Jazz singer and arranger, born in Flint, Michigan, USA. She was perhaps the major jazz singer of the 1980s and 1990s. In her younger days she sang with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and became known as Betty Bebop. Later she worked with Ray Charles and other blues artists, and continued performing into her sixties. She modelled her singing style more on jazz instrumentalists than on other vocalists, and projected it with an authoritative, prowling stage presence.
| Betty Carter | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 16, 1929 Flint, Michigan |
| Died |
September 26, 1998 New York City, New York |
Betty Carter (May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was a prominent American jazz singer who was renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style. Carmen McRae once claimed that "there's really only one jazz singer - only one: Betty Carter."
Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan and grew up in Detroit, where her father led a church choir. She later performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis and toured with Lionel Hampton, (from whom she received the nickname "Betty Bebop") where she perfected her scat singing of bebop. Some of her most outstanding recordings were first issued on Bet-Car, including the double album The Audience with Betty Carter (1980).
In 1993, Carter helped launch the Jazz Ahead program for young musicians at the Kennedy Center.
Carter remained active in jazz music until her death in September 1998 at age 69 from pancreatic cancer.
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