Jazz bassist extraordinaire, Keter Betts, was found dead in his home in
Silver Spring, MD., Sunday, 7 Aug. Keter, 77, played bass for Dinah
Washington for five years and was actually given his wedding and reception
in 1953 by Ms. Washington, who also had Tito Puente provide the music.
Keter has been a staple of the east coast jazz scene and I've had the
pleasure of recording him more times than I know. A great player and a
great person, his list of total credits exceed my knowledge, but besides Ms.
Washington, he played with Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Tommy Flanagan,
Woody Herman, Nat Adderley, Joe Pass, Clifford Brown, Charlie Byrd, and
Vince Guaraldi. I got to record him with at least Huston Persons, Etta James
AND Etta Jones, Ronnie Wells and Ron Elliston amongst other notables in DC.
But he didn't stop there. He was a fixture at the last 8 East Coast Jazz
Festivals I recorded, and generously gave his time and talent to many of our
up and coming local talent including pulling bass duties for a couple of my
wife Beverly's performances.

Always affable, quick with a story and a laugh, kind to a fault, and he
basically worked until the day he died. His work with keeping music in the
schools, including Head Start, and his time involved with the Kennedy
Center's Jazz Focus series and often could be found at the Wolftrap
Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts showed his interests and
should point how we might help continue music in our endeavors.

Keter will be sorely missed. And now I'm going to have to include a day a
year in memory of Keter by playing all my recordings of him, as I have done
for the past 4 years with my friend Ricky Loza's recordings. I hope this
list of tributes doesn't get too big too fast.

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
http://blogs.salon.com/0004478/

Not a good year for jazz in Los Angeles, either. I just played at a festival
near LAX. Before and after my sets, we listened to a lot of performances.
Very disappointing for a variety of reasons. But what can one expect from a
genre that survives primarily in colleges and universities whose main
function seems to be to intellectualize the life out of it; that has only
insurmountable obstacles from the money grubbing entertainment industry; and
can't be heard except at 4 a.m. on more than half a dozen FM radio stations
in North America?

"Uncle Russ" Reinberg

WESTLAKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
www.finescalerr.com
WESTLAKE RECORDS
www.westlakerecords.com

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
Roger W. Norman wrote:
Jazz bassist extraordinaire, Keter Betts, was found dead in his home in
Silver Spring, MD., Sunday, 7 Aug. Keter, 77, played bass for Dinah
Washington for five years and was actually given his wedding and reception
in 1953 by Ms. Washington, who also had Tito Puente provide the music.

To add to this, DC-area jazz bandleader Charlie Hampton (of Howard Theatre
fame) died within a couple weeks of Keter, as did Wally Garner, a popular
clarinetist in the DC area. It's not been a good month for DC jazz.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article , says...
To add to this, DC-area jazz bandleader Charlie Hampton (of Howard Theatre
fame) died within a couple weeks of Keter,

Didn't he have a quartet that played in some bar in Georgetown every
week, or am I thinking of a different Charlie?

--
Jay Levitt |
Wellesley, MA | I feel calm. I feel ready. I can only
Faster: jay at jay dot fm | conclude that's because I don't have a
http://www.jay.fm | full grasp of the situation. - Mark Adler