" Carl Hall was an African-American singer, actor, and musical arranger. A member of Raymond Raspberry's eponymous gospel group "The Raspberry Singers", recording on the US Savoy Records label, he performed in theatre for three decades, beginning with Tambourines to Glory in 1963.
Beyond the Raspberry Singers, he recorded later that decade several singles for Mercury Records and cut the now much sought-after tracks, "You Don't Know Nothing About Love" / "Mean it baby" (Loma 2086, 1967) and "I don't want to be your used to be" / "The dam busted" for the Warner Brothers subsidiary label, Loma Records, produced by leading producer Jerry Ragovoy. In 1973, he released a single on Columbia 45813 called "What About You". also appeared on Broadway in the stage production of the musical The Wiz among other shows."
The only information I've found beyond this is that he died in the Aids epidemic that ravaged the New York theater community. The two songs here are You Don't Know Nothing About Love and What About You.
2 comments:
Great post, KingCake.
Carl Hall's 4-octave voice was a force of nature! It is hard to understand why he didn't make more records. He also worked successfully as a musical producer for many years and appeared in a few Broadway productions, including (I believe) the role of the Wizard in one of the versions of "The Whiz."
I will try to did up a few more recordings, including some tracks with the Raspberry Singers, and post them here.
OK - while KC is most likely busy dealing with the elements down in the Crescent City, I will add three tracks here to the Carl Hall story. Two make up a Vee Jay 45 of the Raymond Rasberry Singers with Hall featured on vocals. His soaring soprano on these tracks might make you think that it is a female gospel diva in the mold of Inez Andrews. I sure did the first time that I heard them. The third track (Change With the Seasons) is another powerhouse R&B performance recorded (but unissued until recently) by Atlantic Records. I wonder how many other Carl Hall tracks are lying in the Atlantic vaults, or maybe were destroyed in the Atlantic fire?
http://www.mediafire.com/?mt5gjkddk2g3zhu
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