At 94 BETTY BRYANT is still going strong. She has lost most of her vision, but like the title of her new album, LOTTA LIVIN’, the beloved pianist, singer, and composer still has a whole lot of living to do. LOTTA LIVIN’ is Bryant’s 14th album. It follows her 2019 release Project 88, which celebrated her 88th birthday. JW Vibesaid, “While Betty’s vocals are pure, charming and warmly inviting throughout, the true coolness comes from her compelling soloing and harmonizing on those 88s.”

Hipness is Bryant’s métier, and like her other albums and live performances, her piano playing and singing on LOTTA LIVIN’ is effortlessly cool and reflects her blues roots. For this album, and for most of her recordings and performances for the past 10 years, she has brought along her regular band comprising dynamic, swinging drummer KENNY ELLIOT, highly sensitive and musical upright bassist RICHARD SIMON, and her old friend, saxophonist, flutist ROBERT KYLE, who not only played on this recording, but also produced it. She and Kyle have been friends and musical cohorts for over 30 years. Kyle, a mainstay on the Los Angeles jazz scene as well as a touring and recording artist, has played on and either produced or co-produced most of Bryant’s CDs. The two of them also wrote and recorded music that was featured on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” Also joining Bryant once again are HUSSAIN JIFFRY on electric bass and guitarist KLEBER JORGE on one number, and trumpeter TONY GUERRERO, who appears on two tracks.

Bryant has a long and storied career. A child of the Depression, her musical journey began in her hometown of Kansas City, MO, when at the age of four, she began studying piano with Desdemona Davis, who along with her musician husband, had moved in with the Bryants. Although it was a difficult era for most, that turn of events led to a lifelong career in music that is still going strong today. 

Dubbed “Cool Miss B” by Kyle in a 1997 song, the moniker has stuck with her for 25 years. Bryant was mentored early on by the great Jay McShann. “Betty Bryant Day” was declared in Kansas City in 1987, and she was awarded the key to the city. A famous photograph of Betty with Jay McShann hangs in the lobby of the city’s American Jazz Museum and is included on the back of the CD booklet. 

Bryant moved to the west coast in 1955 and immediately got a gig at Beverly Hills’ famed Ye Little Club. This was the beginning of mostly solo appearances in Los Angeles. As her reputation grew, she became a popular attraction in the many nightspots that dotted the beach towns from Malibu to Laguna.

Besides performing regularly around Los Angeles to packed houses, Bryant has performed internationally in the Middle East and Brazil, and for many years was a regular attraction at the upscale Tableaux Lounge in Tokyo, Japan. She had a long-term engagement at Street, celebrity chef Susan Feniger’s restaurant, when it opened in Hollywood in 2009, and in 2012 she was a featured performer at the Boquete Jazz and Blues Festival in Boquete, Panama. The “Betty Bryant Birthday Bash” is a hugely popular annual event at Hollywood’s famed Catalina’s Jazz Club. 

Bryant wrote four songs for LOTTA LIVIN’. A wordsmith with a predilection for the quirky and humorous, she was an art major in college, and her lyrics also have a strong visual sense. In her song “Put a Lid on It,” she complains about her man, “When my friends come over, you don’t act right / You cop an attitude and you’re impolite / You sit around in your BVDs, guzzling beer/ On and on ad nauseum, that’s all I hear / Put a lid on it. Put a lid on it / Cuz’if you don’t, we’re through / I’m tired of telling you, put a lid on it.”

“Blues to Get Started” is an upbeat, swinging blues instrumental from her days sitting in with Jay McShann’s band. “Chicken Wings” is a funny duet about Bryant’s love of eating chicken wings. It features a duet with Bryant on vocals and Kyle playing greasy blues harmonica. Bryant was fascinated by the sound of the word katydid, a type of grasshopper, so she wrote the song “Katydid,” which is not at all about the insect. “I wrote the song about someone named Katy who did something, but I never say what it is she did.” The song features Guerrero on trumpet and Ooka on guitar.

Bryant also covers several standards, putting her own bluesy spin on them. She swings the Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler classic “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” and does a sultry version of Bobby Troup’s “Baby, Baby All the Time.” Her nearly eight-minute version of “Stormy Monday” gives her and Kyle time to stretch out and take their own seductive solos. She gives “The Very Thought of You” a Brazilian twist that features Winard’s percussion, Jorge’s guitar, and Jiffry’s electric bass. Bryant offers a poignant and swinging version of “Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do,” whose message is a perfect closer for the album.

Making an album and travelling to gigs around Southern California is hard work. When asked why she does it at the age of 94, she says “It’s what I do and have done my whole life. I’m not ready to retire. Music gets me out of bed in the morning.” Despite her age, she hasn’t missed a beat. Rather, her singing and playing show the depth and assurance that comes when inborn talent is enhanced by deep experience.

LOTTA LIVIN‘ will be available digitally on all platforms on January 26, 2024; physical CDs will be available at Bandcamp.

Betty Bryant website