Betty Carter

Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan, on May 16, 1930. At a young age, she began the study of piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music, and by the time she was a teenager she was slready sitting in with Charlie Parker and other bop musicians when they performed in Detroit. After winning a local amateur contest, she turned professional at age 16, hooking up with the Lionel Hampton band by 1948, billed as Lorraine Carter. Hampton was the man who hung the nickname 'Betty Be-Bop' on her (a nickname she hated, as she found bebop limiting and wanted to do more than just scat), but it stuck, and ultimately she changed her stage name to Betty Carter. At the age of 21, she traveled to New York with the Hampton band and set up home there.

Betty spent the early 1950s as a singer with different group. She did several shows at the Apollo, playing with such notables as Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie, toured with Miles Davis in 1958 and 1959, and spent much of the rest of the time on the outskirts of the jazz scene. Her refusal to adopt a more "mainstream" jazz style led to difficulty in finding bookings and making recordings. She made her first recordings in 1955 with a then-unknown piano player named Ray Bryant. The album, Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant, was little received, and her second set of recordings, with the Gigi Gryce band in 1956, languished unpublished until 1980.

By 1958, she was ready to record again, and another little known album, I Can't Help It, was the result, followed closely by a recording on the Peacock label (a Texas gospel label), Out There. She was developing a reputation as a fiercely independent woman (an attitude she developed based in part on her interactions with Gladys Hampton, Lionel's no-nonsense wife) and a devoted jazz singer, and her popularity among the inner jazz circles was high, but critical and popular acclaim eluded her. She was becoming well-known for her signature style that combined off-beat interpretations of classic tunes and wild scat-singing that never seemed to find the right beat. Even a move to the ABC label for her 1960 album The Modern Sound of Betty Carter did little to help that. She needed a break, and it came in the form of Ray Charles.

Ray Charles, on a recommendation from Miles Davis, agreed to take Betty on tour with him in the late 1950s. Enchanted by her voice and looking for a partner to record a series of duets, he enlisted Ms. Carter in a project that became Ray Charles and Betty Carter. The album, recorded in 1961, became an instant critical and popular smash; the single Baby It's Cold Outside gave Betty her first introduction into the popular music scene (indeed, at the 1997 White House ceremony where President Clinton presented Ms. Carter with a National Medal of Arts, the President said, "Hearing her sing 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' makes you want to curl up in front of the fire, even in summertime."). The sessions took on almost legendary status; after fifteen years in the business, fame had found Betty Carter.

And Betty Carter chose her family. She was raising two sons at the time, Myles and Kagle Redding, and chose to concentrate on that rather than capitalize on her recent success. Other than the 1963 Atco album Round Midnight (which showcased a different side of Betty that many critics strongly disliked), and a very short 1964 United Artists album called Inside Betty Carter, she made no recordings between 1961 and 1968. She still performed, doing club dates mostly around the New York area, but the name of Betty Carter eventually faded back into obscurity again. By 1969, though, Betty was ready to get back into music. The problem was - no one seemed to want her.

She started her road back with a live recording on the Roulette album. Finally - Betty Carter (an apt title) is considered one of her finest works, but it didn't garner much interest at the time. A second live recording, again titled 'Round Midnight, met with the same fate. Unable to drum up enough interest and tired of trying to satisfy the demands of recording companies, she came up with a solution - she founded her own company. Bet-Car was founded in 1971, and would be the soul source of her recordings until she signed with Verve in 1988.

The Bet-Car years produced some of Betty's finest albums - The Betty Carter Album, Betty Carter (later rereleased as At the Village Vanguard), Now It's My Turn, and I Didn't Know What Time it Was - culminating in the December 1979 recordings that became The Audience with Betty Carter, called by some the finest vocal jazz recording ever made. Performances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1978 helped solidify Betty's place in the jazz world, not only as a major vocal talent but also as a discoverer of new talent (including through the years such names as John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Mark Shim, Dave Holland, Stephen Scott and Kenny Washington).

Her Bet-Car recordings continued into the 1980s with Whatever Happened to Love? and a landmark session with fellow jazz legend Carmen McRae recorded live at a series of 1987 San Francisco dates. By 1988, finally someone took notice of her talents: Verve, on the lookout for under-appreciated jazz singers such as Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn, signed Ms. Carter to a contract and immediately set about rereleasing the majority of her old material.

