Betty Hall Jones
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Betty Hall Jones (January 11, 1911 – April 20, 2009),[1] was an American boogie-woogie pianist, singer, songwriter and arranger.
She was born Cordell Elizabeth Bigbee in Topeka, Kansas. Archie Bigbee,[1] her father, was a part-time cornetist and leader of a brass band. Music ran through her family. She learned piano from her uncle in California, where she was raised after her family moved there in 1921. She learned piano, starting at the age of five, going through her first year of college. A Las Vegas Columnist once described Betty Hall Jones as a "tiny 70-year-old black songstress-pianist who tore up the joint."[2]
Around 1927, she married a banjoist, George Hall, and then had two children but divorced after a few years. In 1936, as Betty Hall, she got a job as a backup pianist for Buster Moten in Kansas City. She returned to Los Angeles to play with Roy Milton from 1937 through 1941, then joined Luke Jones' trio, with whom she recorded. Additionally, she was also the co-leader of the Satin Dolls, a group of musicians, Dixieland.[2] She married Jasper Jones in the early part of the decade, taking the name Betty Hall Jones. By 1942 she had joined Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders as pianist and arranger, but also led her own Betty Hall Jones Trio in clubs and hotels, mostly in southern California where she was raising her children.[3] Her family did not approve of the type of music that she was involved in.[2] She died in Torrance, California, in 2009, aged 98.[1]
