Morris Eugene Hall (June 12, 1913 – March 4, 1993) was a music educator, saxophonist, and arranger, most known for creating and presiding over the first academic curriculum leading to a bachelors degree in jazz (then called "Dance Band") at an institution of higher learning, being at the University of North Texas

University of North Texas

The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...

 College of Music (then, "North Texas State Teachers College") in 1947.

Early years

Hall was born June 12, 1913, in Whitewright, TX, to Benjamin Baxter Hall and Leila G. Hall, née Cook. As a boy, he studied the saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 and played in church, later played saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 local combo called the Joy Makers. Hall performed with dance bands in the North Texas area in the 1930s and in 1934 began a two-year European tour as saxophonist with the Clarence Nemir Orchestra, where he developed his arranging skills.

College Days

The North Texas College of Music had been noted for years for its symphony orchestra, opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 workshop, concert

Concert band

A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

 and marching band

Marching band

Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...

s, a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

choir, and more than a dozen smaller performing groups. Gene Hall, then a graduate student at North Texas, was asked to teach dance band arranging to two students in 1942. Soon, enrollment in the class grew to fifteen students.

Music Academician

His North Texas master's thesis, The Development of a Curriculum for the Teaching of Dance Music at the College Level, (1944) served as the basis for the nation's first university-level curriculum for the study of jazz (named "Dance Band" at the time), established at then North Texas State Teachers College in 1947, when he formally joined the North Texas faculty to develop dance band study as part of the regular curriculum. Hall, in 1954, earned a PhD in education from New York University.

Dr. Hall resigned from the North Texas in 1959 to continue similar work at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

. Leon Breeden, who had been director of bands for five years at Texas Christian University

Texas Christian University

Texas Christian University is a private, coeducational university located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States and founded in 1873. TCU is affiliated with, but not governed by, the Disciples of Christ...

, succeeded Dr. Hall.

Collaboration with Stan Kenton

Hall worked with Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

 and his successor at North Texas, Leon Breeden

Leon Breeden

Harold Leon Breeden , known as Leon Breeden, was a jazz studies educator at the collegiate level, a classical and jazz clarinetist, a saxophonist, a prolific composer and arranger, a music clinician, and jazz festival judge...

, at the Stan Kenton Band Clinics

Stan Kenton Band Clinics

Stan Kenton Band Clinics were summer programs founded by Stan Kenton in 1959. Kenton conceived the idea out of concern that education of jazz and all its forms were not reaching teenagers who showed signs of interest in it...

.

Award in Hall's Name

University of North Texas

University of North Texas

The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...

 and the town of Addison, Texas launched an annual jazz festival in the spring of 2000. The festival has created several awards to commemorate landmark figures in the development of UNT's jazz program. The Dr. M. E. "Gene" Hall Award is given to a college level big band selected by festival adjudicators to appear on one of the evening "pro" concerts.

Dr. M.E. "Gene" Hall Award Recipients (most outstanding college big band)

• 2004 – UMKC Conservatory Concert Jazz Ensemble
• 2005 – The University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band
• 2006 – University of Central Oklahoma
  University of Central Oklahoma
  The University of Central Oklahoma, often referred to as UCO, is a coeducational public university located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The university is the third largest in Oklahoma, with almost 18,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty...
  
   Jazz Ensemble I
• 2007 – Loyola University New Orleans
  Loyola University New Orleans
  Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
  
   Jazz Band

Shortly after the 2009 festival it was announced that the North Texas Jazz Festival would be suspended for 2010 due to budget constraints.

National Affiliations

• Hall served as the first president of the International Association for Jazz Education.

Honors

• 1981 – Hall of Fame Award, International Association of Jazz Educators
• 1992 – Down Beat Achievement Award for Jazz Education