Betty Carter - Out There With (1958/2025) [Hi-Res]

Arguably the most adventurous female jazz singer of all time, Betty Carter was an idiosyncratic stylist and a restless improviser who pushed the limits of melody and harmony as much as any bebop horn player. The husky-voiced Carter was capable of radical, off-the-cuff reworkings of whatever she sang, abruptly changing tempos and dynamics, or rearranging the lyrics into distinctive, off-the-beat rhythmic patterns. She could solo for 20 minutes, scat at lightning speed, or drive home an emotion with wordless, bluesy moans and sighs. For your listening pleasure again and again.

Here is a gal who can literally transform her vocal chords into an instrument a tenor sax, a trumpet, or a trombone- when-ever she wills it on or the occasion demands... never, never disrupting or marring the intrinsic musio-lyrical beauty of her reading.

-Dave Clark

Personnel:
Betty Carter (vcl), Kenny Dorham, Ray Copeland (tp), Melba Liston (tb), Gigi Gryce, Jimmy Powell (as), Benny Golson, Jerome Richardson (ts), Sahib Shihab (bs), Wynton Kelly (p), Sam Jones, Peck Morrison (b), Specs Wright (d)