Saturday, May 16, 2009

BETTY CARTER, CLASSE É CLASSE...
Nascida Lillie Mae Jones em Flint, Michigan no 16 de maio de 1930, Betty Carter começou a cantar nos clubes de Detroit aos 16 anos mas obteve o reconhecimento da critica e aficionados por jazz somente na idade adulta como fiel e talentosa representante do movimento bebop.

Embora tenha substituído Dinah Washington na banda de Lionel Hampton como interprete de blues, sofreu enorme influencia do bebop para o qual rapidamente se adaptou. Durante os anos 50 atuou em clubes com artista inovadores como Muddy Waters, Miles Davies, Monk e Ray Briant.

Nos anos 50 continuou atuando, mas sem grande sucesso, devido a "Britsh Invasion" que tomou espaco do jazz.
Depois de lançamento de um álbum em 61 com seu próprio selo, um concerto em New York em 62 e a sua performance no show “Dont Call Me Man” em 75 o sucesso chegou para ficar.

No final da década participou de vários concertos e no inico da década de 80 lançou dois importantes albums aclamados pela critica e publico, “ The Audience with Betty Carter” e “ Whatever happened to Love".

O cd cuja capa ilustra este post, gravado com Ray Charles, marcou a assinatura definitiva por Betty e Ray da canção “Baby it’s cold outside” em 1961 que trouxe para ambos grande retorno financeiro e fama refletidos nas vendagens do cd em todo mundo. A audição é imperdível.


Betty Carter esteve no Brasil participando do Free Jazz Festival e veio a falacer em setembro de 1998.



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 slready sitting in with Charlie Parker and other bop musicians when they performed in Detroit. After winning a local amateur contest, she turned professional at age 16, hooking up with the Lionel Hampton band by 1948, billed as Lorraine Carter. Hampton was the man who hung the nickname 'Betty Be-Bop' on her (a nickname she hated, as she found bebop limiting and wanted to do more than just scat), but it stuck, and ultimately she changed her stage name to Betty Carter. At the age of 21, she traveled to New York with the Hampton band and set up home there.
Ray Charles, on a recommendation from Miles Davis, agreed to take Betty on tour with him in the late 1950s. Enchanted by her voice and looking for a partner to record a series of duets, he enlisted Ms. Carter in a project that became Ray Charles and Betty Carter.


The album, recorded in 1961, became an instant critical and popular smash; the single Baby It's Cold Outside gave Betty her first introduction into the popular music scene (indeed, at the 1997 White House ceremony where President Clinton presented Ms. Carter with a 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.").

The sessions took on almost legendary status; after fifteen years in the business, fame had found Betty Carter. Betty remained active in developing new musicians through the Jazz Ahead program, founded in 1993, that brought unknown jazz musicians to New York to work with her.


She performed at the White House in 1994, and was a major headliner at Verve's 50th anniverary celebration in Carnegie Hall.


She continued to stay active with her teaching right up until her death from pancreatic cancer on September 26, 1998.


Clique abaixo para desfrutar Betty cantando "Once Upon a Sumertime"


Reference'/Fonte - Betty Carter Web Site/100 anos de musica.

Tradução - Humberto Amorim

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