Benny Carter | |
|---|---|
 Carter in 1984 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Bennett Lester Carter (1907-08-08)August 8, 1907 Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 12, 2003(2003-07-12) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Swing,jazz |
| Occupations |
|
| Instrument(s) | Saxophone, trumpet, clarinet |
| Years active | 1920s–1997 |
| Labels | Clef,Norgran,Verve,Pablo,Concord,MusicMasters |
| Website | bennycarter |
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an Americanjazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. WithJohnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on thealto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger, including writing charts forFletcher Henderson's big band that shaped the swing style. He had an unusually long career that lasted into the 1990s. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was nominated for eightGrammy Awards, which included receiving aLifetime Achievement Award.
Carter was born in New York City in 1907. He was given piano lessons by his mother and others in the neighborhood. He played trumpet and experimented briefly withC melody saxophone before settling on alto saxophone. In the 1920s, he performed withJune Clark, Billy Paige, andEarl Hines, then toured as a member of the Wilberforce Collegians, led byHorace Henderson.[1]He appeared on record for the first time in 1927 as a member of the Paradise Ten, led byCharlie Johnson.[2] He returned to the Collegians and became their bandleader through 1929, including a performance at theSavoy Ballroom in New York City.[1]
In his early 20s, Carter worked as arranger forFletcher Henderson after that position was vacated byDon Redman. He had no formal education in arranging, learning by trial and error, kneeling and looking at the existing charts, "writing the lead trumpet first and the lead saxophone first—which, of course, is the hard way. It was quite some time that I did that before I knew what a score was."[3]
He left Henderson to take Redman's former job as leader ofMcKinney's Cotton Pickers in Detroit. In 1932, he formed a band in New York City that includedChu Berry,Sid Catlett,Frankie Newton,Dicky Wells,Wayman Carver, andTeddy Wilson.[1][verification needed] Carter's arrangements were complex. Among the most significant were "Keep a Song in Your Soul", written for Henderson in 1930, and "Lonesome Nights" and "Symphony in Riffs" from 1933, both of which show Carter's writing for saxophones.[4]
By the early 1930s, Carter andJohnny Hodges were considered the leading alto saxophonists in jazz. Carter also became a leading trumpet soloist, having rediscovered the instrument. He recorded extensively on trumpet in the 1930s. Carter's short-lived Orchestra played the Harlem Club in New York but only recorded a handful of records, forColumbia,OKeh andVocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the nameThe Chocolate Dandies.
In 1933, Carter participated in sessions with the British composer/musicianSpike Hughes, who visited New York City to organize recordings with prominent African American musicians. These 14 sides plus four by Carter's big band, titled at the timeSpike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra, were initially only issued in England. The musicians were from Carter's band and includedRed Allen,Dicky Wells,Wayman Carver,Coleman Hawkins,J. C. Higginbotham, andChu Berry.[5]
Carter moved to London and spent two years as arranger for theBBC Big Band.[2] In England, France, and Scandinavia he recorded with local musicians, and he took his band to the Netherlands. In these settings, Carter played trumpet, clarinet, piano, alto and tenor saxophone, and provided occasional vocals.[1] In 1938, he recorded in Paris withDjango Reinhardt on "I'm Coming Virginia" and "Farewell Blues" in his own arrangement. He returned to America that same year and found regular work leading his band at theSavoy Ballroom in Harlem through 1941. The band includedShad Collins,Sidney De Paris,Vic Dickenson, andFreddie Webster. After this engagement, he led a seven-piece band which includedEddie Barefield,Kenny Clarke, andDizzy Gillespie.
