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Having played with some of the most important and influential names in jazz in a career that spans six decades, Keter Betts is perhaps one of the most important journeyman bassists of the genre. His bluesy, melodic, and thick tone and creative use of string popping and glissando have long made him an in-demand player. Born in Port Chester, NY, he traveled to New York City as a youth to study jazz drums, but eventually grew tired of hauling his Gene Krupa kit up and down four flights of stairs. He switched to bass in 1946, the year he graduated high school. He landed his first professional gig with tenor saxophonist Carmen Leggio in Washington, D.C. A four-week stay turned into 13 weeks. Betts was 19. He would later settle in the city and raise five children with his wife. Constant work in D.C. and New York led to a job with R&B barnstormer Earl Bostic (1949) and later Dinah Washington. He joined the employ of Washington, D.C., guitarist Charlie Byrd in 1957, staying with him through ...