Smoking clip. I still come back to this every 2-3 months or so. Saw her do this live at Blue Note about 6 months before she died and she still killed it. Another legendary Detroit talent!!!!
I'm blown away by Betty's version of this tune, originally titled "Curumim," the Brazilian singer/composer Djavan. She really tears it up! Better than the original (sorry, Djavan)! :)
Never thought that anyone would do a cover of this song & then I heard my favorite vocalist Betty Carter put her spin on this at the Chicago Jazz Festival back in the early nineties and was blown away.
This is insane. Definitely one of her greatest backing trios. Bruce Flowers is so commanding and in the moment, Neal is solid and booming as a fucking boulder and of course 20 year-old Harland is blazing through and comping proficiently at this tempo like mad !! Betty knew good players when she heard em for sure.
I fell in love with Betty 'Bee-Bop' Carter about 48 years ago when she sang with Ray Charles. She will always remain in my heart and ears. Miss you Betty. Great Post.
This is one of the second songs I've ever heard by Betty Carter years ago back in '94, and I never knew the name of it. I ran across it on a Jazz channel. All I remembered was her singing "Stop, don't cut down no more trees". And I can clearly recall the passion and intensity brought on by her merely singing those seven words. So glad that I stumbled upon this tune today. I needed it. I adore Mama Betty. Adore what GOD allows to happen in her pit and proceeds to tumble out of her mouth.
I had the priviledge of seeing this lady at Ronnie Scott's in 1986 on the night I graduated from University, with Miss Angela Smith....jaw dropped at her talent..but seems along time ago .......
The title of this song is Amazon Farewell, composed and originally sung by Brazilian singer/composer Djavan. The first time I heard him sing it in early 90s I thought Betty could really fly with this one. She did! I love it!!
An art song delivered at 224 BPM - that's our dear genius Ms.Carter at work. In her intense lyric read on ballads, and not just this hard-bop Walden Pond appeal of the tune Amazon, I compare her to Maya Angelou - as often as I do to Billie Ella Sarah Carmen Abby or Anita. RIP these wisest, most graceful soul-sisters, Ms Angelou this year I believe
@kagleRedding I believe are one Miss Betty's sons. Thank you for doing your part to keep this magical music out in our troubled world. I saw the new web page and it looks really good. It would be really nice if "But Then She's Betty Carter" available too. Are there other live performances like this available for purchase? There must be a bunch of stuff that Betty's fans would love to see and hear cooling in some dark vaults somewhere yet to see the light of day.
When we are gone the story is over - unless like Betty you show prior contact with eternity - I now think of her as a classical composer and etude-maker. Paganini Liszt Chopin type and certainly shes not the only jazz artist who just bears schooling up on, and into - but I can see study of her growing. Most of all I hope her career in whole is on the Internet, to be heard as a message. Call me a fool, but near as I can tellthat message is, no more war.
AS far as I know she never got to put this down in the studio.... I wish she had! Its a great song and her arrangement is incredible!! Sadly Miss Betty under recorded considering the contribution she made to the Jazz Vocal. She once said that after her, there weren't any more Jazz Singers. That's not really true, but few of the younger singers despite being talented demonstrate that they are ready to pick up and extend the Jazz Traditon. :-(
@gtownlad77 I'm copping to this. Not the dude part, but the two cents. Betty Carter, beyond all others, makes me think of books I've read, people I've known, places I've been, including emotional ones - she's evocative, even when she has lyrics less pointed than these. Views on this have doubled in like 14 months - must have been the long count calendar ticking off in the rainforest
I have listened to this compulsively - a be-bop art song, with the bassist at 224bpm, and which comunicates via scat, which now is understood to resemble the initial human culuture production - the singing it seems we did before we could talk; when the rainforest ruled us. Betty Carter's legacy to be determined: the greatest in all youtube? In Amazon you're looking at the ultimate high-wire act. Or the RIA medley 1977 - Ms Carter links four tunes as might Parker. But, no horn. Think on that.
@tenorfreek I thought the distortion was in the original - but uh oh I just made this mistake myself - If possible why not re-upload out of respect of Ms Carter, where other YT material of hers sounds so great?
Dude can't you just enjoy the art of the song and the singer. Why must everyone who have read a book feel the need to add there two cent to everything they see or hear.
Long live the european imperialism!!!" I think you've missed the point of the tune. She is not speaking to the harmonious relationship between people and trees that you described as 'controlled de-forestation". What is the cause of these forest fires you speak of? Perspective is key. Listen to the tune. Feel it. Dig it.
