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Kagle Redding
1930-1960 Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan, on May 16, 1930.
Though some web sources will list 1929 as her year of birth 1930 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".
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. Their relationship would always be a strained one. Lily 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. "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.
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.
Read moreLionel 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 because she felt the title was limiting and she wanted to sing more rather then scat but the name stuck and eventually she would become accustomed to it.
Still developing her unique approach 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
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. 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.
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. 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. 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 which did little to help her popularity in the public's eye.
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 would tour with Miles Davis and Ray Charles in the late 50s. In particular between 1958 to 1959. 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. 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.
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. This was also the same year she would give birth to her first born son Myles Redding. The album became a critical smash hit!
1960-1980 The single Baby its Cold outside would finally give her some recognition in the popular music scene. Taking on an almost legendary status, fame had finally found Betty Carter. Choosing to concentrate on her family rather then capitalize on her new fame Betty would produce only two recordings after the Ray Charles / Betty Carter album in the 1960s. In 1963 she would produce the album Round Midnight under the Atco label and a short album in 1964 called Inside Betty Carter under the United Artists label.
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 and a second live recording again titled Round Midnight was met with the same fate as well. Betty was unable to create any interest in a new album and felt the demands from the record companies were too constricting. As a result she created Bet Car Records in 1970. This would be the sole source of her recordings for the next 17 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 where 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. Compeating against the big money machine that was rock and roll jazz was begining 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), 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, "Considered by some to be the finest vocal jazz recording ever made." Verve Music Group
And she backed up those claims with her live performance on Saturday Night Live during its first season in 1976 and at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1978. These performances helped Betty solidify her place in the world of Jazz as both a major vocal talent and a discoverer of new Jazz talent which included such names as John Hicks, Curtis Lundy, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Dave Holland, Stephen Scott, Kenny Washington, Benny Green, Debbie Allen and more,
While on tour in the United States, Europe and South America she would seek out and listen to many others who she would invite to sit in practice sessions and during concerts.
Betty had finally found her calling as she began to focus her energies not only on her performance but on the future of Jazz as well. The 70's had come to an end and the 80s was now just over the horizon.
1980-1998 With the 80's came allot of new changes and one of them was Betty Carter.
Her American, European and South American tours were selling out and Bet Car records was continuing to release albums such as Whatever Happened to Love? Which was followed up with another album. A session with Carmen McRae recorded live in San Francisco in 1987.
She would receive a one of a kind review by the New York Times that same year for her performance on the opening night of the Classical Jazz series at the Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.
"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." New York Times August 5th 1987
In 1988 Betty was approached by Verve. Taking notice of her talents Verve and Bet Car came to an agreement and Verve immediately set about the re-releasing of the majority of her old material. A time span that stretched back to 1955.
Also in 1988, she burst back on to the popular jazz scene with Look What I Got, the album that earned her a Grammy award. In an interview with columnist James Jones IV she was asked about the difference between this album under the Verve label and the ones done under her own Bet-Car label. Betty's response was not only candid and to the point but a reflection on the politics of the music industry. "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 Betty was featured on Sesame Street and later on an episode of the Bill Cosby Show! In 1989 she did a TV Commercial for Coca Cola Classic with Bill Cosby as well. (See Pod Cast to view.)
The 1990s would show a new side of Betty Carter, a more mature sound not reined in by any means. A softer more confident sound: Betty the Balladeer.
She would receive Grammy Nominations for her 1990 release Droppin' Things and her 1992 release It's Not About the Melody. Betty continued on her quest for young new talent and found young, up and coming musicians to feature on most of her albums.
In 1993 she founded the Jazz Ahead program which was devoted to the development of new Jazz artists and budding Jazz prodigies. A program that brought unknown Jazz musicians to New York for debut.
In 1994 she produced Feed the Fire. Considered by many to be her finest album since Audience. That same year she was featured as a major headliner at Verve's 50th Anniversary celebration at Carnegie Hall.
At the 1997 White House ceremony President Clinton presented Ms. Carter with the 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."
Over the years Betty Carter has received literally thousands of honors and awards. But the National Medal of the Arts was by far the most cherished.
Betty Carter made sure that every show was unique and you could never see the same show twice.
There are many Artists who lived and died on their routine. They would do tune A and follow it with tune B always in the same key just as before but Betty never settled for formula.
"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
Continuing to teach she remained active both by touring the United States, Europe as well as South America and seeking out young talent until she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in the summer of 1998. On September 26, 1998 Betty Carter succumbed to her illness.
Editor's Note: Being both her son and her road manager in the mid 1990s I've seen Betty Carter in so many different lights. As a mother and then a performer followed by all those shades in-between. From starting her own Recording Company to shaking hands and receiving honors from the president. Yet in all that time my relationship with her only spans a third of her life. Out of all the articles I've read and all the images I've gone through I'd like to provide you with one last quote from Betty Carter. An insight that may provide you with a glimpse of the odds she was up against when it came to the preservation of the music she fought so hard to stay pure to. The music she loved. These excerpts where taken from an interview conducted over the phone by Seth Rogovoy for the Berkshire Eagle on Nov 14 1997.
"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." Betty Carter
(To read the entire article click here.)
I think creating this web site for you has been the most therapeutic session of all. Over the next few years to come you'll find new featured aspects from her life as I find them and make them available. Hopefully you will find them insightful. If you have pictures a comment a suggestion a correction or even a Betty Carter story to tell feel free to send us an email. [email protected] Show less
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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.)
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 --> 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