It seems hbase did not start properly that's why you are getting this error.
In case hbase did not start or not working properly, follow below steps:
cd /usr/lib/hbase-1.4.8/
sudo rm -r hbasestorage/*
sudo rm -r logs/*
./bin/start-hbase.sh
hbase shell
Now run hbase commands:
cd /usr/lib/hbase-1.4.8
sudo su
bin/stop-hbase.sh
bin/start-hbase.sh
hbase shell
You can confirm if your HMaster is running using 'sudo jps'.