“Ambassador Of Soul” ELLIS HALL: In His Own Words

The name of my new duo with legendary keyboardist and brother from another mother George Witty is perfect for a number of reasons. Officially we’re the Whitty Hall Artist Teambut we’re branding it as WHAT!!!! because it fits so well with the title of our new album In the World.  “What in the world?” reflects awe, which is the perfect reaction (from me looking back to someone just now hearing about me!) to a career so multi-faceted even I can’t believe all the amazing things I’ve gotten to do with and the great talents I’ve been blessed to work with.

If you know about my humble beginnings, you’re probably wondering how a kid born in Savannah with congenital glaucoma who went fully blind in his late teens and started his musical career creating instruments out of household items like brooms and washtubs ended up leading his own band in the 70s, singing for Tower of Power and recording on Kenny G’s breakthrough album in the 80s, sang on dozens of film soundtracks and commercials, became Ray Charles protégé just before he died, performed with symphonies all over the country and is still going strong at 70+ with my buddy George. Since conductor Jeff Tyzik called me “The Ambassador of Soul,” I started thinking back on how I got to a place in my life and career where that would even be possible.

My mama swears I came out of the womb singing, dancing and playing music and when I found that out, I told her, wow, that must have hurt. But the real story started in Boston, where my family moved so I could attend The Perkins School for the Blind. I started piano lessons in third grade and sang doo wop on street corners. But when I still had a bit of my vision left, I had my musical epiphany at 14 when I happened to see a show by the B3 organ quartet Quint Harris & The Preachers at Jim Nance’s Lounge, with Bernie Worrell on organ. I saw the looks on the faces of the band, the way they were lovingly destroying the audience, and that’s’ when I went home and became a bassist and drummer making a snare drum out of a bongo and a bass fiddle out of a long broom, tying strings to a washtub and pulling them backwards. I even refigured my Braille slate to create a makeshift hi-hat. That’s one way to become a multi-instrumentalist!    

Before I start in on all the legends my first official band The Ellis Hall Group opened for and all the musical geniuses I got to work with, I should share something that’s unique about me as a blind musician. Because I had vision early in my life as I was learning to play music, I see and hear notes in color, and when I’m playing colors literally flash across my eyes. It’s a literal gift called synaesthesia. When I was 15, I saw this Vox or FarfisaOrgan whose white keys were black and whose black keys were gold and I spent countless hours looking at that color scheme and working my fingers between those keys. I always wanted to master new instruments, no matter the challenge.

When folks get word that a young musician can play anything, they all want in on the action. Vibraphonist Milt Jackson from the Modern Jazz Quartet asked me when I was 17 to go on the road with him as a bassist. My mama wouldn’t let me but she told me I could play with him whenever he performing in Boston. So I went to school during the day, then played from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. I also got calls from my friend, singer Tommy Sullivan and did a gig with Jim Washington and the Pleasure Seekers playing organ and bass for 5000 restless folks in Franklin Park.

Here's where the name dropping gets even better! In 1973, a few years after I graduated high school, I started The Ellis Hall Group, and without even a record deal, we built an incredible following base on our soulful “Ellisized” covers of pop songs like “Doctor My Eyes.” J. Geils was a big fan. Drummer Sib Hashien, later of the famous group Boston, tried out but we didn’t find him funky enough! We played up and down the East Coast, opening for The Cars, Earth, Wind & Fire, Taj Mahal, The Temptations and The Spinners.

One night when the Spinners’ bassist didn’t show up, they asked my bass player Freddie if he could sub. Freddie told them I knew some of their material better, songs like “It’s a Shame,” and they had me play a whole gig, including songs I didn’t know! For the What!!!! album, George Whitty and I wrap the set with a cover of “I Thank You” – something of a callback to the Ellis Hall Band’s reworking of Sam and Dave’s other classic “Hold On I’m Comin’.” I always love doing covers of classics. Before David Bowie died, he got to hear my version of “Let’s Dance” and he freaked out over it!

Turns out, some of the most important gigs my band ever did was opening for Tower of Power (seven times starting in 1976), because years later when TOP was looking for a new vocalist, Emilio Castillo remembered me and asked me to join. Between the Ellis Hall Band and that, I began writing movie music, including a sex education movie that I hear was shown at schools all over the country. Still living in Boston, I was in a band with a bunch of other blind cats ironically called Project Insight and worked with everyone from Tom Scott and Rob Mounsey to The Brecker Brothers.

