Born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan, on May 16, 1929, Betty Carter had already worked alongside jazz greats like Dizzy and Bird, before she was tapped by Lionel Hampton to join his band in 1948. Apart from her stellar career as a jazz vocalist and savvy businesswoman, another of Betty’s crowning achievements was forming the Jazz Ahead music education program at BAM in 1993, only blocks away from her home in Fort Greene.
