Al Hibbler

Al Hibbler (August 16, 1915-April 24, 2001) was a vocalist with several pop hits. Born Albert George Hibbler in Tyro, Mississippi, he was blind from birth. [http://www.home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/hibbler.html "Remembering Al Hibbler" by JC Marion, 2004.] ]

Hibbler attended a school for the blind in Little Rock, Arkansas where he joined the school choir. He won an amateur talent contest in Memphis, Tennessee, where he first worked with local bands and started his own band.

In 1942 he joined a band led by Jay McShann, and the next year he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra, replacing Herb Jeffries. He worked eight years with Ellington before becoming a soloist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music. [http://www.home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/hibbler.html "Remembering Al Hibbler" by JC Marion, 2004.] ]

Radio and recordings

His biggest hit was "Unchained Melody" in 1955. The success led to network appearances, including a live jazz club remote on NBC's "Monitor". Other hits were "He," "11th Hour Melody" and "Never Turn Back" (all in 1956). "After the Lights Go Down Low" (1956) was his last charted 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. He died in Chicago in 2001. In his autobiography, Ray Charles said that he had a fight with Hibbler and had rigged an elevator shaft so that the doors were open but with no elevator. He led Hibbler down the hall to the elevator. But just before he fell to his death, his girlfriend saved him. Ray said, "I must confess I would of let him go."Fact|date=September 2008

References

Listen to

* [http://www.mp3albumonline.biz/listen/1014213.m3u Al Hibbler: "After the Lights Go Down Low" (excerpt)]

External links

* [http://www.arjazz.org/artists/hof/1995/95_al_hibbler.html "Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame"]
* [http://www.mossiehigh.com/Al_Hibbler Discography]
* [http://www.oldies.com/artist-biography/Al-Hibbler.html "Encyclopedia of Popular Music": biography by Colin Larkin]
* [http://www.jazzhouse.org/gone/index.php3?view=988386343 "Jazzhouse" obituary from "The Scotsman", 2001]