Betty Hall Jones born 11 January 1911

Betty Hall Jones (January 11, 1911 – April 20, 2009), was an American boogie-woogie pianist, singer, songwriter and arranger. She professed to admire Mary Lou Williams, Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Pete Johnson, and Duke Ellington as influences and peers. 

She was born Cordell Elizabeth Bigbee in Topeka, Kansas. Archie Bigbee, 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. 

Around 1927, she married a banjoist, George Hall, a department store elevator operator and then had two children but divorced after a few years. In 1936, as Betty Hall, she got a jobs as backup pianist for Buster Moten and Addie Williams in Kansas City. She returned to Los Angeles to play with Roy Milton’s Solid Senders from 1937 through 1941, then joined Luke Jones' trio, with whom she recorded. 

Additionally, she was also the colluder of the Satin Dolls, a group of musicians, Dixieland. 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. Her family did not approve of the type of music that she was involved in. 

In 1946 she wrote songs recorded by Alton Redd' & His Low Down Blues orchestra, and, with Luke Jones, recorded with Joe Alexander's Highlanders on the Atlas label. She also recorded under her own name in 1947 for Atomic Records, leading a group that included Jones and, on some recordings, saxophonist Maxwell Davis. In the same year she recorded with King Porter for Imperial label the tremendous "That Early Morning Boogie." 

                              

She signed for Capitol Records in 1949, and released a string of singles on the label including "This Joint's Too Hip For Me", probably her best-known recording. As a writer, her songs were recorded by Ray Charles ("Ain't That Fine") and Nellie Lutcher ("My New Papa's Got To Have Everything"). However, her own recordings were not chart hits. She left the Capitol label the following year, but continued to perform widely, and recorded for the Dootone and Combo labels in the early 1950s. 

In 1959 she began playing at the Hotel Sorrento in Seattle, Washington which lasted for a few years. By this time, she had a bag of hats and would switch from one to another between songs, delighting audiences. She became known as "The Queen Of The Crazy Hats" and "The Mad Hatter". In the 1960s and 1970s she did USO tours in East Asia and toured Australia and Mexico in addition to regular dates in nightclubs on Sunset Boulevard. Betty performed a large number of shows for charity. 

Her last known record release was a private pressing on the Ameritone label: "After Hours", backed with her version of Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry" from around 1976. This was probably an item that she sold at her appearances. In 1981 she married her third husband Dick Beresford when she was 70. 

Betty managed to tour East Asia, Australia, and Mexico, while still working venues in Los Angeles. 1984 saw her return to Seattle's Hotel Sorrento to take part in its 75th anniversary celebration. In 1986 (at age 75) she made a tour of Norway, Sweden and England (returning to Sweden the following year). From 1987 onwards she appeared at various venues in Santa Fe. 

Betty continued performing, sporadically, into the 1990s. Sadly, she began to feel the effects of Alzheimer's, which ultimately caused her to be placed in a home. Singer Billy Vera wrote to say "I saw Betty at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood in the 80s once. She stood up when she played piano and her Alzheimer's was so bad she repeated one of her tunes three times!" Betty Hall Jones died, at the Harbor Care Center (Torrance, California), on April 20, 2009, at the age of 98.

(Edited from Wikipedia & uncamarvy.com)