Not long after I moved to LA in 1984 with the express idea of getting into commercials, I called a friend from a phone booth and bragged how great the weather was compared to back East. God don’t like ugly because two weeks later, TOP had asked me to join and I was performing in freezing Minnesota with them! I think I counted up to 300 shows a year with TOP in my four plus years with them – which included the one album I recorded with them, Power, in 1987, on which I sang, played keyboards and rhythm guitar. It featured my Grammy nominated song “Some Days Were Meant for Rain,” which Emilio had first heard me do in the 70s – and which George Whitty and I have joyfully resurrected for our new project. That’s the magic of songs – fifty years after I wrote it, its haunting emotion still resonates.

During my time with TOP, I got a call from Narada Michael Walden who was working with Preston Glass on Kenny G’s breakthrough Duotones album. They asked me what key I would sing “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)?” and I told him the original Jr. Walker key – so I got the gig. Who knew that album would sell five million copies and help set the stage for the smooth jazz genre?

It's been a crazy ride, from working with Captain Kangaroo and the Sesame Street Muppets to doing the music for Chicken Run and writing a Michelob jingle Luther Vandross sang on before he became famous. Let’s add to those serendipitous opportunities the chance to play at one of Bill Clinton’s inaugural balls after he saw me play at a big function at the Bel Air Hotel. Now let’s skip ahead to becoming a protégé of the immortal Ray Charles at the tender age of 50! It was Christmas 2001, right after I played at Stevie Wonder’s House Full of Toys event. My cinematographer friend Rick Waite invited Ray to see me play another holiday gig for West LA Music.

After I played an “Ellisized” version of “I Can See Clearly Now,” which Ray said he loved, I got to meet and hug the man. He asked, “Where the F have you been?” with more expletives than I care to say. I imagined how that must look to everyone, one blind guy embracing another and offering right there and then to sign me to his Crossover label. This was all right before he recorded Genius Loves Company, and I felt blessed that he took the time to work with me. We had such a blast together. When Ray called me his protégé, I told him, well George Benson said he had me first – way back when I met him in 1972! George tried to get me signed in those days, and now Ray had signed me. Sadly, he passed away, my deal ended with that, and the 15 tracks we did together have never been released. Hopefully someday!

Since then, I’ve just been telling folks I’m the soundtrack of their lives, having written over 4000 soul, gospel and blues tunes and worked with everyone from James Taylor and Patti Labelle to Toby Keith and Stevie. I created and toured two symphony shows, Ellis Hall Presents Ray, Motown and Beyond and Ellis Hall Soul Unlimited. George Whitty had been a fan of mine since he heard me play with TOP at the Bottom Line in New York years before. My longtime project manager (and “watcher”) Alec Berfeld had been bugging me about meeting George for years, and when George, with Berfeld’s prompting, sent him his initial tracks for a beautiful song dedicated to the Ukrainian people titled “Hug Me,” he knew it was divine timing. Listening to what George had put together, I heard the opportunity to add a lot more harmony to the simple epic harmonies he had.  I wanted it to start out simple and stripped down and build into a powerhouse symphony kind of vibe.

I’m most proud of the fact that I have been able to experience the intensity of my four children as they bring their gifts to bear in the world, inspired by what I’ve shown them. The other side is music, and for God to have given me this opportunity to be a vessel and let all these amazing things come through me…I don’t take them lightly but take them all seriously while also having a lot of fun. Everything I do in music helps me live up to the title of Ambassador of Soul and spread the light I was blessed with. 


A little more about Ellis Hall

In addition to his years with Tower of Power, Ellis Hall fronted the Ellis Hall Group in the 70s, has written over 4000 soul, gospel, blues and pop songs, performed with the likes of Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, George Benson and Maurice White and recorded with John Klemmer, George Duke and Kenny G, among countless others. He has also written and performed on many film soundtracks including The Lion King 2, Shrek 2, Invincible and Bruce Almighty. He also sang a Louis Armstrong tune in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can.

https://www.whittyhall.com/

 

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