Album Reviews

When this record was issued in 1976, 47 year old Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones) had already sang with Dizzy, Miles, Lionel Hampton, Sonny Rollins and many others.

Her choppy, aggressive, improvisatory style and intense scatting made for difficult listening for a mainstream audience, but she was beloved by beboppers and musical insiders considered her among, if not thegreatest female jazz singer of her era. Of course that could be said of Shirley Horn, Nina Simone and some others, who are probably better known.

The height of her fame came in 1961 when she paired with Ray Charles on the Sid Feller-produced Ray Charles and Betty Carter, originally issued on ABC-Paramount Records (LP 385) and reissued on DCC Compact Classics on 180g vinyl mastered by Steve Hoffman (LPZ-2005). The album included the chart topping single Charles/Carter duet “Baby It’s Cold Outside, which was Carter’s only brush with pop stardom, though she performed at the White House in 1994 and was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton, both for her singing talents and her work helping to launch the Kennedy Center’s Jazz Ahead program, which encourages and supports young musicians.

This album, recorded in 1976 for Roulette came at a time when Carter’s career had stalled, though arguably she was at a creative high point, combining the benefits of experience and maturity with a still supple, though deepening voice.

That there is no record of who’s playing drums, or where this was recorded, though the recording engineer was the great Joe Ferla, who I know, so I will ask him if he remembers who played drums and where this was recorded.

Roulette Records had switched to pressing Dynaflex-thin records by the time this record was first issued so no doubt even if you can find an original pressing it probably won’t sound great.

The original recording is actually excellent and the producer had the good sense to pair Carter with the late, great John Hicks on piano (he died May, 2006) and the equally well-regarded Walter Booker (who also passed away in 2006).

If scat singing makes your skin crawl, stay away from this album because Carter does plenty of it, though her balladry is sensational, particularly on the closer "No More Words." In fact, this album provides a fine showcase for the singer’s many interpretive talents.

The set opens with a stride-piano drenched rendering of “Music Maestro, Please/Swing Brother Swing,” a tune that Carter sang on “Saturday Night Live,” March, 1976, a performance you can watch if you download the entire show for two bucks at this site: http://tinyurl.com/45zfvg.

The eclectic rest of the set consists of equally lesser known standards of an era long gone now and pretty much gone back then.

The recording does an excellent job of capturing Carter’s voice warmly and intimately, with minimal, if any, processing. The same can be said of the other instruments, though the drum kit is splayed all across the soundstage, which can be somewhat distracting at times.

Fortunately the drums are cleanly and tastefully recorded as is the piano and the bass, most likely in a fairly small studio with each instrument well-isolated from the others in a style that allow major control and minimal microphone leakage so there’s not a great sense of a group playing in a space but there is excellent vocal and instrumental clarity.

The tonal balance is very warm and intimate as if you're sitting very close to the stage in a cozy jazz club. For Betty Carter fans or for musically adventurous jazz lovers, this Pure Pleasure reissue of a relatively obscure album will be a real treat. And yes, Betty most certainly still had it!