The Guardian du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 33

THE GUARDIAN Personal 12 Monday November 8 1993 Sophisticated lady of jazz Obituary Adelaide Hall her has HEN obbligato died ethereal Adelaide on aged 89, Duke Hall, wordless sang Elling- who ton's 1927 recording of Creole Love Call she had no idea she was making one of the most influential jazz records in history. Already an established singer in stage and variety shows, she came to make the recording almost by accident, when Duke heard her humming in the wings as his band opened the second act of a vaudeville touring show in which Hall was singing. "Duke walked over and said: 'We're going to make a record together with you doing and I said: 'But I don't really know what I was And he told me not to worry but just do Despite her appearance on this and other Ellington recordings of the period, including her growly imitation of trumpeter Bubber Miley on Chicago Stomp Down, Adelaide Hall tended to be regarded as a peripheral figure in jazz by critics and historians. This was due to her successful career in revue and vaudeville, to her own tendency to emphasise her career in theatre and cabaret at the expense of her jazz recording, and because the lion's share of her life was spent in Europe. Even so, she managed to make more (and better) jazz records in her life than many a specialist jazz singer.

These include her scat sing. ing on Drop Me Off In Harlem from 1933 with the Hills Blue Rhythm Orchestra, where she abandoned the melody line and eventually much of the lyric in a tour-de-force of vocal improvisation that paved the way for Ella Fitzgerald's later work with Chick Webb, and her experiments with double tempo the year before on You Gave Me Everything But Love, where her total confidence in manipulating the tempo controls the work of no less an accompanist than Art Tatum. Adelaide Hall was born in New York into an African-American family. Her father taught music in Brooklyn and her mother was of partly Dutch extraction. Through a childhood friendship with the sister of singer Florence Mills she met Lew Leslie, who signed her up to his Blackbirds revue after hearing her sing in a school concert.

Soon she was starring in Leslie's shows, as Man of God on the Long March Alfred Bosshardt A ary Long LFRED to March, China Bosshardt, who has died a survived aged mission- the 96. He was captured in 1934 by the Red Guards and forced to join the trek across China which was to change the country's history. He covered 2,500 miles, mainly on foot. The marchers bore repeated land and air attacks from nationalist forces, as they trudged on night and day. The terrain was difficult and often mountainous.

Captives and troops slept in their clothes, which were frequently frozen stiff. The communist army had been marching for seven weeks when Bosshardt and a fellow missionary, Arnolis Hayman, were captured and held hostage as a means of obtaining medical supplies. Years later Bosshardt wrote: "In such bleak conditions, captors and captives have much in common. At the frontiers of endurance men cling together. Under extreme conditions there is a common struggle for survival." A date was set for the execution of both missionaries if a ransom was not paid.

Months followed of proposed deals which suddenly changed, threats of execution and cruel beatings. When the guards received a substantial payment, they went back on their word and released only Hayman. Bosshardt's ability to read French Charm and presence undimmed both a singer and dancer, and she held her own opposite performers as formidable as Bill Bojangles Robinson. She came to England with Blackbirds Of 1928, where conductor Rudolph Dunbar heard her, sensing that she and her "impressionistic" pianists (Joe Turner and Francis Carter) were "superb, but too much in advance of that period." Hall married a former merchant seaman, Bert Hicks, a Trinidadian of British nationality, and they eventually settled in England in made him a special asset. The Chinese maps which the army were using had been produced for school pupils, and were strategically useless.

French maps could be bought in Kuichow, but the commander could not read them. Bosshardt translated them into Chinese, and so became the Red Army's guide at a crucial time in Kweichow Province. Release finally came on Easter Sunday 1936. He was diagnosed as suffering from pleurisy, bronchitis and two sub-tropical diseases and would otherwise have died within days. When well enough to travel, he returned to Britain on leave, before returning to China.

