Betty Bryant - Nothin' Better to Do
(Bry-Mar Music, 2025)
Nothin’ Better to Do is vocalist-pianist Betty Bryant’s 15th recording. That is impressive enough, but does not compare with her youthful age of 96. Critics gave a positive reception to Bryant's previous recording, Lotta Livin’ (Bry-Mar Music, 2023). Two years later, Bryant is back, enviously undiminished and expanding horizons with three original compositions shared with Robert Kyle and six well-off-the-beaten-track standards, rounding out this eclectically composed collection.
Bryant opens the disc with a sassy take on the cabaret staple, “You Are Not My First Love.” But to say that Bryant is sassy is to insult the gravity of her sassyness, borne of age and experience. Hers is not some dilettante sassyness, it is the authentic estimation of one guided by the likes of Jay McShann in his territory band days, a dusty antique time when the heat was honest and the cold brief relief. Bryant sings this light classic with a wink and a smile, her piano playing fluid and swinging.
The Nat King Cole vehicle, “I Can’t See for Looking” is infused with the blues, despire being a 32-bar gem. Bryant sings with a laxy laconic conversational tone, making the song sound a feel so familiar. A lengthy solo by bassist by Richard Simon prods the cart along until Robert Kyle give his best Sidney Bechet on the soprano saxophone.
On the Bryant original “He May Be Your Man,” the singer further mines the pre-war blues for material. Bryant’s relaxed confidence is deadly as she sings of her inamorato on the down low.
“He’s got a face like a fish, shaped like a frog
But when he starts to lovin’ me, I holler, ‘Ooh hotdog!”
Bryant breaks out her piano blues chops for a strolling two-chorus solo, followed by Kyle, waxing a Lester Young tenor tone.
Bryant performs two island-Latin-tinged pieces in “I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do” and “Time Was,” the latter featuring Robert Kyle on flute. These a slow-walking songs that smile broadly and make great friends. Bryant’s piano facility extends in this genre jump.
Betty Bryant proves that “age is just a number,” showing no signs of slowing down. She is a celebration.