephew (and future drummer) vince wilburn jr in kindergarten , 2 became lifelong friends. wilburn s mother dorothy, miles s sister. 2 friends started playing , @ age of 16 joined local band called time, space , distance.

that gained them reputation around chicago , did session work local groups, including dells. when hall , wilburn around 17 years old, pete cosey, had played in miles s band 1973 1975, began giving them lessons. did gigs him, festivals, , other events. pete played bass , randy played guitar. in 1975, hall went study music @ berklee college of music in boston. when hall returned chicago, joined new band called data, included wilburn, bassist richard patterson, keyboardist robert irving iii, , saxophonist glenn burris. of these musicians later worked miles davis, patterson becoming last bassist in miles davis band , others working on davis comeback album man horn. irving , wilburn joined davis band in 1980s.

hall, irving , wilburn performed other local musicians, including bassist darryl jones (who joined miles s band in 1983) , guitarist jean-paul bourelly, played on amandla album. in 1979, data disbanded , new band formed, al7, included hall, wilburn, irving, burris, bassist felton crews (who joined miles s band) , hall s sister saundra, vocalist.

al7 performed part-time, main preoccupation being rehearsing , writing material. worked arranger tom washington (known tom tom 84), connected local band, earth, wind & fire. tom tom 84 recorded several demos al7, including track called space, had been written robert irving iii.

collaboration miles davis

miles davis s record label, columbia records, flew 4 of al7 band members - hall, wilburn, crews, , irving - chicago new york city, booked them iton top-flight hotel , arranged recording sessions. glenn burris later joined 4 , although @ many of sessions, did not play. instead, 4 chicago musicians joined young saxophonist bill evans, had been recommended miles ex-band member dave liebman.

the musicians worked on music @ miles s house days , in studio , recorded more dozen tracks, although davis did not play on of them @ stage. 1 of them shout, disco-funk track written hall, irving, , burris. man horn, tribute ballad miles written hall , irving, became title track davis s comeback album. randy hall played guitar, synthesiser , celeste on track.

esp2: tribute miles

the release of man horn gave hall lot of exposure , result of singing on title track, invited join soul/funk band pleasure. occasionally, hall asked miles davis compose songs.

post-miles davis

after leaving pleasure, hall carved out successful career artist/producer , in 1984, released solo album, belong you, produced ray parker, jr. (of raydio , ghostbusters fame). album included contributions irving, wilburn, crews , burris. in 1985, hall in ray parker jr s studio (ameraycan) in los angeles, recording follow-up solo album, love stranger. once again, crews , irving involved in sessions. meanwhile, miles had left columbia records after thirty years , signed warner bros. records, warner s head of jazz tommy lipuma given responsibility of handling miles s musical development. during initial stages, lipuma happy miles choose own musical direction. miles decided wanted hall produce first album warner bros.

hall decided work number of people love stranger sessions on new miles davis album. 1 of these people atalla zane giles, had played guitar, keyboards, bass , sang on album. giles asked compose, arrange , produce new album hall. engineer reggie dozier asked join project, keyboardist adam holzman (who later joined davis s band), bassist cornelius mims, percussionist steve reid, burris , wilburn. more dozen tunes recorded during sessions, took place between october 1985 , january 1986, , plan release album called rubberband. 1 of tracks called give up, same name hit tune pleasure.

the rubberband material never released. davis later worked work marcus miller record tutu. davis s performances couple of rubberband sessions used create new tracks on doo-bop album. 2 tunes rubberband sessions due appear on retrospective set called last word, not included.

in more recent years hall has been working up-and-coming artist elliott small. hall produced, wrote music, , played piano , guitar on small s album season s collection. hall wrote lyrics 2 songs on album: share love , delightful .

hall lives in las vegas, has production studio, , performs locally, nationally, , internationally.