Keter Betts was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 double bassist. Born William Thomas Betts in Port Chester, New York

Port Chester, New York

Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...

, he was nicknamed "Keter", a short form of the word mosquito.

Career

Many better-known musicians (Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

, Nat Adderley

Nat Adderley

Nathaniel Adderley was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley....

, Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

, Charlie Byrd

Charlie Byrd

Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...

 and others), recognizing Keter's talent, invited him to perform with them professionally. Early in Keter's career he had played with Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic

Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...

's R&B band. In 1962, together with Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, he was instrumental in introducing the bossa nova

Bossa nova

Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...

 style to American audiences via their Jazz Samba

Jazz Samba

Jazz Samba is a bossa nova LP by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, released on the Verve label on April 20, 1962.Jazz Samba was the first major bossa-nova album on the American jazz scene. It was the real start of the bossa-nova excitement in America, which peaked in the mid-1960s...

 recording. In the mid-1960s, Keter began a nearly quarter-century relationship as a bassist with Ella Fitzgerald.

Personal life

A widowed father of five children, Betts resided in the Washington, DC, area for more than a half century. He died at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...

 in August 2005.

Selected discography

• The Floating Jazz Festival Trio (1995)
• Charlie Byrd: Blues for Night People (1957)
• Bobby Timmons
  Bobby Timmons
  Robert Henry "Bobby" Timmons was an African American jazz pianist and composer.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is best known for his role as sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the composition of "Moanin'", "Dat Dere", and "This Here", each of which are typical of his...
  
  : Chun-King
  Chun-King
  Chun-King is an album by American jazz pianist Bobby Timmons recorded in 1964 and released on the Prestige label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Jason Ankeny awarded the album 4 stars calling it "an intimate, soulful session that spotlights the range and command of all involved".-Track listing:#...
  
  (Prestige, 1964)
• Bobby Timmons: Workin' Out!
  Workin' Out!
  Workin' Out! is an album by American jazz pianist Bobby Timmons recorded in 1964 and released on the Prestige label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars calling it "Bobby Timmons most advanced recordings of the 1960s"....
  
  (Prestige, 1964)
• Tommy Flanagan: The Tommy Flanagan Tokyo Recital (Pablo, 1975)
• Ella Fitzgerald: Montreux ’77 (Pablo, 1977)
• Tommy Flanagan
  Tommy Flanagan
  Thomas Lee Flanagan was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered for his work with Ella Fitzgerald...
  
  : Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1978)
• Junior Mance
  Junior Mance
  Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
  
  : Blue Mance (1994)

External links

• Keter Betts's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project