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I wish to acknowledge all those sources that have made putting this web cite together so possible.
Verve Music Group
Quotes: 1- 6
Author: Unknown
Posted:1998
Web Link: http://www.vervemusicgroup.com /artist.aspx?ob=per&src=prd &aid=2662
Quote:1(It was Miles Davis who originally recommended Betty Carter to Ray Charles back in the 1950s, Ray agreed to take Betty on tour with him. Enchanted by her voice and looking for a partner to record a series of duets in 1961, he enlisted Ms. Carter in a project that became Ray Charles and Betty Carter.)
Quote: 2 (In 1958, Betty was ready to go back into the recording studio and another little known album called ,I Can't Help It, was the result. Followed closely by a recording on a Texas gospel label by the name of Peacock. Out There, was the result and Betty was now developing a reputation as a fiercely independent woman.)
Quote: 3 (In 1969 Betty Carter had decided that it was time for her to get back into music full time but at the time no one seemed to be interested in Betty Carter any more.)
Quote: 4 (culminating in the December 1979 recordings that became The Audience with Betty Carter, Considered by some to be the finest vocal jazz recording ever made.)
Quote: 5 (Hearing her sing 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' makes you want to curl up in front of the fire, even in summertime." President William Jefferson Clinton )
Quote: 6 (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 already sitting in with Charlie Parker and other bop musicians when they performed in Detroit.
BBC Radio
Quote: 7
Author: 100 Jazz Profiles
Posted:1998
Web Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 /jazz/profiles/betty_carter .shtml
Quote: 7("The finest jazz singer of the late 20th century."
VH1.Com
Quote: 8
Author: Unknown Author
Web Link: http://www.vh1.com/artists/az /betty_carter/artist.jhtml
Posted:1998
Quote: 8 ("Arguably the most adventurous female jazz singer of all time.")
Berkshire Eagle
Quotes: 9-11
Author: Seth Rogovoy
Web Link: http://www.berkshireweb.com /rogovoy/interviews/carter.html
Posted:Nov. 14, 1997
Quote: 9 ("I'm educating myself as I go along and learning more about myself and then putting my voice to the test on top of that, challenging it, making sure that it stays on top and does not drop. So I'm challenging the whole picture and taking what I call a risk.")
Quote: 10 ("Jazz is not a nice word today," said Carter -- who performs with her trio tonight in Chapin Hall at Williams College at 8 -- in a recent phone interview from her home in Brooklyn. "Because jazz doesn't make money quickly, a lot of people in power are not encouraging young people to really use the word `jazz,'" said Carter, who was awarded an honorary degree at Williams last June. "For a person who's been out here as long as I have, they're pretty much sick of me because I just won't go away," said the always outspoken Carter. "I'm not going away, see, that's what probably bothers a lot of people. "There's a lot of young singers who are coming up, and [record executives] hope that they will replace the idea of jazz being what I have in mind with what THEY have in mind. But until I go away, that's not going to happen, because as long as I'm around, I may be a thorn in some of the business peoples' sides who want to interpret the music another way for them to make money more quickly. "They discourage these young girls, young singers, from dealing with this music called jazz -- don't improvise, sing it straight, or sing it like somebody else has done it, or be like someone else. We have a lot of African-American singers who sing the gospel, who come directly out of a church, and they have these big, wonderful voices, and they know how to program these young ladies, and they tell them they're going to make a whole lot of money if they sing this way instead of that way. "In fact, the young singers, most of them don't even know what my singing is like. They don't have any idea what jazz is. Until they maybe hear me one day and then they're surprised. But it's too late for them then, they can't just change automatically and say I'm going to try to be like that.")
Web Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 /jazz/profiles/betty_carter .shtml
Quote: 7 ("The finest jazz singer of the late 20th century.")
VH1.Com
Quote: 8
Author: Unknown Author
Web Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/profiles/betty_carter.shtml
Posted:1998
Quote: 8 ("Arguably the most adventurous female jazz singer of all time.")
Berkshire Eagle
Quotes: 9-11
Author: Seth Rogovoy
Web Link: http://www.berkshireweb.com /rogovoy/interviews/carter.html
Posted:Nov. 14, 1997
Quote: 9 ("I'm educating myself as I go along and learning more about myself and then putting my voice to the test on top of that, challenging it, making sure that it stays on top and does not drop. So I'm challenging the whole picture and taking what I call a risk.")
Quote: 10 ("Jazz is not a nice word today," said Carter -- who performs with her trio tonight in Chapin Hall at Williams College at 8 -- in a recent phone interview from her home in Brooklyn. "Because jazz doesn't make money quickly, a lot of people in power are not encouraging young people to really use the word `jazz,'" said Carter, who was awarded an honorary degree at Williams last June. "For a person who's been out here as long as I have, they're pretty much sick of me because I just won't go away," said the always outspoken Carter. "I'm not going away, see, that's what probably bothers a lot of people. "There's a lot of young singers who are coming up, and [record executives] hope that they will replace the idea of jazz being what I have in mind with what THEY have in mind. But until I go away, that's not going to happen, because as long as I'm around, I may be a thorn in some of the business peoples' sides who want to interpret the music another way for them to make money more quickly. "They discourage these young girls, young singers, from dealing with this music called jazz -- don't improvise, sing it straight, or sing it like somebody else has done it, or be like someone else. We have a lot of African-American singers who sing the gospel, who come directly out of a church, and they have these big, wonderful voices, and they know how to program these young ladies, and they tell them they're going to make a whole lot of money if they sing this way instead of that way. "In fact, the young singers, most of them don't even know what my singing is like. They don't have any idea what jazz is. Until they maybe hear me one day and then they're surprised. But it's too late for them then, they can't just change automatically and say I'm going to try to be like that.")
