Betty Christopher Trio

[adh1907]

Interesting Bill Crow post today about Betty Christopher, studied with Tristano. “Shorty Shorty’” on the B side of her 78 sounds incredible, ahead of its time. Guessing early ‘50s. Blown away by this  https://archive.org/details/78_shorty-shorty_the-betty-christopher-trio-betty-christopher-tommy-carroll-buzzy-brid_gbia0285827b

Correction, looks to be entitled “Short Story”

[Quasimado]

Interesting - seems even earlier to me - maybe '47/'48 (?) ... I see she sings too - same site has her doing "Gone with the Wind" ...

What did Bill Crow have to say about her? I couldn't find any reference ...

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Amazing. Neither Jepsen nor Bruyninckx list this artist or the record. So it will have escaped reissuers as well.

[adh1907]

Bill Crow posted a photo of her on his Facebook page, playing with a sax player, Fred Greenwell. He asked if anyone knew of her and the following: “Her original name was Stitt. I came to New York at the same time that she did, in January 1950, and she was working with an all girl band. She had been studying with Lennie Tristano when she lived in Chicago.  In NYC she met and played for Charlie Parker, and toward the end of that year he offered her a New Year's Eve job. She panicked, and went back home to Chicago, and I heard she married, and I lost track of her.  She was a good musician and a good friend. She made a 78 while she was in New York, with Buddy Jones on bass and Buzzy Bridgeford on drums.  I gave my copy to the Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark.”
 

So, the 78 has ‘Gone with the wind’  a vocal with no piano solo and the more interesting original ‘Short Story’.  Maybe it was a private pressing for promotional purposes. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Could it be that the photo he is referring to is the photo at the bottom of page 1 of his bio on his homepage?

https://www.billcrowbass.com/bio-1.html

(I am not on Facebook, and at any rate there are so many Bill Crows on FB)

[adh1907]

1 hour ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Could it be that the photo he is referring to is the photo at the bottom of page 1 of his bio on his homepage?

https://www.billcrowbass.com/bio-1.html

(I am not on Facebook, and at any rate there are so many Bill Crows on FB)

Yes, that is the same photo as on the Facebook post

[Quasimado]

adh1907 and Steve - many thanks! Betty is/was one fascinating lady - gigged around, studied with LT, made a mysterious 78, played for Bird and then ... gone! Great information and photos from Bill Crow - (that cat had a life!).

 

[Niko]

this is her son, Doug DeMontmorency, apparently a skateboarder of note [I am completely clueless on this topic], he tells quite a bit about his youth with her in the 1960s

http://www.endlesslines.free.fr/ghost/ghostpages/ghostdougdemont1vo.htm

going by this page on familysearch which mentions a woman named variously Betty Stitt, Betty Staufenberg and Kalina de Montmorency... and his memories of his mom playing with Stan Getz and Charlie Parker in Greenwich Village... 

If this identification is correct - which I am pretty sure it is - she lived from 29 April 1926 to 12 February 2007... (and on her 55th birthday, I was born). The name Staufenberg she took in 1951 - so this might the Chicago business man she married as remembered by Bill Crow, most likely one Charles W. Staufenberg Jr, born in 1926, one of their two joint children being Bruce V Staufenberg of Montecito CA

Edited September 1, 2023 by Niko

[adh1907]

Thanks, that’s a great find Niko. Betty sounds quite an interesting character, what with the LSD etc. Sounds like an early hippie. That Short Story track intrigues me, sounds v modern. Is it the same chord sequence as used by Marsh and Konitz on ‘Sound Lee’  perhaps. Can’t quite place it. 
 

https://archive.org/details/78_shorty-shorty_the-betty-christopher-trio-betty-christopher-tommy-carroll-buzzy-brid_gbia0285827b

[AllenLowe]

5 hours ago, Niko said:

this is her son, Doug DeMontmorency, apparently a skateboarder of note [I am completely clueless on this topic], he tells quite a bit about his youth with her in the 1960s

http://www.endlesslines.free.fr/ghost/ghostpages/ghostdougdemont1vo.htm

going by this page on familysearch which mentions a woman named variously Betty Stitt, Betty Staufenberg and Kalina de Montmorency... and his memories of his mom playing with Stan Getz and Charlie Parker in Greenwich Village... 

If this identification is correct - which I am pretty sure it is - she lived from 29 April 1926 to 12 February 2007... (and on her 55th birthday, I was born). The name Staufenberg she took in 1951 - so this might the Chicago business man she married as remembered by Bill Crow, most likely one Charles W. Staufenberg Jr, born in 1926, one of their two joint children being Bruce V Staufenberg of Montecito CA

thanks, and I am thrilled you found a recording where she takes a full piano solo. Obviously very talented, not quite fully developed musically, but getting there. She was a terrific singer, as on Gone With The Wind.

[adh1907]

Actually her Short Story tune seems to follow Tristano’s Wow. Which in turn may be based on Earl Hines’ you can depend on me. Could be wrong. 
 

Anthony 

[Big Beat Steve]

I wonder how her Short Story track would fare in a blindfold test. "Newly discovered exercise by Tristano" etc.?