In the 1980s he made contact with General Xiao Ke, commander of the section of the army which had taken him captive, and China's greatest surviving hero of the Long March. This led to Bosshardt's account of that time, The Guiding Hand, being published in China. The commander even wrote his own foreword, urging communists to respect historical truth and admitting they were wrong to treat missionaries as spies. Alfred Bosshardt had decided to go to China at the age of 10, influenced by a visiting preacher "who spoke Chinese with the barest trace of a Lancashire accent." After completing an apprenticeship in engineering, he joined the China Inland Mission (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship) in March 1922, sailing for Kweichow Province later that year. He travelled on foot wearing Chinese costume, as was the manner of the mission.

In 1925 the Adelaide Hall in London in 1988 1938. She toured in Europe as a soloist, with Leslie's shows, and with another American band, Willie Lewis's Entertainers, with whom she recorded in 1936. She also made records with Fats Waller during his 1938 British tour. With Hicks (who died in 1963) she was involved in opening nightclubs in Paris and London, and he managed her postwar career, which included a 1957 Broadway appearance in Jamaica. In old age, she finally achieved the fame she deserved in the US, following a Salute to Black Broad- area was struck by severe famine.

Bodies were piled in the streets and widespread typhus followed. Bosshardt fell victim to the disease and almost died. Shortly after his recovery, he met Rose Paiget, the daughter of a Swiss watchmaker, and they were married in 1931. The Bosshardts went back to China as soon as Alfred had recovered sufficiently from the Long March ordeal, and settled in Panhsien. After the communists arrived there in 1948, pressure was put on Christians to renounce their faith, but Bosshardt's church was not closed and only one of his congregation recanted.

By 1951 all missionaries were expelled from China. Rather than come back to Europe the Bosshardts moved on to Pakse, Laos, to work among the Mandarin-speaking Chinese. They were perceived as spies, and it took time to build trust. Bosshardt loved children and they were naturally drawn to him. He could hold them entranced as he made a mouse out of a handkerchief, and had it jump.

Slowly the church began to grow. In May 1965, just as the Bosshardts were due to retire to Europe, Rose died. The following year he retired to Manchester, to play a leading role in the Chinese Church, which draws Chinesespeaking students from all over Asia. In 1990 he moved to Kent, and a retirement home run by the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. A mysterious paralysis, which doctors connected to deprivation on the Long March, made it needful for him to have full-time nursing care.

David Ellis Rudolf Alfred Bosshardt, born January 1, 1897; died November 6, 1993 PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID SILLITOE way at Avery Fisher Hall in 1979, and later one-woman shows at Carnegie Hall. British audiences discovered her charm and stage presence were undimmed in continued London appearances, and in 1989 she was the subject of a Channel 4 film Sophisticated Lady, and more recently a Radio 4 autobiography Sweet Adelaide. Alyn Shipton Adelaide Hall, born October 20, 1904; died November 6, 1993 Death Mario Cecchi Gori one of Italy's leading film producers, has died aged 73. Mediterraneo, his film about Italian soldiers stranded on a Greek island during the second world war, won the 1992 Oscar as best foreign film. He also had a passion for soccer, buying the Florence team Fiorentina, but was criticised when the team was relegated last season.

Birthdays Rupert Allason, Conservative MP, thriller writer (as Nigel West), 42; Audran film actress, 61; Prof Christian Barnard, heart transplant pioneer, 71; Alain Delon, actor, 58; Ken Dodd, comedian, 62; Paul Foot, journalist, 56; Elizabeth Gale, opera singer, 45; Edward Goldsmith, publisher, 65; Frederick Gore, painter, 80; Nerys Hughes, actress, 52; Kazuo Ishiguro, author, 39; Rickie Lee Jones, singer, 39; Isabel Koprowski, magazine editor, 38; Tadaaki Otaka, conductor, 44; Martin Peters, foot- baller, 50; Sir Robert Shields, professor of surgery, Liverpool, 63; Mary Travers, singer, 56; Tamas Vasary, conductor and pianist, 60. Death notice QUINN Alison Mottat (MA. Edinburgh). Greatlyloved wife of Emeritus Professor Quinn, peacefully, at her home, 9 Knowsley Road. Liverpool L19 OPF, aged 84, Well-known as an indexer and a scholar.

She is deeply mourned by her family and friends. Funeral private. Donations to NSPCC To place your announcement telephone 071- 611 9000 or 061-834 8686 Dress code Alfred Bosshardt during early travels in China.