1929-1960
Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan, on May 16, 1929.
Though some web sources will list 1930 as her year of birth 1929 is the actual year Betty Carter was born. Her birth name was Lilly Mae Jones and she was born in Flint Michigan on May 16. She grew up in Detroit where her father James Jones worked as the musical director at the local church there. Lily-Mae sang at the Hartford Avenue Church: Its pastor was reverend Charles A. Hill a central figure in Detroit's early civil rights struggle.
Her Mother Bessie was a woman who thought, like many religious African- Americans, that Jazz was "the Devil's music". |
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Her mother would remain an active member of the N.A.A.C.P. until her death in 1971.
unfortunately she would never hear her daughter sing. |
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Their relationship would always be a strained one. Lilly Mae would sing informally with other future greats such as pianists Barry Harris and Tommy Flanagan.
As a child she studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music and as a teenager in high school Betty knew that she wanted to become a professional Jazz singer. It was around this time that she got hooked on a new form of musical expression called Bebop.
When asked how she came upon her unique approach Betty 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.
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"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...that made us feel like we were contributing something."
Far more than perhaps any vocalist in jazz history, Betty 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 Betty sat in with when she first got her start in Detroit nightclubs in the 1940s.
At age 16 she met Saxophonist Charlie Parker and was allowed to sit in at the legendary saxophonist's Detroit gig.
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She would also win a talent contest and became a regular on the local club circuit where she would not only sing but play piano as well.
Lionel Hampton comes to town.
Now a regular on the Detroit club circuit she would perform with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine when they came to perform but her life would change dramatically in 1948 when Lionel Hampton came to town and hired her as a featured vocalist.
While in the Hampton band Betty shared the stage with the likes of Charlie Mingus and Wes Montgomery as well as Little Jimmy Scott another young vocalist who was destined for longevity and stardom.
Back then, she was still Lilly Mae Jones.
Unhappy with her maiden name Betty was initially billed as Lorraine Carter. Her flights of improvisation at times put her at odds with Lionel Hampton's more traditional repertoire and for this he nick named her "Betty Bebop" as a criticism. This was a name Betty literally hated at the time. What many people don't realize is this: at the time Betty was with the Lionel Hampton Band the term "Be bop" was also a slang term with negative connotations. Here in Betty's own words during an interview with Michon Boston on March 26, 1984, she tries to explain the issue concerning "Betty Bebop" and why it was a nick name she would rather have done without.
"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 a lot 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."
By the time of this interview in 1984, 34 years had passed since the days of 1951 when Betty left the Lionel Hampton Band. Since then, the term "Betty Bebop" had taken on a whole new meaning in the eyes of her younger fan base. Today, it stands as a statment of tribute to her unique skills as a bebop artist but back then
when she was still developing her skills, the term was a slight in her eyes.
During her time with the Hampton band she became close friends with Lionel's wife Gladys Hampton. In fact legend has it that over the next two and a half years Betty would be fired seven times by Lionel only to be rehired at the behest of his wife.
" I learned a lot 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 |
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At the age of 21 she would travel to New York with the Lionel Hampton band and set up camp there. In the 50s Betty would perform as a lead singer with a number of different groups.
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Critics regard this period (1955-1960) as a time in which Betty fell into obscurity and was seen as being on the "Outskirts" of the Jazz scene but in retrospect she made her first record in 1955 with a young budding piano player by the name of Ray Bryant. The album, Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant received little fan fair, and a second set of recordings featuring the Gigi Gryce band in 1956 sat unpublished for 24 years until 1980. She would tour with Miles Davis and
Ray Charles in the late 50s. In particular between 1958 to 1959. In fact, Betty would tour for the next two years until she would return to the recording studio and do two recording sessions that would lead to the creation of two albums. Both sessions were recorded in New York in February, 1958, although details are sketchy on the two sessions. 36 songs were the result.
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I Can't Help It (Image taken from the re-issue.)
See discography.
Details coming soon!
Out of print. |
This was followed closely by a recording on a Texas gospel label under the name of Peacock. Out There with Betty Carter was the 2nd result and Betty was now developing a new reputation as a fiercely independent woman.
Many believe that this attitude was based in part from incite given to her over the years through her interactions with Lionel Hampton's no no-nonsense wife Gladys Hampton. |
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Betty was now being seen as a devoted Jazz singer and her popularity within the Jazz inner circles was high but critical acclaim and public recognition still proved to be elusive.
Her signature style was one that combined syncopated interpretations of classic musical standards combined with a scat singing style that set her apart from her counter parts. She would move to the ABC label in 1960 and record The Modern Sound of Betty Carter. According to the liner notes, there are 3 lost tracks that were recorded for ABC on
November 14, 1961 but never issued. The Modern Sound did little to help her popularity in the public's eye. It was around this time in 1960 that she would meet and begin a courtship with her future husband while performing in a Jazz night club.
James Romeo Redding stood 6 ft 2. He was tall, handsome and came straight from the fields of Oxford North Carolina. |
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Running away at age 16 he'd worked odd jobs for years before he would one day find himself tending bar in a night club in Newark New Jersey where Betty Carter was performing. The two had been passing glances and Betty had had enough. She wanted to meet this man.
"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
The two would become an item and on several occasions he could be seen backstage at the Apollo where Betty would play with such notables as Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie.
"It wasn't always business the way you view things now, son." He would say to me. "We were young back then and had a lot 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
Eventually Betty Carter and James Redding would acquire a home in Newark NJ where they would settle down and start a family.
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