Willie Hall (drummer)
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William "Willie" "Too Big" Hall (born August 8, 1950, Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American drummer, best known for being a member of the Blues Brothers band.
Hall began his career as a drummer in 1965, while still in high school. He played with the Bar-Kays band and Isaac Hayes's band The Movement. In the seventies, as part of the Stax-Volt Recording Section Team from 1968–77, Hall backed dozens of major Stax artists on recordings, including The Emotions, Little Milton, Carla and Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, The Staple Singers, Albert King and Isaac Hayes. Hall produced Hayes' last Stax album, and did percussion on Hayes' albums Hot Buttered Soul and The Isaac Hayes Movement, as well as his Theme from Shaft.
Hall also recorded the album Universal Language with Booker T. & the MGs, and later joined guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper and bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn as a member of The Blues Brothers, which led to his appearance in the hit movie The Blues Brothers and its sequel Blues Brothers 2000. He appeared as himself in the 2008 movie Soul Men.
Hall has toured the world and recorded with a variety of artists, including The Blues Brothers, Steve Cropper, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, KC and the Sunshine Band, Bonnie Raitt, Earl Scruggs, Charlie Daniels Band, Todd Rundgren and Roger McGuinn, among others. He is currently a member of The Bo-Keys, a band of highly respected Memphis musicians, including Isaac Hayes's wah-wah guitarist Charles "Skip" Pitts. He is the father of rapper Gangsta Pat.[1]
References
- ^ "Willie Hall". Blues Brothers Central. 1950-08-08. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
External links
- Willie Hall at AllMusic
- Willie Hall at IMDb
- 1950 births
- Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee
- American funk drummers
- American male drummers
- American male film actors
- American record producers
- American session musicians
- Living people
- Musicians from Tennessee
- The Blues Brothers members
- Booker T. & the M.G.'s members
- The Bar-Kays members
- American blues drummers