In the mid-1940s he moved to Los Angeles, forming another big band, which at times includedJ. J. Johnson,Max Roach, andMiles Davis. But these would be his last big bands. With the exception of occasional concerts, performing withJazz at the Philharmonic,[3] and recording, he ceased working as a touring big band bandleader. Los Angeles provided him many opportunities for studio work, and these dominated his time during the decades. He wrote music and arrangements for films, such asStormy Weather in 1943. In June of 1954, he recorded withArt Tatum and drummerLouis Bellson.[6] During the 1950s and '60s, he wrote arrangements for vocalists[3] such asLouis Armstrong,Ray Charles,Ella Fitzgerald,Peggy Lee, andSarah Vaughan.[1] On something of a comeback in the 1970s,[2] Carter returned to playing saxophone again and toured the Middle East courtesy of the U.S. State Department. He began making annual visits to Europe and Japan.[1]
In 1969, Carter was persuaded to spend a weekend atPrinceton University by Morroe Berger, a sociology professor at Princeton who wrote about jazz. This led to a new outlet for Carter's talent: teaching. For the next nine years he visited Princeton five times, most of them brief stays except for one in 1973 when he spent a semester there as a visiting professor. In 1974, Princeton gave him an honorary doctorate.[1] He conducted teaching at workshops and seminars at several other universities and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard for a week in 1987. Morroe Berger wroteBenny Carter – A Life in American Music (1982), a two-volume work about Carter's career.[7]
Time had little effect on Carter's abilities. During the 1980s, he wrote the long compositionCentral City Sketches, which was performed atCooper Union by theAmerican Jazz Orchestra. Another long composition,Glasgow Suite, was performed in Scotland.Lincoln Center commissioned him to write "Good Vibes" in 1990.[8] The National Endowment for the Arts gave him a grant that led toTales of the Rising Sun Suite andHarlem Renaissance Suite. This music was performed in 1992 when he was 85 years old.[3]
Carter had an unusually long career. He is one of few musicians to have recorded in eight different decades.[2] Another characteristic of his career was his versatility as musician, bandleader, arranger, and composer. He helped define the sound of alto saxophone, but he also performed and recorded on soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and piano.[3] He helped establish a foundation for arranging as far back as 1930 when he arranged "Keep a Song in Your Soul" for Fletcher Henderson's big band. His compositions include the novelty hit "Cow-Cow Boogie" recorded byElla Mae Morse, and the expansiveCentral City Sketches, written when he was 80 years old and recorded with the American Jazz Orchestra.[1]
Carter died at the age of 95 in Los Angeles at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on July 12, 2003, from complications ofbronchitis.[9][10]
He was inducted into theDownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1977. In 1978, he was inducted into theBlack Filmmakers Hall of Fame.[11] In 1980, he received the Golden Score award of theAmerican Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. His 75th birthday was commemorated by a radio station in New York that played his music nonstop for over a week.[1] The National Endowment for the Arts gave him theNEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986.[12]
He was given aGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 1994 he won a Grammy Award for his solo on "Prelude to a Kiss" and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1989,Lincoln Center celebrated Carter's 82nd birthday with a set of his songs sung byErnestine Anderson andSylvia Syms. In 1990, he was named Jazz Artist of the Year in theDownBeat andJazzTimes polls. He was aKennedy Center Honoree in 1996 and received honorary doctorates fromPrinceton (1974),[13]Rutgers (1991),[14]Harvard (1994), and theNew England Conservatory of Music (1998).[15] In 2016, the National Museum of American History made Carter the subject of itsJazz Appreciation Month poster.[16]
In 2000, he was given theNational Medal of Arts by PresidentBill Clinton.[17][18]
| Year | Category | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Best Background Arrangement (Behind vocalist or instrumentalist) | "Busted" | Nomination |
| 1986 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group | Swing Reunion | Nomination |
| 1987 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Win | |
