Al Hibbler

• Name — Al Hibbler • Birth Name — Albert (or Andrew) George Hibbler • Born — 16 August 1915 • Birthplace — Tyro, Mississippi, U.S. • Died — 24 April 2001 • Place of death — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Genre — Traditional popular music, jazz, easy listening • Occupation — Singer • Years Active — 1935–2001 • Label — * Norgran • Chess Records • Atlantic records • Decca • Reprise • Top Rank Records • Satin Records • Argo Records • Score records • Pickwick Records • Aladdin Records • Miracle Records • Clef Records

Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. Some sources give his birth name as Andrew George Hibbler. At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer in local bands, failing his first audition for Duke Ellington in 1935. However, after winning an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee, he was given his start with Dub Jenkins and his Playmates; Jenkins was a popular Memphis saxophonist and bandleader. He later joined a band led by Jay McShann in 1942, and the following year joined Ellington's orchestra, replacing Herb Jeffries.

He stayed with Ellington for almost eight years, and featured on a range of Ellington standards, including "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me", the words for which were written specifically for him and which reached No. 6 on the Billboard pop chart (and No. 1 for eight weeks on the "Harlem Hit Parade") in 1944, "I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues," and "I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So". Although Hibbler's style was described as "mannered", "over-stated", and "full of idiosyncrasies" and "bizarre vocal pyrotechnics", he was also considered "undoubtedly the best" of Ellington's male vocalists. While with Ellington, Hibbler won the Esquire New Star Award in 1947 and the Down Beat award for Best Band Vocalist in 1949. Hibbler left Ellington's band in 1951 after a dispute over his wages. He then recorded with various bands including those of Johnny Hodges and Count Basie, and for various labels including Mercury and Norgran, a subsidiary of Verve Records, for whom he released an LP, Al Hibbler Favorites, in 1953. In 1954 he released a more successful album, Al Hibbler Sings Duke Ellington, and in 1955, he started recording with Decca Records, with immediate success. His biggest hit was "Unchained Melody", which reached No. 3 on the US pop chart, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Hibbler's version also reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his only chart hit in the United Kingdom. Its success led to network appearances, including a live jazz club remote on NBC's Monitor. Other hits were "He" (1955), "11th Hour Melody" and "Never Turn Back" (both in 1956). "After the Lights Go Down Low" (also in 1956) was his last top ten hit.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, Hibbler became a civil rights activist, marching with protestors and getting arrested in 1959 in New Jersey and in 1963 in Alabama. The notoriety of this activism discouraged major record labels from carrying his work, but Frank Sinatra supported him and signed him to a contract with his label, Reprise Records. However, Hibbler made very few recordings after that, occasionally doing live appearances through the 1990s. In 1971, Hibbler sang two songs at Louis Armstrong's funeral. In 1972 he made an album, A Meeting of the Times, with another fiercely independent blind musician, the multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

• Sings Duke Ellington (Norgran, 1954) • Favorites (Norgran, 1954) • Melodies by Al Hibbler (Argo/Chess, 1956) • Sings Love Songs (Verve, 1956) • Starring Al Hibbler (Decca, 1956) • After the Lights Go Down Low: The Voice of Al Hibbler (Atlantic, 1957) • Here's Hibbler (Decca, 1957) • I Surrender Dear (Score/Aladdin, 1957) • Torchy and Blue (Decca, 1958) • Al Hibbler Remembers (Decca, 1958) • Hits by Hibbler (Decca, 1958) • Monday Every Day: Al Hibbler Sings the Blues (Reprise, 1961) • Big Boy Blues (Grand Prix Series, 1964) • Shades of Blue (Sunset, 1968) • A Meeting of the Times with Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Atlantic, 1972) • Christmas with Al Hibbler (Holiday, 1981) • Solitude (Pickwick, 1997) With Count Basie • Basie Jazz (Clef MGC-633, 1954 [recordings from 1952])

• The Chronological Al Hibbler 1946–1949 Classics, 2002) • The Chronological Al Hibbler 1950–1952 (Classics, 2003)