Fred Hall (actual name Fred Arthur Ahl, 1898–1954) was an American pianist,

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. Hall was born in New York City and began his musical career working as a song-plugger for various music publishers. As a bandleader Hall and his men recorded prolifically for many labels (see below) from 1925 onwards. Many recordings featured vocalist Arthur Fields with whom Hall enjoyed a lengthy partnership, co-writing scores of songs, the better known ones including ''Eleven More Months And Ten More Days'' and ''I Got A Code In My Dose''. Hall and Fields also appeared together on the NBC radio show ''The Sunday Driver''. Notable musicians in Hall's band included trumpeters

Mike Mosiello Mike Mosiello (full name ''Michele Alphonso Mosiello'') (December 2, 1896 – June 3, 1953) was an Italian-born American trumpet player. Biography Mosiello was born in Frasso Telesino in Italy into a musical family. His father, Tobia Mosiello, ...

and Leo McConville. Apart from playing piano, conducting and composing Hall sometimes performed scat singing on his records. A selection of Hall's recorded work has been reissued on CD by The Old Masters label. Hall made his last recordings in 1932, after which little is known of him. It is recorded that he joined

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

in 1939. He died in New York on October 6, 1954 at the age of 56.

Band names used on records

Hall's records were issued under a variety of names (including pseudonyms). Discographer Brian Rust reports the following: * Fred "Sugar" Hall and His Sugar Babies ( Okeh) * Fred Hall's Orchestra/and His Orchestra (

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

, Bell, Goodson (UK)) * Fred Hall and His Roseland Orchestra ( Emerson and Bell) * Fred Hall's Jazz Band ( Banner and associated labels) * Arthur Fields and His Orchestra (

Perfect Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection, completeness, excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film * Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * Perfect (2018 f ...

) * Arthur Fields and His Assassinators (

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

) * Arthur Fields and The Noodlers ( Banner and associated labels) * Claremont Dance Band/Orchestra ( Duophone) * The Home Towners ( Cameo and associated labels, Banner and associated labels) * Honey Swamp Stompers (

) * The Tin Pan Paraders ( Gennett) There were also several Hall recordings issued anonymously on Grey Gull and related labels. The records issued on the Harmony, Diva and Velvet Tone labels as "Jerome Conrad and His Orchestra" were also earlier ascribed to Hall by Rust, but has in later editions been revised as being by a Harry Reser group. Hall also recorded and broadcast with Fields as a country ensemble called Rex Cole's Mountaineers.

Sources

* Randy Skretvedt: Liner notes to the CD ''Fred Hall's Sugar Babies featuring Arthur Fields'' (TOM mb 106) * Brian Rust: ''The American Dance Band Discography'' (2 vol), New Rochelle, New York 1975

External links

Fred Hall at Answers.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Fred American male composers American bandleaders Gennett Records artists Okeh Records artists Bell Records artists 1898 births 1954 deaths 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American composers 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians