Charlie Hall says, “We’re all drummers. It’s a way we organize time and sound, to signify an event or convey an emotion.”
That may be true.
But very few of us can drum as well as Hall.
The 1992 Greens Farms Academy graduate and Wilton native has spent his professional life as a drummer. (Plus, he’s a songwriter, producer and multi-instrument performer.)
Hall is a longtime percussionist with the Grammy Award-winning band The War on Drugs. He releases his own music too.
He’s produced 3 Christmas LPs with Patti LaBelle, Stevie Nicks (and the Philadelphia Eagles).
Charlie Hall
Hall is also a founder of Get Up With It. Since the late 1990s, the project has explored and performed the groundbreaking 1969-1975 era of Miles Davis’ electric music.
On May 24 (7 p.m.), Hall and Get Up With It kick off the Levitt Pavilion’s 53rd season — and celebrate the centennial of Davis’ birth — with a special concert.
The ensemble will focus on 3 of the trumpeter’s most influential albums: 1969’s visionary and transcendental “In a Silent Way” the 1970 magnum opus “Bitches Brew,” and 1971’s “Jack Johnson.”
Hall began drumming at age 3, when his grandmother bought him a tin Muppets set.
By 6, he had a set of Ludwigs.
His brother — older by 9 years — introduced Hall to ’70s rock legends like the Rolling Stones, the Who and Led Zeppelin. In high school he listened to WLIR, and was introduced to the Pretenders, Talking Heads and U2.
“Drums were the way I met people and built relationships,” Hall recalls.
A special relationship was with Jean Rabin, owner of Record & Tape of Westport. He was there at least weekly. She encouraged his love of music. His room was plastered with posters she saved for him. “I wish I could thank her for all she did,” he says.
(Courtesy of Christopher Maroc)
GFA dean of students/registrar/math teacher Ed Denes was another important influence.
“He was larger than life — literally and figuratively,” Hall says.
Denes organized school talent shows. Hall always had a band. “It was a way I could bring people together,” he notes. “I still do that today.”
After the College of William & Mary — where he majored in music and psychology (and met his wife) — he moved to San Francisco, then Philadelphia.
He’s been there ever since. He joined The War on Drugs — a Philly-based rock band — in 2014.
Hall’s upcoming Levitt gig has roots in his 1990s California days. Playing “straight-ahead jazz,” he and fellow musicians put together Get Up With It, a 10-piece group to explore the “Afro-futuristic space rock” canon of Davis’ music.
When Hall and some of the others moved to Philadelphia and New York, they formed an East Coast version.
“Miles painted with a palette of rhythms,” Hall explains. “It’s a gift for me to play this music, with these people.”
Get Up With It includes guitars, woodwinds, keyboards, brass — and a trio of percussionists.
Get Up With It, in action.
What will it be like for Hall to pay tribute to Miles Davis, just a couple of miles from where he himself grew up?
“It will be pretty emotional,” the drummer admits.
“I think so fondly on my first 18 years of life around there … all the bands I’ve seen, and the experiences I’ve had. To bring my gang here will be fun.”
Doors open at 6 p.m., for the Levitt Pavilion’s May 24 kickoff concert, Charlie Hall’s Get Up With It: A Miles Davis Centennial Celebration. Click here for tickets, and more information.
(“06880” reports regularly on Westport’s entertainment scene — including local and national artists. If you enjoy our coverage, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The Levitt Pavilion kicks off its 53rd season on May 24. (Photo/Susan Garment)
