The Man, The Myth, The Legend, and the Music (1907-)

"The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he." : Duke Ellington

Benny Carter, since the 1920's, has occupied a unique place in American music. He is absolutely the most accomplished jazz artist that I have ever heard of. Benny Carter is most well know for his accomplishments on the alto saxophone. He is one of main characterizations of the swing era. Not only is he talented with the sax, but also the trumpet, clarinet, piano, and trombone. The unique man has also proved his abilty to write and compose jazz music. A couple of his compositions are the famous "When the Lights are Low," "How Can You Lose," "When Day Is Done, Prelude To A Kiss," "Sugar Hill Slow Drag." His latest album that was recorded in 1997 is New York Nights, which includes the hit, "What Is This Thing Called Love?." Carter and his works are even renouned in Europe.

Carter was born in 1907 in New York and received piano lessons from his mother at age 10. He was again influenced by another family memeber. His cousin Cuban Bennett, the legendary trumpet player, as well as the Ellington trumpeter, Bubber Miley, helped Cater become interested in the trupet. Carter only lasted a weekend playing the trumpet after he had saved for months to purchase it. He swapped his new trumpet for a saxophone, which by the age of 15 he was playing at night clubs. "As far as I can remember, my first real step in music was when I bought a trumpet and took it home on a weekend . I think I was fourteen years old. Over the weekend I found I couldn't play it! I thought I was going to be an instant Bubber Miley. He was a musician who lived around the corner from us and played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. I admired him very much...By Monday I realized it would take more than two days to play like Bubber Miley. I took the trumpet back, traded it for a saxophone because I had been told, erroneously of couse, that saxophone was easier to learn." A big influence of his sax playing was Frankie Trumbauer. Benny Carter was apprentice to many experienced bands in New York in his early years. he travled the a little bit further to the west to play with the Wilberforce Collegians, and played with the renowned Earl Hines in Pittsburg. As part of Charlie Johnson's Orchestra Carter found he had arranging talents as well. Two of the songs that he recorded on this, his debut album, in 1928 he had arranged. Carter's unique arranging of scores, particularly his writing for the sax section, revitalized the Fletcher Henderson orchestra and, according to scholar Gunther Schuller, "Carter was now the arranger everyone followed." In New York in 1928 Carter formed his own band. During this period, Benny wrote arrangements for Ellington, McKinney's, and also Benny Goodman.

In 1931, Carter became musical director of another important musical organization: the Detroit-based McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Since Carter had mastered the art of playing the alto saxophone, he wanted to try the trumpet out again. He has always been able to keep the complexity and differentiation of both instruments in his solos. This takes talent well beyond normal ability.

Later Carter went back to New York to start his own orchestra in 1932, which included such swing stars as Chuck Berry, Teddy Wilson, Sid Catlett, and Dicky Wells. As was the case with all Carter-led units, the group was

known as a "musicians' band." Carter and his band were forced to other jobs due to economical reasons, and in 1934 they disbanded.This band though, was no loss the talented Carter he said, "My Greatest influence [on trumpet] was Doc Cheatham. He made a trumpet player out of me. He played lead trumpet in my orchestra in 1932. Well, I always wanted to sound like him. I didn't own a trumpet at the time, but he'd given me his and encouraged me and would say, 'take this and go up to the microphone and play .' His big sound is what I wanted to get, and with his encouragemant and his insistence, I learned to play the trumpet."

In 1935 Carter was urged to go to Paris in 1935 to play with Willie Lewis's orchestra to make his Eurpoean debut. Then in 1936, Leonard Feather, invited him to England to arranger for the BBC dance orchestra. He conveyed his feelings about his move to Europe and especially about England his statement, "When I first went to Europe, I went to join Willie Lewis' orchestra in Paris where I played in a club with him for nine months...and then I went to London to work for the BBC, thanks to the efforts of Leonard Feather. The job with Henry Hull at the BBC meant that I wrote about three to six arrangements a week...I enjoyed England very much and still do. I liked Europe professionally, musically, and socially." Carter's presence was definitely felt in Europe. Over the next three years, he traveled throughout Europe, playing and recording with the top British, French, and Scandinavian jazzmen, as well as with visiting American stars such as his friend Coleman Hawkins. In Holland during this period, he also played with the first international, interracial band.

In 1938, Benny Carter returned to the United States and quickly formed another jazz orchestra. This time, due to the rave of big band music, his band soared, and landed a spot in 1939 and 40 in the well known Savoy Ballroom. everything went right for him then. His arrangements were featured on recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey. In 1941, Carter configured a sextet that was again bounding with talent. It included bebop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Clarke. In 1942, he journeyed to California to introduce his big band songs and his skilled group. In the mid-1940s, the band included important modernists, such as trumpeter Miles Davis, trombonist J.J. Johnson, drummer Max Roach, and Art Pepper. They all attribute their success to Carter as a teacher. As Miles Davis once said: "Everyone should listen to Benny Carter. He's a whole musical education."

Now that Benny Carter was in California, the land of artistical opportunity and and had made his mark in the music industry, he settled down to do more studio work and occasionally fronted a small group for club work. . In 1943, he began to arranged for dozens of feature films and television productions. His first films was "Stormy Some of his well known feats were compsed for feature films such as "A Man Called Adam," "Buck and the Preacher," "The Snows of Kilamanjaro," "The View From Pompey's Head," "The Five Pennies," "The Gene Krupa Story," and Martin Scorcese's "Too Late Blues" and television shows, including "M Squad" and "Chrysler Theater," and the Alfred Hitchcock Series. He has he has even written arrangements for almost every major popular jazz singer, including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Billy Eckstine and Mel Torme.

Since 1946, Benny Carter has never fully managed a band, but he has still remained active in touring. He still even has world-wide tours, on which he frequents Europe and has regular appearances in Japan. In fact in 1975, he traveled throughout the Middle East on a tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department, which currently would be highly improbable.

Music is not the only subject that Cater has excelled at. In the 1970s, Carter made sure he didn't neglect the future generations of music artists, so he set to educating them. He conducted seminars and workshops at many universities, and spent several semesters at Princeton, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1974, including Carter's week as Visiting Lecturer at Harvard.

Recent Honors:

Induction into the Black Film Makers Hall of Fame (1978)

Led a group at President Jimmy Carter's celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival (1978)

The Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers (1980)

New York radio station WKCR marked Carter's 75th birthday by playing his music non-stop for 177 hours (1982)

Member of the music advisory panel of the National Endowment of the Arts

Led an orchestra for the inauguration of President Reagan (1984)

Honored at the Kool Festival with a retrospective concert (1984)

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (1987)

His song "Sketches" nominated for a Grammy (1988)

Played at the White House in as a guest of President Bush (1989)

First in Down Beat International Critic's Poll in the arranger's category (1989)

Named "Jazz Artist of the Year" in both the Down Beat and Jazz Times International Critics' Polls (1990)

Live! magazine February (probably) issue Feature article on Benny by David Was (of Was Not Was) (1996)

Jazz Times magazine April issue Feature article on Benny (1996)

Downbeat Magazine June Issue A behind-the-scenes look at An Evening with Benny Carter at Lincoln Center (1996)

Kennedy Center honors Benny Carter is selected to receive one of this year's five Kennedy Center honors December 8 (1996)

Named to Downbeat Critics Poll Top 10 Albums of the Year (1997)

On August 8, 1997 Benny Carter, the Jazz Giant, celebarated his 90 birthday.

Here are some other Benny Carter links that this paper was affiliated with:

The Benny Carter Page

Tunes Search Page