Betty Hall Jones

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Betty Hall Jones (actually Cordell Elizabeth Bigbee , born January 11, 1911 in Topeka , Kansas ; † April 20, 2009 in Torrance , California ) was an American jump blues and rhythm & blues musician (vocals, piano) and songwriter .

Live and act

Jones' father was George Arthur Bigby, a cornet player and brass band leader . She grew up in California; her uncle taught her to play the piano. In 1926 she married the banjo player George A. Hall; after the divorce in 1936 she worked as a pianist for Buster Moten at the Reno Club in Kansas City. She then returned to Los Angeles, played with Roy Milton from 1937 to 1942 , then with the trio of Luke Jones , with whom the first recordings were made. After her marriage to the trombonist Jasper Jones, she worked as Betty Hall Jones from the mid-1940s . She took from 1947 a. a. with King Porter ("That Early Morning Boogie"), Alton Redd (Bel-Tone, 1946) and Joe Turner ("Richmond Blues", Duotone). During this time in Los Angeles she recorded some 78s under her own name such as “Buddy Stay Off That Wine”, “That's a Man for You” or “How Long Blues” for Atomic , Combo and Capitol Records ; her accompanying musicians included u. a. Maxwell Davis , Buddy Harper , Chuck Hamilton , Henry Coker , Bumps Myers , Dave Cavanaugh , Tiny Webb, and Jesse Price . The discographer Tom Lord lists them between 1947 and 1953 with participation in seven recording sessions. In the 1950s she made further recordings for local labels and had an engagement at the Hotel Sorrento in Seattle for seven years ; during that time she was a mentor to Quincy Jones . In the following two decades she toured on behalf of the United Service Organizations (USO) in East Asia, as well as in Australia and Mexico. She has also performed in various night clubs on Sunset Boulevard. In the 1980s she toured Sweden and England; from 1985 she lived with her third husband in Perris, California. She also wrote several songs like "Ain't That Fine", "Feelin 'Sad", "I'll Do Anything But Work" and "This Joint's Too Hip For Me".

Discographic notes

  • The Complete Recordings 1947–1954 (Blue Moon, ed. 2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bob L. Eagle, Eric S. LeBlanc: Blues: A Regional Experience . 2013, page 352
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 26, 2015)
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Betty Hall
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bigbee, Cordell Elizabeth (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American R&B musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Topeka , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2009
Place of death Torrance , California