ENTERTAINERS > jazz singer > Betty Carter

Betty Carter: If it wasn't...

Source: ENTERTAINERS

If it wasn't for [pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, gangsters, and gamblers] there wouldn't be no jazz! They supported the club owners who bought the music. It wasn't the middle-class people who said Let's go hear Charlie Parker tonight.

Source: In Jazz Forum, Jan 1979.
-- Betty Carter, (May 16 1929-1998), US jazz singer; She began her career as a be-bop and scat singer by winning amateur night at the Apollo; worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles and Charlie Parker.


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