Hall Franklin Overton, born on February 23, 1920, in Bangor, Michigan, was an American composer, jazz pianist, and music teacher. He studied composition at The Chicago Musical College and learned jazz during his service in the U.S. Army. After graduating from The Juilliard School of Music in 1951, he became a faculty member there. He collaborated with notable musicians such as Stan Getz, Duke Jordan, Jimmy Raney, and Teddy Charles. He composed orchestral arrangements for Thelonious Monk's works, recorded live on the albums The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall (1959) and Big Band and Quartet in Concert (1963). He created classical compositions such as symphonies and the opera Huckleberry Finn (1971), presented by The Juilliard Opera Company. He taught at the Yale School of Music and received awards from The Koussevitzky Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He died on November 24, 1972, from cirrhosis of the liver.