In 1988, she burst back on to the popular jazz scene with Look What I Got, the album that earned her only Grammy award. The next decade produced several more outstanding recordings that featured a more mature sound - not reined in by any means, but perhaps softer, Betty Balladeer instead of Betty Be-Bop. She garnered Grammy nominations for 1990's Droppin' Things and 1992's It's Not About the Melody. She continued to feature young, up-and-coming musicians on most of her albums, a practice broken only on the 1994 album Feed the Fire, considered by some to be her finest work since Audience. Betty remained active in developing new musicians through the Jazz Ahead program, founded in 1993, that brought unknown jazz musicians to New York to work with her. She performed at the White House in 1994, and was a major headliner at Verve's 50th anniverary celebration in Carnegie Hall. She continued to stay active with her teaching right up until her death from pancreatic cancer on September 26, 1998.

With Betty Carter gone, the jazz world has been left a gaping hole that no one artist could ever hope to fill. While other female (and male) jazz singers will come along, it's doubtful that anyone will be able to match Betty's combination of singing talent, compositional ideas, and willingness to teach. It's up to those of us who remain to ensure that her legacy grows and that the generations that ensue will have the pleasure- no, the honor - of sitting home, late at night, and drifting off into Betty Carter's world.
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Betty Carter, Milton Suggs, Gillian Margot and More

by Jua Howard
July 21, 2024

Welcome Music Family! It's time for another great episode of the “First Instrument Jazz Show"! I've got a great show in store for you this week including new music from Milton Suggs, Carmen Bradford, and Tianna Hall,; and plenty more timeless music from artists such as the great Betty Carter, Harry Connick, Jr., Gillian Margot, and Jon Lucien. Come get lost in the music with me!Playlist Intro 00:00 Jon Lucien “Out of This World" from Live in NYC ...

Radio & Podcasts

Betty Carter, Patty Waters, and Fay Victor

by Jerome Wilson
June 5, 2024

This program features several distinctive vocalists, Betty Carter, Patty Waters, and Fay Victor. It also has instrumental work from Riley Mulherkar, The Messthetics, and Tomasz Stańko among others. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Mark Segger Sextet “Conversations in a Crowd" from The Beginning (18th Note) 00:59 Roots “Heaven Dance" from Saying Something (In & Out) 7:35 Host Speaks ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Vocal Releases From John Dokes, Allegra Levy, Karrin Allyson, KJ Denhert, Birthday Shoutouts To Betty Carter & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
May 27, 2024

This broadcast includes new releases from John Dokes, Allegra Levy, Karrin Allyson, Nancy Erickson Lamont, KJ Denhert and Sean Fyfe, with birthday shoutouts to Betty Carter, Virginia Mayhew, Brittany Anjou, Karin Krog, Grace Kelly, Barb Jungr, Veronica Swift, KJ Denhert and Miles Griffith, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire. Playlist Virginia Mayhew “O.W." from ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Music Never Stops: Tales of Wonder and Ms. B.C.

by Mary Foster Conklin
May 25, 2020

This week we focus on new releases from pianist Danny Green's band LP and the Vinyl, vocalist Linda Purl, saxophonist Brian Landrus, the duo Const, plus a Stevie Wonder tribute by various Posi-Tone artists for his 70th birthday and a special single from Cynthia Scott, with more birthday shoutouts to lyricist Betty Comden and Betty Carter (pictured) plus a remembrance of Holli Ross. Thanks for your continued support and please support these artists and their music. Playlist Jon ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jazz Singers in the 60s - Betty Carter, Shiela Jordan Plus (1961 - 1969)

by Russell Perry
October 29, 2019

The 1960s featured many recordings by highly musical singers in the company of great jazz instrumentalists. In this hour of Jazz at 100, we will survey the 1960s recordings of jazz singers Betty Carter, Eddie Jefferson, Sheila Jordan, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae, Jon Hendricks and Johnny Hartman. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Betty Carter Quartet “This Is Always" from The Jazz Singers (Smithsonian) 2:21 Betty Carter Quartet “I Only Have Eyes for You." from Finally (Roulette) 5:30 ...

