When you're saluting Women's History Month, as we are on New Day/New Play during March, sometimes it makes sense to dig, to find some well-known, and sometimes some not so well-known. Betty Bryant might be one of the latter, but shouldn't be. The singer/pianist was raised in Kansas City and mentored by Jay McShann. There's a photo of Betty and Jay that hangs on the wall of The American Jazz Museum in K.C. At the youthful age of 94, Lotta Livin' feels like a life well spent when it makes it to record. Betty's light piano touch is reminiscent of Count Basie. In fact, if Basie sang, he might've sounded like Betty Bryant. You'll revel at Betty's storytelling of classics from Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler, T-Bone Walker and Ray Noble, alongside her own stories that'll put a smile on your face.
From Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29, one cut from singer/pianist Betty Bryant’s album Lotta Livin’ will be featured each morning in the New Day, New Play spotlight on my Daybreak show.
Preview “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” from Betty Bryant’s album Lotta Livin’, above.
