News & Updates — Ray Charles

One of the most inventive vocal stylists in all of jazz, Betty Carter not only brought a gift for radical improvisation, a "breathy" artful style at times and a hip scatting flow, but she also brought an independent spirit with her own Bet-Car record label, where she sold albums direct to fans and stores out of the trunk of her car. She grew up in Detroit and was singing in the nightclubs as a teenager, due to possessing a fake ID. Early experience with Dizzy Gillespie was a huge influence on her, as well as early encounters with Charlie Parker,...