Randy Hall

Randy Hall is an American singer/guitarist/producer, who collaborated with Miles Davis a number of times during the 1980s. Hall was co-arranger with Davis of the gold album The Man With The Horn, and its title track featured lead vocals by Hall, who also played guitar, synthesizer and celesta on the track.

Randy Hall grew up in Chicago. His first instrument was the piano, but at the age of 13 he switched to guitar, taking lessons from British jazz guitarist Peter Budd. Despite Budd's best efforts, Hall adopted a playing technique similar to Wes Montgomery, whereby the thumb is used as a pick. Hall can play fast and explosively, as in the opening number "One Phone Call/Street Scenes" on the ESP 2 DVD A Tribute to Miles.

Hall met Miles's nephew (and future drummer) Vince Wilburn Jr in kindergarten and the two became lifelong friends. Wilburn's mother Dorothy, was Miles's sister. The two friends started playing together and at the age of 16 joined a local band called Time, Space and Distance.

That soon gained them a reputation around Chicago and they did session work for local groups, including the Dells. When Hall and Wilburn were around 17 years old, Pete Cosey, who had played in Miles's band from 1973 to 1975, began giving them lessons. They did gigs with him, festivals, and other events. Pete played bass and Randy played guitar. In 1975, Hall went to study music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. When Hall returned to Chicago, he joined a new band called Data, which included Wilburn, bassist Richard Patterson, keyboardist Robert Irving III, and saxophonist Glenn Burris. All of these musicians later worked with Miles Davis, with Patterson becoming the last bassist in a Miles Davis band and the others working on Davis' comeback album The Man With The Horn. Irving and Wilburn also joined Davis' band in the 1980s.

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