|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBETTS, Keter(William Thomas Betts, b 22 July 1928, Port Chester NY; found dead at home in Silver Springs MD, 6 August 2005) A jazz bassist who played on hundreds of recordings. His nickname, often spelled 'Keeter', came from being described as 'cuter than a mosquito' when he was a child. He began on drums but switched to bass in high school, partly inspired by Milt Hinton in Cab Calloway's band but also because lugging around a set of drums was too much work. Touring with Earl Bostic, he met Dinah Washington, and played in her backing group 1951-6. He said that she taught him that the secret to backing a singer was knowing the lyrics of the songs: the singer goes out there 'buck naked' and the backing group's job is to dress him/her. From the mid-1960s and especially from 1971 onward he backed Ella Fitzgerald until she retired from peforming in 1993. In 1961 he toured Brazil with guitarist Charlie Byrd, where they discovered bossa nova. Back in the USA Betts was the main inspiration for a recording session in a church in Washington DC that produced Jazz Samba in 1962, one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, and it was Betts' sinuous intro to 'Desifinado' that virtually set the tone for the album, but Byrd and Stan Getz got all the credit. He was active in music education, especially with children and young adults. Late in life he finally recorded as a leader; one of his compositions was 'Pinky's Waltz', in memory of his wife, Mildred Grady Betts, who died in 2000. |