Radio & Podcasts

Birthday Shout-outs to Betty Carter and Stevie Wonder

by Mary Foster Conklin
June 28, 2019

A two hour broadcast with new releases from bassist Linda May Han Oh and vocalist Elizabeth Tomboulian, plus birthday shout outs to Betty Carter, Stevie Wonder, lyricist Betty Comden, flutist Jan Leder, pianist Brittany Anjou, saxophonists Virginia Mayhew and Grace Kelly and vocalist Miles Griffith, among others. Playlist Jan Leder “Bird of Beauty" from Nonchalant (Challenge) 00:00 Nnenna Freelon “Black Orchid" from Tales of Wonder (Concord) 06:55 Stevie Wonder “You've Got It Bad Girl" from Talking Book (Tamla) ...

Bailey's Bundles

Classical Boxes: Harnoncort’s Strauss & Bostridges’ Schubert

by C. Michael Bailey
March 15, 2015

With the traditional music industry in shambles, the larger labels are repackaging their deep catalogs as never before, releasing well-conceived box sets that are modestly priced for the amount of music offered. Here are two from Warner Classics that make me want to yell, “Yeehaw!" (In the southern classical music vernacular, that is.) Nikolaus Harnoncourt Johann Strauss II Warner Classics 2014 When considering Austrian period-performance conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, ...

Video / DVD

Betty Carter: Music Never Stops

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 16, 2019

After singing with Lionel Hampton in the late 1940s, vocalist Betty Carter had her first hit with Red Top. Teamed with vocalist King Pleasure in 1952, their vocalese duet put words to the solo melodies of tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons and trumpeter Gail Brockman on their 1947 version of Red Top. Between 1956 and 1964, Carter recorded six studio albums and then took a break to raise a family. By the time she returned at the end of the decade, ...
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Performance / Tour

Nu-Art Series to Present Erika Johnson in Betty Carter Tribute on Saturday, April 7

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
March 27, 2012

The Nu-Art Series has announced that Erika Johnson (pictured) will sing works associated with legendary jazz vocalist Betty Carter in a concert at 3:00 p.m., Saturday, April 7 at the Metropolitan Gallery, 2936 Locust St. Originally from East St. Louis, Johnson has performed around the area since the mid-1990s, and also serves as the voiceover artist for station identity spots on radio station WSIE (88.7 FM). She'll be accompanied during her Betty Carter tribute by guitarist Eric Slaughter, drummer Montez ...
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462

Recording

Ray Charles Christmas Album Features Freddie Hubbard, Betty Carter

Source: conqueroo
September 15, 2009

Los Angeles, CA -- Concord Records caps a year in which it reissued many of Ray Charles' classic albums (Genius: The Ultimate Ray Charles Collection, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, A Message From the People and The Genius Hits the Road) with the artist's only Christmas album of his entire career, The Spirit of Christmas. Concord's digitally remastered reissue marks the first time the album has been available in more than 12 years. Street date is October 6, ...
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171

Event

NYC Duo Brings Ray Charles & Betty Carter's Music Back Around

Source: Mix Management, Bonnie Ahl
April 29, 2008

Soul/blues duo Dwight & Nicole (Dwight Ritcher & Nicole Nelson) have just sold out two shows at the Blue Note NYC, and two more at the Regattabar, Cambridge, MA, with their acclaimed show honoring the music of legendary duo Ray Charles & Betty Carter.

They return to the Northeast in May & June for shows at the Real Deal Jazz Club, a beautiful historic theater within the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center; Friday May 9 at 7:00pm & 9:30pm. (For tickets ...
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379

Event

Ray Charles & Betty Carter Celebrated at the Blue Note

Source: Mix Management, Bonnie Ahl
March 13, 2008

On Sunday, April 20th, soulful duo Dwight & Nicole (Dwight Ritcher & Nicole Nelson) will help celebrate the lives of legends Ray Charles & Betty Carter with an afternoon of music in their honor at the Blue Note, 131 W 3rd St, New York, NY for two shows 12:30pm & 2:30pm. For tix (212) 475-8592 or go to bluenote.net Both risk takers in music and in life, Ray Charles and Betty Carter broke many rules to convey unique vision. Dwight ...
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127

Festival

Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead at VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest

Source: All About Jazz
March 11, 2008

READING, PA -- March 11 -- An amazing variety of first-rate jazz music isn't the only mission of the VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest; education and furthering youth involvement in jazz as an art form is also a major commitment of the festival. The Kennedy Center Presents: Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead, a music residency program for young people, is coming to the Berks Jazz Fest, Sunday, March 30, at 1:30 p.m. at the Miller Center for the Arts. There is ...
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Music Industry