STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The jazz musician Keter Betts died over the weekend. In a career spanning nearly six decades, Betts recorded on almost 100 albums. Those recordings include a who's who of jazz. He considered two of the highlights to be his stints with vocalists Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. And in July of 2003, Betts explained why for the NPR series, Musicians In Their Own Words.
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Mr. KETER BETTS (Jazz Musician): You might not know me.
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Mr. BETTS: I'm a bass player.
(Soundbite of jazz music)
Mr. BETTS: In the fifth grade, my mother sent me down to the corner to the store to get a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk. When I come out of the store something came by and I said `What the heck is that?' And I followed it and it was an Italian parade. And I walked behind the drummers all over town. I was gone four hours. And when I got home my mother like to killed me, and she figured, `Well, if I give him a lickin' and he keeps on tickin' he must be serious.'
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Mr. BETTS: In the beginning when I first started the main part of the bass was to learn the changes to each song. But when I went with Dinah and started hearing the words and the melody, I'm learning the whole song instead of just the bottom part, and also the middle and the top. And then I found out that I liked almost being like a tailor.
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Ms. DINAH WASHINGTON: (Singing) You go to my head and you linger like a haunting refrain and I find you spinning round in my brain like the bubbles in a glass of champagne. Oh, you go to my head like a sip of sparkling Burgundy brew and I find the very mention of you like a kicker in a julep or two. Oh...
Mr. BETTS: My concept is that a singer comes out there, is buck-naked and it's my job to dress that person for the audience. A person comes in and I'm a tailor and they want a certain type of a jacket made with a double vent and this big guy wants one made with no vent and so forth. If you dress each one of those the way that they want to be fitted, and when they come out of there, their clothes fit them well, you're a good tailor. And I started tailor-making my bass to fit for the singing.
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Ms. WASHINGTON: (Singing) The sky was blue and high above...
Mr. BETTS: And then the more than 24 years with Ella was, you know, top of the learning point.
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Ms. ELLA FITZGERALD: (Singing) Yes, my heart belongs to Dad, 'cause my daddy he treats so well. Diamonds...
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Ms. FITZGERALD: (Singing) ...my man...
What else did you say about him, Keter?
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Ms. FITZGERALD: You don't say.
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Ms. FITZGERALD: What?
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Ms. FITZGERALD: What?
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Ms. FITZGERALD: Oh, the dirty old man!
(Soundbite of crowd)
Mr. BETTS: My daughter, she looked up on the Internet and she said `You've been on here, so many albums and so forth. Why don't you put out one?' And at that time I was preparing to try to get a boat, something that had been my biggest wish for 30 years ago. And then my wife and I talked about it and I said, `Well, maybe I will put out a CD.'
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INSKEEP: And that album, "Bass, Buddies & Blues" was released in 1998. It was the first of three solo albums that Keter Betts eventually released after that long career as a side man. He died over the weekend at the age of 77. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
