BettyCarter.Org/Biography/1960-1980

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To be re-released in 2011.

In 1963 she would produce the album Round Midnight under the Atco label and a short album

Round Midnight (1962)

in 1964 called Inside Betty Carter under the United Artists label.

Inside Betty Carter (1964)

Still performing and doing club dates in New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey, Betty gave birth to her second son Kagle Redding in 1965. Her children needed tending to..


Myles Redding	Kagle Redding

and Betty found herself for the next three years unwilling to go on long extended tours. Betty Carter's career suffered for this and her name would fall back into obscurity again.

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.

Betty hits the road back.

The road back was a hard one and eventually it would take it's toll. She made a live recording on the Roulette Label entitled Finally-Betty Carter which didn't create much of a buzz at the time but would later be considered as one of her finest works, A second live recording again titled Round Midnight was met with the same fate as well.

Finally - Betty Carter (1969)

Out of print .

Betty was well known as an extremely tough negotiator, a tribute to her tutelage under Gladis Hampton, this would lead to many head to head confrontations over content. Betty felt the demands from the record companies were too constricting. As a result she created Bet Car Records in 1969. "I had to record on my own label - I started back in 1969, in fact I think I was probably the first independent label out there in '69. People thought I was crazy when I did it. 'How are you gonna get any distribution?' I mean, 'How are you gonna take care of business and do that yourself?' 'Don't you need somebody else?' I said, 'Listen. Nobody was comin' this way and I wanted the records out there, so I found out that I could do it myself.' So, that's what I did. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. You know. We're talking about '69!" (Click here to read the full article.)

Some sources will list 1970 as the starting date for Bet-Car Records but 1969 is the actual year of conception. It would be the sole source of her recordings for the next 18 years.

In 1972 she would leave her husband and move to Brooklyn NY where she would go back on the touring circuit and re-establish herself as a force to be reckoned with in the Jazz industry.

Jazz in decline!

The Rock and Roll movement was in full swing and Jazz was being pushed to the side lines as the music industry saw the big money that Rock and Roll was generating. Jazz was no longer "the Devil's music" and Betty saw what was happening first hand. Musicians were now getting less work and for Betty it was no different. So Betty had to make sure every performance was her best.That way, night club owners would remember her and call back. As time rolled on the Betty Carter Trio was one of the few groups to get consistent nightclub bookings.

By 1974 the plight of jazz had worsened. Competing against the big money machine that was rock and roll jazz was beginning to became less viable in the eyes of the record companies. It was around this time that Betty became concerned for the future of the music she loved.

Betty fought back in two ways. First by the restructuring of her own record companies capability to meet future production and distribution needs and second by bringing new energy to her concert tours. At first Betty could only get second or third billing on the concert circuit. She soon would be..

regarded as an act which was hard to follow as she would create so much energy and excitement among the audience it was a hard plateau for others following her on stage to reach.

Through her company, Bet Car Records, she would produce many of her best works which include The Betty Carter Album, Betty Carter (later re released as At the Village Vanguard),

The Betty Carter Album (1972)

Now It's My Turn, and I Didn't Know What Time it Was - culminating in the December 1979 recordings that became

Now It's My Turn (1976)

Out of print.

The Audience with Betty Carter, "Considered by some to be the finest vocal jazz recording ever made." Verve Music Group

The Audience with Betty Carter (1979)