Betty Carter - Inside Betty Carter (1964)

Arguably the most adventurous female jazz singer of all time, Betty Carter was an idiosyncratic stylist and a restless improviser who pushed the limits of melody and harmony as much as any bebop horn player. The husky-voiced Carter was capable of radical, off-the-cuff reworkings of whatever she sang, abruptly changing tempos and dynamics, or rearranging the lyrics into distinctive, off-the-beat rhythmic patterns. She could solo for 20 minutes, scat at lightning speed, or drive home an emotion with wordless, bluesy moans and sighs. She wasn't quite avant-garde, but she was definitely "out." Yet as much as Carter was fascinated by pure, abstract sound, she was also a sensitive lyric interpreter when she chose, a tender and sensual ballad singer sometimes given to suggestive asides. Her wild unpredictability kept her marginalized for much of her career, and she never achieved the renown of peers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, or Carmen McRae. What was more, her exacting musical standards and assertive independence limited her recorded output somewhat. But Carter stuck around long enough to receive her proper due; her unwillingness to compromise eventually earned her the respect of the wider jazz audience, and many critics regarded her as perhaps the purest jazz singer active in the '80s and '90s. Additionally, Carter took an active role in developing new talent, and was a tireless advocate for the music and the freedom she found in it, right up to her death in 1998.

These recordings can be considered the final ones of Betty Carter's early period for, by the time she next appeared on record (in 1969), the singer was much more adventurous in her improvisations. This CD reissues eight selections from Carter's rather brief 1964 Roulette LP (under 26 minutes), plus it adds seven previously unissued numbers from 1965. On the former date Carter (who is quite memorable on "This Is Always," "Some Other Time," and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most") is accompanied by pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Roy McCurdy, while the "new" session ("There Is No Greater Love" and "You're a Sweetheart" are the standouts) features guitarist Kenny Burrell plus an unknown rhythm section in the backup band. Highly recommended to Betty Carter fans and to those listeners who find her later work somewhat forbidding.

Tracklist:
"This Is Always" (Mack Gordon, Harry Warren) – 3:10
"Look No Further" (Richard Rodgers) – 1:55
"Beware My Heart" (Sam Coslow) – 5:07
"My Favorite Things" (Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) – 1:35
"Some Other Time" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) – 3:46
"Open the Door" (Betty Carter) – 3:11
"Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most" (Fran Landesman, Tommy Wolff) – 5:15
"Something Big" (Richard Adler) – 1:58
"New England" (unknown) – 2:55
"The Moon is Low" (Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown) – 2:00
"Once in Your Life" (unknown) – 2:54
"It's a Big Wide Wonderful World" (John Rox) – 1:48
"There Is No Greater Love" (Marty Symes, Isham Jones) – 3:46
"You're a Sweetheart" (Jimmy McHugh, Harold Adamson) – 4:02
"Isn't it Romantic?" (Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 1:44

(Tracks 9-15 not included on the original LP issue)

Betty Carter - Inside Betty Carter (1964)

(320 kbsp, cover art included)