Betty Carter’s lifelong influence on the music world is unparalleled. Her contributions to music as a jazz singer, composer, arranger, and teacher have fostered a generation of musicians and fans.

This book looks at Betty Carter’s contribution to the music world and delves behind the scenes to show Carter’s growth as a businesswoman who took charge of her career.

Drawing upon revealing interviews with Carter, the author shows how ever-changing shifts in the music industry affected the singer’s life and influenced her music. Bauer shows through his analysis of her musical examples how Carter absorbed various musical influences, from Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis, and made them her own. From her apprenticeship with Gladys Hampton, Carter grew to become a shrewd dealer who learned to do her own contracting, A&R, and marketing and distribution. By chronicling one of jazz’s great singers and composers, the book sheds light on how early jazz musicians got their work to the public and how this process has changed during the past fifty years.