Musician and dancer Adelaide Hall – hailed as the “real first lady of jazz” – is to be honoured with a blue plaque at her London home. The scat pioneer, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, spent 55 years in London and an English Heritage plaque will be unveiled at 1 Collingham Road in Kensington, which was her home for 27 years. She died in the capital in 1993 at the age of 92.
English Heritage’s blue plaque honouring singer Adelaide Hall (English Heritage/PA) Hall was a pioneer of “scat” singing, renowned for using her voice as a pure jazz instrument. She is believed to have had the longest recording career of any 20th-century artist and was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2003 for releasing material over eight consecutive decades. Her 1943 radio series Wrapped In Velvet made her one of first black artists to regularly broadcast with the BBC.
During the Second World War, she worked for the Entertainments National Service Association (Ensa) and she performed in air raid shelters and hospitals, before becoming one of the first artists into Germany after the liberation. “She was so versatile and took so many artistic risks, but when I think of her it will always be as the real first lady of jazz, admired by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Elisabeth Welch. “Having known her, I don’t doubt that she would be absolutely thrilled to bits to get a blue plaque.
I’m sure she is smiling wherever she is.” Musician YolanDa Brown, who is a member of the blu.
