Alice Hall

Alice Hall (June 1917 – 2000, born Alice Marie Laquiere in Brussels, Belgium) was a jazz accordionist. She released a single recording in 1949. Early life Hall was raised in Detroit, Michigan, after her family emigrated. Her father was a musician who taught her drums and accordion so she could accompany him on stage. She played European-style chromatic button accordion with a "finto-piano" (false piano) keyboard similar to that used by vaudeville accordionist Pietro Frosini and jazz accordionist Leon Sash. She began working professionally at age 13 on the radio in Detroit. To ensure she had places to perform, her father opened a bar, the Blue Star, where he could watch over her. She started a band with her sister Rachel playing drums and accordion. During World War II they were advertised in Billboard as "2 Boys, 2 Girls, Sax, Piano, Accordion, drums." Career Benny Goodman invited her to on tour, but the club owner where she was playing refused to release her contract. She declined when Jack Teagarden asked her to join his orchestra, explaining later, "Playing with a big band, you know how many chances you get to play sixteen bars of something or eight bars of something and that's it? You know, there's nothing there.... I wanted to prove that something can be done on this instrument, other than playing just the ordinary, 'Jolly Caballero' stuff, you know?"