Music
Betty Carter
1929–1998 · jazz singer, bandleader, educator
Flint-born, Detroit-raised jazz singer famed for her daring scat and phrasing, who won a Paradise Theatre talent contest and sat in with Parker and Gillespie before joining Lionel Hampton.
- Born
Flint, Michigan- Died
New York City
aged 69- Birth name
- Lillie Mae Jones
- Also known as
- Betty Bebop · Lorraine Carter
- Detroit years
- 1930s–1948
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lillie Mae Jones grew up in Detroit, where her father directed music at a church. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music at fifteen and at sixteen began slipping out at night to sing in amateur shows, even using a forged birth certificate to get into bars. In 1946 she won a talent contest at the Paradise Theatre, the Woodward Avenue showplace of Black entertainment, and was soon sitting in with Dizzy Gillespie, whose long Detroit stay fired her love of scat, and later with Charlie Parker's band. Lionel Hampton hired her in 1948; his wife nicknamed her Betty Bebop, and Hampton fired and rehired the headstrong singer several times. As Betty Carter she became one of the most inventive voices in jazz, founded her own Bet-Car label in 1971, and trained young players in her Jazz Ahead program; her bands launched musicians including Detroit drummer Karriem Riggins. She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1992 and received the National Medal of Arts in 1997.
Highlights
- Won a Paradise Theatre talent contest in Detroit (1946)
- Studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music
- Sang with Lionel Hampton's orchestra, 1948–1951
- Founded the Bet-Car label in 1971; created the Jazz Ahead mentoring program
- NEA Jazz Master (1992); National Medal of Arts (1997)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1946
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
As the Paradise Theatre (1941–1951) this hall hosted the amateur contest the teenage singer won in 1946; it is now the Detroit Symphony's Orchestra Hall.