Jazz singer Betty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones on May 16, 1929, in Flint, Michigan, to James Jones, a church musical director, and Bessie Jones, an active member of the NAACP. However, Betty was reared in Detroit and sang in the Hartford Avenue Baptist Church. At 16, she began singing in the choir at the Sidney D. Miller, a segregated high school for African Americans, and studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music. As a teen, Carter sat with Saxophonist Charlie Parker on some of his Detroit performances. She became a regular on the local club circuit, singing and playing the piano.
In 1948, Carter’s style of scatting caught the attention of Lionel Hampton who invited her to join his band as a featured vocalist. At that time, her stage name was Lorraine Carter. However, her approach often clashed with Hampton’s more traditional style, leading to her being fired and rehired seven times. This constant struggle did not deter her. In 1951, she left Hampton’s band and began appearing frequently at the Apollo Theatre and performing with the legendary trumpeter Miles Davis at the Howard Theater in Washington, DC.
In 1953, Carter released her first album, Betty Carter, followed by Out There through the Peacock label. In 1958 and 1959, Carter was on tour with Davis. A year later, in 1960, she released The Modern Sound of Betty Carter after signing with ABC-Paramount. Davis introduced Carter to Ray Charles that same year, leading to a collaboration. She began touring with Charles immediately, and Carter married James Romeo Redding from Oxford, North Carolina. They parented two sons, Myles Redding and Kagle Redding; the following year, in 1961, she and Charles recorded the jazz classic “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” In 1963, she toured Japan with jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, further solidifying her influence and impact on jazz.
In 1971, Carter divorced her husband. At the same time, she began selling her works through various distributors and was given the Recipient Special award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors in 1981. Seven years later, she released The Audience with Betty Carter, in 1988, followed by her album Look What I Got!.
In 1992, Carter was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame. She also started in the Jazz Ahead series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 1994, she recorded an album, Feed the Fire, and was invited to perform at the White House by U.S. President Bill Clinton. Three years later, in 1997, the President gave her a National Medal of Arts award. Also, that year, Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, hooded her with an honorary Doctor of Music degree.
Carter was the recipient of one Grammy Award for “Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female” for the album Look What I Got! and four nominations for her other albums. She also received a nomination for “Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo Or Group” for the album Carmen McRae And Betty Carter Duets.
Betty Carter passed away on September 26, 1998, in Brooklyn, New York from pancreatic cancer. She was 69.