Quote 11 (Far more than perhaps any vocalist in jazz history, Carter uses her voice as a musical instrument, period. And in her case, the musician is as innovative and groundbreaking an improviser and performer as a Charlie Parker or a Dizzy Gillespie, to name just two of the bebop legends whom Carter sat in with when she first got her start in Detroit nightclubs in the 1940s. Carter says that she came upon her unusual style naturally, as a result of trying to attract the interest of musicians who would want to play with her. "When we came up, we knew that we had to become a musician or a better singer or a better horn player," she said. "And that's what we worked toward. We wanted musicians to like what we were doing as singers, so that they would want to play with us and accompany us and made us feel like we were contributing something." )
New York Times
Quote:12-13
Author: Steven Holden
Web Link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst /fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D81138 F936A3575BC0A961948260
Posted:August 5th 1987
Quote: 12 ("Ms Carter is one of a very few jazz vocalists who can be counted on to approach the familiar from a totally unexpected, sometimes revelatory point of view.")
Quote: 13 ("Ms. Carter, who led a youthful trio that included Winard Harper, playing drums; Michael Bowie, playing bass, and Steve Scott, pianist, is one of a very few jazz vocalists who can be counted on to approach the familiar from a totally unexpected, sometimes revelatory point of view. In Monday evening's program, she rethought Rodgers & Hart's ''Where or When,'' poring over the song in a deep, golden voice that bent, stretched and twisted it into an open-ended meditation on memory and feeling. ''Blue Moon'' became a fluttery, accelerated duet for voice and standup bass in which the words bled rhythmic abstractions that were then turned back into words. ''The Good Life'' played off three complementary musical ideas: an airy bossa nova pulse, a heavier non-Brazilian counter rhythm, and a brooding free-form vocal that shifted in mood between pleasure and sadness, as the singer explored multi-faceted timbres and micro-tonal variations."
Creative Quotations . Com
Quote:14
Author: Unknown
Web Link: http://www.creativequotations .com/one/2212.htm
Quote: 14 ("After me there are no more jazz singers . . . It's a crime that no little singer is back there sockin' it to me in my field. To keep it going, to keep it alive, because I'm not going to live forever.")
Afgen.Com
Quote:15
Author: James T. Jones IV
Web Link: http://www.afgen.com/betty _carter.html
Quote: 15 ("I do believe the albums I did on my own label were just as qualified as this one that won a Grammy. But because they were on Bet-Car and not on a major label, they didn't have a chance. But if this Grammy has done anything, it's shown young musicians to just hang in there and deal with what you love to do; eventually it will be rewarded. You don't have to compromise. I couldn't compromise.") '
Betty Carter . Org
Quotes:16- 19
Author: Kagle Redding
Web Link: BettyCarter.Org
Quote: 16 (" I learned allot about the business from Gladys. She was the business end in the Hampton camp and you couldn't run anything past her either. She knew the game backwards, forwards and sideways too." Betty Carter)
Quote: 17 ("A musician walked over to me and said 'hey man, Betty Carter wants to meet you' I said Betty Carter? and the guy just looked at me and said, 'You don't know Betty? C'mon man.' and then he just brought me over.") James Romeo Redding
Quote: 18 ("It wasn't always business the way you view things now, son." He would say to me. "We were young back then and had allot of fun just doing things. We'd go out to Philadelphia just to get some cheese cake then check out some night clubs because we were there.") James Romeo Redding
Quote: 19 ("People work hard and they pay allot to come see you. Many of them may never see or hear you live again. You can't go onstage and BS them. Jazz just doesn't work like that. It's about taking chances. You have to hit 'em heavy straight from the start. That's why no body ever knew which tune I would call, even my musicians. They just had to hold their breath and be ready so they had to study everything.")
Betty Carter
Afgen.Com
Quote:20
Author: James T. Jones IV
Web Link: http://www.afgen.com/betty_carter.html
Quote: 20 ("This lady is the only one of us who hasn't copped out. She's the only jazz singer left.")
Carmen McRae
The Vocal Musician Interview "from the Vault"
Web link: http://www.vocalmusician.com/Features/Archives/VMI_betty_carter.htm
Quote: 21 ("Early, when I first started in the business years ago - I started with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy and Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey and all those guys about the late 40s - I was exposed to that Bebop music . And my exposure... turned me on to it. So, I was able to improvise a little bit at a young age. And I got with Lionel Hampton - who really isn't a Bebop band, but - I started out with his band in 1948 and, because I could improvise - or scat - whatever you wanna call it, I was nicknamed, "Betty Bebop" by Lionel Hampton. And I stayed with his band about two and a half years and couldn't get rid of it {Betty Bebop} until I left the band.
I left the band in '51. I started a campaign of trying to get rid of the "Bebop" and just plainly use Betty Carter and it's been slowly getting out of the way. But still a few people remember it and alot of young kids like you don't know... that I don't like it too much . But they still can refer to it - they don't have a feeling about it like I have about it, most of the young kids today. So... I just take it now and don't get too angry when people call me "Betty Bebop". I used to get very angry. Or upset. Because it had a - well it always aligned you with certain musicians who had drug habits and things like that; who hurt themselves physically. You know. And I didn't wanna be in that category. But I couldn't get rid of the word 'Bebop', you see? I wasn't a junkie or anything like that, you know. I just enjoyed the music. And that's the reason why I wanted to get rid of the word 'Bebop' because it meant that you were unreliable, irresponsible, you see. And that wasn't the case in my case." )
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