American saxophonist Hal Singer, who had performed with Ray Charles and Billie Holiday, is dead

The saxophonist Hal Singer, figure of American jazz who played with Ray Charles and Billie Holiday, died Tuesday, August 18 at 100 years old in the Paris region, announced Thursday the town hall of Chatou (Yvelines), where the musician had resided for twenty years.

“We regret to inform you of the death of Hal Singer on August 18, 2020 at the age of 100. Weakened in recent years, Hal Singer has passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife and family ”, announced the town hall of this suburb of Paris in a press release, without specifying the causes of death.

During his seventy-year career, the musician, born October 8, 1919 in Tulsa, United States, recorded nearly a hundred records, first across the Atlantic and then in France where he put down his suitcases. in 1965, according to the biography of his site. It was in 1942, in the famous “52^e Rue ”in New York, which he plays alongside Don Byas, Roy Eldridge, Red Allen and Billie Holiday after his debut in the black orchestras of the American Southwest.

Established in the Parisian suburbs since 2002

His international tours will take him to Latin America, Africa and Asia, after having scoured American concert halls, in the company of the greatest like Ray Charles. In 1989 he played his own role in Taxi Blues, by Russian director Pavel Lounguine, who won the Best Director’s Award at the Cannes Film Festival the following year.

“He was an extraordinary witness to his time, he is a history broker. He was born in an America very marked by racial segregation, he suffered from it, but at the same time, he was able to transcend this state of affairs ”, told Agence France-Presse the mayor of Chatou, Eric Dumoulin. “He was an extraordinarily positive man, beyond his exceptional musical qualities. I will retain from him this joy of living, this optimism ”, added the city councilor.

Married to a Frenchwoman, Hal Singer decided to settle in Chatou in 2002. He had been promoted to Commander of the Arts and Letters in 1999. The burial will take place Saturday morning, in the strictest privacy, the town hall told AFP.

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