| 1988 | Best Instrumental Composition | "Central City Sketches (Side 2)" | Nomination |
| 1992 | Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance | Harlem Renaissance | Nomination |
| 1992 | Best Instrumental Composition | "Harlem Renaissance Suite" | Win |
| 1993 | Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | "The More I See You" | Nomination |
| 1994 | Best Instrumental Composition | "Elegy in Blue" | Nomination |
| 1994 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group | Elegy in Blue | Nomination |
| 1994 | Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | "Prelude to a Kiss" | Win |
Information from AllMusic.com[20]
| Year | Title | Notes | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930-52 | Benny Carter: The Master | 4 CD boxset | Proper |
| 1952 | Alone Together | with theOscar Peterson Trio +Buddy Rich | Norgran |
| 1953 | Cosmopolite | Clef | |
| 1954 | The Formidable Benny Carter [10"] | Norgran | |
| 1954 | The Urbane Mr. Carter [10"] | Norgran | |
| 1954 | Benny Carter Plays Pretty | also released asMoonglow | Norgran |
| 1955 | New Jazz Sounds | withDizzy Gillespie andBill Harris | Norgran |
| 1955 | Urbane Jazz | withRoy Eldridge | Verve |
| 1958 | Jazz Giant | Contemporary | |
| 1958 | Swingin' the '20s | withEarl Hines | Contemporary |
| 1958 | The Fabulous Benny Carter Band | Reissue of 1943 recordings | Audio Lab |
| 1959 | Plays Cole Porter's Can-Can and Anything Goes | United Artists | |
| 1959 | Aspects | also released asThe Benny Carter Jazz Calendar | United Artists |
| 1960 | Sax ala Carter! | United Artists | |
| 1961 | Further Definitions | Impulse! | |
| 1962 | BBB & Co. | withBen Webster &Barney Bigard | Swingville |
| 1963 | Benny Carter in Paris | 20th Century Fox | |
| 1966 | Additions to Further Definitions | reissued as bonus tracks on theFurther Definitions CD release in 1997 | Impulse! |
| 1976 | The King | Pablo | |
| 1976 | Carter, Gillespie Inc. | withDizzy Gillespie | Pablo |
| 1976 | Wonderland | Released in 1986 | Pablo |
| 1977 | 'Live and Well in Japan! | Pablo Live | |
| 1977 | Benny Carter 4: Montreux '77 | Pablo Live | |
| 1980 | Summer Serenade | Storyville | |
| 1983 | Skyline Drive | Phontastic | |
| 1985 | A Gentleman and His Music | Concord | |
| 1987 | Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter | withBilly Eckstine | EmArcy |
| 1987 | Benny Carter Meets Oscar Peterson | withOscar Peterson | Pablo |
| 1987 | Central City Sketches | with theAmerican Jazz Orchestra | MusicMasters |
| 1988 | In the Mood for Swing | MusicMasters | |
| 1989 | My Kind of Trouble | Pablo | |
| 1989 | Over the Rainbow | MusicMasters | |
| 1990 | Cookin' at Carlos I | MusicMasters | |
| 1990 | Marian McPartland Plays the Benny Carter Songbook | Concord Jazz | |
| 1990 | My Man Benny, My Man Phil | withPhil Woods | MusicMasters |
| 1991 | All That Jazz: Live at Princeton | MusicMasters | |
| 1992 | Harlem Renaissance | MusicMasters | |
| 1992 | Legends | withHank Jones - released 1997 | MusicMasters |
| 1994 | Elegy in Blue | MusicMasters | |
| 1996 | Benny Carter Songbook | with various vocalists | MusicMasters |
| 1996 | Another Time, Another Place | with Phil Woods | Evening Star |
| 1997 | Benny Carter Songbook Volume II | with various vocalists | MusicMasters |
| 1997 | New York Nights | MusicMasters |
| Year | Title | Artist | Genre | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Kansas City Suite | Count Basie and His Orchestra | Jazz | Roulette |
| 1961 | The Legend | Count Basie and His Orchestra | Jazz | Roulette |
| 1962 | Big Band Jazz from the Summit | Louis Bellson | Jazz | Roulette |
| 1963 | The Explosive Side of Sarah Vaughan | Sarah Vaughan | Jazz | Roulette |
| 1963 | The Lonely Hours | Sarah Vaughan | Jazz | Roulette |
| 1963 | Mink Jazz | Peggy Lee | Jazz | Capitol |
| 1964 | Sweets for the Sweet Taste of Love | Harry "Sweets" Edison | Jazz | Vee-Jay |
| 1964 | Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon—Paul McCartney Songbook | Keely Smith | Jazz | Reprise |
| 1967 | Portrait of Carmen | Carmen McRae | Jazz | Atlantic |
| 1968 | Manufacturers of Soul | Jackie Wilson and Count Basie | Soul jazz | Brunswick |
| 1968 | 30 by Ella | Ella Fitzgerald | Jazz | Capitol |
| 1975 | Having a Wonderful Time | Geoff Muldaur | Eclectic Pop | Warner |
| 1979 | A Classy Pair | Ella Fitzgerald with theCount Basie Orchestra | Jazz | Pablo |
WithLouis Bellson
WithElla Fitzgerald
WithDizzy Gillespie
With Peggy Lee
WithDave Pell
WithNancy Wilson
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
