[Dixielandjazz] Keter Betts obit from Washington Post

[Norman Vickers]

Here's Keter Betts obit from Washington Post:
Norm Vickers
 
Jazz Bassist Keter Betts Dies at 77
 
by Adam Bernstein
Washington  Post, August 8, 2005 
 
Keter Betts, 77, a jazz bassist heard on more than  200 recordings,
notably 
with guitarist Charlie Byrd and singers Dinah Washington  and Ella
Fitzgerald, 
was found dead Aug. 6 at his home in Silver  Spring.
 
The cause of death has not been determined, according to the  McGuire
funeral 
home in the District.
 
Trumpeter Clark Terry, formerly  with the Duke Ellington and "Tonight
Show" 
orchestras, said Mr. Betts was "on  the top plateau of all the bass
players."
 
Mr. Betts played in bands with  Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan, Woody
Herman, 
Nat Adderley, Joe Pass, Clifford  Brown and Vince Guaraldi.
 
After he made the Washington area his home in  the mid-1950s, Mr. Betts 
teamed with Byrd, the lyrical guitarist who made his  name with sensual,

samba-inspired bossa nova music. They were regulars at the  Showboat
Lounge in the 
District and made several State Department-sponsored  trips abroad.
 
During one trip to Brazil, Mr. Betts became enthralled with  samba
records 
and, he said, spent months persuading Byrd to play the music  around
Washington.
 
Although Mr. Betts was on the million-selling "Jazz  Samba" (1962) album
-- 
recorded at Washington's All Souls Unitarian Church --  stars Byrd and 
saxophonist Stan Getz were credited with launching the bossa nova  craze
in the United 
States.
 
One of the most memorable songs from the  album, "Desafinado," featured
Mr. 
Betts doing the supple bass-line introduction.  But his contribution to
finding 
the music went unheralded until recent years,  after he spoke to
JazzTimes 
magazine about his role.
 
Ken Kimery, a  producer and drummer with the Smithsonian Jazz
Masterworks 
Orchestra, told The  Washington Post in 2003: "My experience with him is
that he 
feels the story will  come out, and he does not feel he'll have to be
the one 
who takes the effort to  do that.... Here's a gentleman who's done so
much and 
does not feel the need to  self-promote."
 
William Thomas Betts was born in Port Chester, N.Y., July  22, 1928, and
was 
raised by his single mother, a domestic worker. He got his  nickname
when a 
family friend said the baby was as cute as a mosquito. Mosquito  became
Skeeter, 
then Keter.
 
One day, his mother sent the youngster for  milk and bread at the
market. 
Thrilled by the sound of a passing Italian parade,  he followed the
drummer 
across town. He was gone four hours with the milk and  bread.
 
"My mother almost killed me when I got home," he told an  interviewer.
"I got 
a whippin'. After that, I told my mother I wanted to play  drums."
 
She figured that if her fury did not dissuade him, he must be  serious.
She 
arranged for drum lessons.
 
His switch to the bass came one  day in 1946, his senior year in high
school. 
He went to New York to see Cab  Calloway's big band and meet the
drummer. 
When bassist Milt Hinton appeared at  the stage door, he told the
teenager that 
the drummer was gone but that he would  spring for a 35-cent lunch. He
also 
talked up the bass.
 
Ultimately,  Hinton's words were not as persuasive to Mr. Betts as the
fact 
that carrying a  drum set up four flights of stairs to his mother's
apartment 
was  excruciating.
 
Almost from the start, Mr. Betts's professional career  brought him to 
Washington. New York area saxophonist Carmen Leggio invited Mr.  Betts
to play with 
his band at a club near the Howard Theatre in 1947.
 
In  1949, while Mr. Betts was playing at Washington's Club Bali, R&B 
bandleader  Earl Bostic heard and hired him. He made his recording debut
that year on  
Bostic's rendition of "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams."
 
"I didn't want to  play R&B," Mr. Betts said. "But it was a good chance
to go 
on the road and  see the country."
 
He met Dinah Washington in 1951, when she and pianist  Wynton Kelly were

doing a one-nighter with Bostic's band. The singer offered Mr.  Betts a
job, and 
he spent five years with the notorious Queen of the Blues and  cut
several 
classic records, including "Dinah Jams" (1954) and "Dinah!"  (1956).
 
Her gruff exterior was "for the people," Mr. Betts said. "She was  a 
different person inside." She paid for Mr. Betts's wedding reception in
1953  at 
Birdland in New York; Tito Puente provided the music.
 
Washington  taught Mr. Betts a secret to good musicianship: Learn the
lyrics. 
She said the  best musicians know the entire song, not just the chord
changes.
 
"There's  an art to playing behind the singer," he said later. "When the

singer comes  onstage, they're buck naked. And it's the job of the group
backing 
her up to  dress that person for the audience."
 
He met Fitzgerald through his  golfing partner, bassist Ray Brown, the 
singer's ex-husband and business  manager. Mr. Betts played with
Fitzgerald in the 
mid-1960s and again from 1971  to 1993, often doing weeks of
one-nighters 
around the world.
 
Meanwhile,  he played at the Kennedy Center and on jazz cruises. He also

stayed active in  musical education through Head Start, among other
programs. At 
the Wolf Trap  Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, he often
amazed 
the kindergarten  set by taking "Happy Birthday" and covering it in
different 
styles: classical,  Brazilian, country and western, rock and jazz.
 
In 1994, he was inducted  into the Washington Area Music Association's
Hall 
of Fame.
 
He emerged as  a bandleader with a flurry of recent CDs and composed a 
handful of songs,  notably the sweet and tender "Pinky's Waltz," in
memory of his 
wife, Mildred  Grady Betts, who died in 2000.
 
Survivors include five children, William  Betts Jr. of Washington, Jon
Betts 
of Olney, Derek Betts of Los Angeles and  Jacquelyn Betts and Jennifer
Betts, 
both of Silver Spring; and four  grandchildren.