FOR most 80-year-olds, retirement is not only a necessity but also a welcome choice. Hal Singer sees things differently. Just a week before the saxophonist's 80th birthday, on October 8, he will embark on a cross-continental journey to perform at the Jazz Club.
'Retire to what? I didn't like golf when I was young, I used to play it, you hit the ball, walk and hit it again. I thought there must be something better,' he said from his home base of Paris last week. For Singer, 'better' is entertaining jazz and blues fans around the world, something he has been doing his entire life. Singer's story reads like a veritable history of the evolution of jazz.
With more than 60 years in the music business, his resume includes some of the brightest names from jazz and early rock 'n' roll. The garrulous Southerner has played for the legendary Billie Holiday - who he describes as 'an angel' - was a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra, worked with renowned trumpeter Roy Eldridge and saxophonist Charlie Parker, and has been an artist in his own right. 'I've been very lucky. I've never done any other work but play music. My attitude is, as a musician, you're doing a job. You take the job if the music is half-way decent and you make a living.' That sort of flexibility has had Singer dabbling in a number of styles, from be-bop jazz, swing, blues, and rhythm and blues to rock 'n' roll. The critically acclaimed artist disavows the labels and believes that the music industry's obsession with classifications is just a ploy to sell records.
'To me, music is music, it's either good or bad. I'm not enforced by the titles they call me. I don't throw any boundaries in the music, everybody plays the same notes no matter what they're playing,' he said.
That rationale also stems partly from his childhood. The Kansas City, Missouri, native who grew up in segregated America was inspired by various musical styles. He cites 1920s and 30s 'black music' - early jazz and blues and gospel; 'white music' - country and western; and Native American rhythms as formative influences.
The music around him planted a seed early, an interest his parents cultivated from a young age. At the age of six he was given a violin. 'The chances of a black kid in the 30s making a living with a violin was nil,' he said. As a result, he opted to switch instruments; his school headmaster gave him a clarinet to play in the school band, and when he was 12 years old he took up the saxophone and he has not put it down since.
During his prolific career - which also includes 1950s hits Cornbread and Rent Party - Singer has seen an enormous amount of change in the music industry. And although racism today may be a far cry from the 'whites-only' clubs Singer was refused entry to in his youth, he believes that all is not perfect.