Hall, Gene, 1913-1993

Gene Hall was born on June 12, 1913 in Whitewright, Texas. He started playing the C-melody saxophone in his youth before switching to alto saxophone. He studied music at what is now the University of North Texas between economic hardships and stints with traveling bands, ultimately playing with Floyd "'Fessor" Graham's stage band and completing a master's thesis that provided the foundation for the jazz studies program at UNT. In the mid-1940s, Hall worked as staff arranger for Fort Worth radio station WBAP, and his manuscript arrangements are found in the UNT Music Library's WFAA-WBAP collection. He returned to North Texas as director of the Laboratory Dance Band (where the Lab Bands got their name) in 1947, and led the program to significant growth, with television and contest appearances. Hall departed North Texas for Michigan State University in 1959, later serving on the music faculty of the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California, and of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He served as the first president of the National Association of Jazz Educators, and received their Hall of Fame award in 1981. Hall died in Denton, Texas on March 4, 1993.