Carter, Benny 1907–2003

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Benny Carter 1907–2003

Jazz musician

Benny Carter’s musical career spanned seven decades, encompassing jazz styles from big band to bebop. Primarily known for his alto saxophone work, he also mastered the tenor saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and even piano. He was a skilled arranger, scoring music for both Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, and a fine composer, penning classics like “When Lights Are Low,” “Blues in My Heart,” and “We Were in Love.” Carter received a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1987, performed for three presidents (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush), and was named Jazz Artist of the Year in 1989 by Down Beat and Jazz Times. “Benny Carter’s career was remarkable for both its length and its consistently high musical achievement,” wrote John S. Wilson in the New York Times, “from his first recordings in the 1920s to his youthful-sounding improvisations in the 1990s.”

Benjamin Lester Carter was born on August 8, 1907, in New York City and grew up in the San Juan Hill neighborhood in Manhattan (near Lincoln Center). He took piano lessons from his mother as a young boy, but his musical heroes were trumpeters like his cousin, Theodore Bennett, and Bubber Miley, who played with Duke Ellington. At 13, he bought a trumpet, but discouraged by how difficult it was to play, he traded it for a saxophone a week later. Through a great deal of practice on his own, and the occasional help of several saxophone teachers, Carter quickly grew into a fine player.

At age 15, the young Carter sat in with Harlem bands. From 1924 to 1928, Carter paid his dues as a sideman in a number of New York City jazz bands and by working for a short time for pianist Earl Hines in Philadelphia. At age 19, he received his first full-time job with Charlie Johnson’s band. His parents, however, were less than thrilled. “They thought it was undignified,” he told National Public Radio, “demeaning to the black race and at that particular time I think they even called it devil’s music… My mother wanted me to be a violinist and she would [have] liked for me also to have been a theologian.”

He entered the recording studio for the first time with Charlie Johnson’s Orchestra in 1927, sessions that included two pieces arranged by Carter. He would later recall that he learned to arrange by spreading the

At a Glance…

Born Bennett Lester Carter on August 8, 1907, in New York, NY; died on July 12, 2003, from bronchitis, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, CA; son of Norrell (a postal clerk and longshoreman) and Sadie (Bennett) Carter; married Rosa Lee Jackson, 1925 (marriage ended); married Margaret Johnson, 1956 (marriage ended); married Hilma Ollila Arons.

Career: Charlie Johnson’s orchestra, musician, 1926; Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, musician, 1928; McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, musician, 1931; formed his own orchestra, 1932; various bands, Europe, musician, 1935-37; Lionel Hampton and Billie Holliday, 1938; wrote movie and television scores, 1943-70; recorded a serious of albums for Pablo Records including The King, mid-1970s; participated in the Classical Jazz series at the Lincoln Center, 1989-90; celebrated 90th birthday with a performance in Oslo, Sweden, 1997.

Awards: American Society of Music Arrangers, Golden Score Award, 1980; Down Beat and Jazz Times, Jazz Artist of the Year, 1989; Grammy Award, Lifetime Achievement, 1987; Grammy Award, Instrumental Composition, for “Harlem Renaissance Suite” 1992; Grammy Award, Jazz Instrumental Soloist, for “Prelude to a Kiss” 1994.

blueprints of a composition on the floor and then writing the individual parts for the trumpet, saxophone, and other instruments. His new skill allowed him to join Fletcher Henderson’s band in 1928, replacing Don Redman as the orchestra’s arranger. “The charts that came out of Henderson’s band are arguably the most influential of the big band era,” noted All About Jazz.

In 1931 Carter joined McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and, thanks to his growing reputation as an arranger, he sold charts on the side to musicians such as Bennie Moten. He also taught himself to play trumpet during the early thirties, and was recording solos with the instrument after only two years. In 1932 Carter formed his first orchestra with a topnotch ensemble that included tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Teddy Wilson, drummer Sid Catlett, and trombonist Dicky Wells. Although he would start a number of other big bands during the thirties and forties, he never found the same level of success as Duke Ellington or Count Basie. More importantly, though, he won respect from fellow musicians. “When you made Benny Carter’s band in those days,” guitarist Danny Barker told Nat Shapirio and Nat Hentoff in Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya, “the stamp was on you…. Every time Benny got a band together all the cats would want to know who was in his band because if you could make… Carter’s band, that was it. It was like major-and-minor-league baseball.”

Carter traveled to Paris in 1935 to play with the Willie Lewis Orchestra, and remained in Europe for the next three years, performing with bands in England, France, and Scandinavia. He worked with the BBC orchestra in 1936 and joined saxophonist Coleman Hawkins for a recording with guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli in 1937. After returning to the United States in 1938, Carter played various dates with Lionel Hampton and Billie Holliday before once again attempting to form his own orchestra. He relocated to the West Coast in 1943 where he found lucrative work in Hollywood. Carter appeared as a trumpet player in the film Stormy Weather, and soon was busy scoring music for movies like the Marx’s Brothers Love Happy (1950) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). Throughout the fifties and sixties he frequently wrote scores for television, and limited his public performances to occasional tours with “Jazz at the Philharmonic” and a number of jam sessions sponsored by Norman Granz of Verve Records.

Carter returned to active performing in 1970 following an invitation by Morroe Berger to lecture at Baldwin-Wallace College. He became a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1973 and received a Doctorate of Humanities from the institution in 1974. The following year, at Berger’s suggestion, Carter traveled to the Middle East under the sponsorship of the United States State Department for a lecture and concert series. After his return, he embarked on a series of three albums for Pablo in the mid-to-late seventies. “As The King … proves,” wrote Scott Yanow in All Music Guide to Jazz, “the masterful altoist had not lost a thing through the years.” Carter was also booked for an engagement at Michael’s Pub in New York City, his first extended work on the East Coast in nearly 35 years.

Carter remained active in the 1980s and 1990s, recording over 20 albums for Music Masters, Pablo, and Concord. He 1989 and 1990, he performed at the Lincoln Center as part of the Classical Jazz series, in 1996, he was one of five to receive Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2000, he received the National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton. He traveled to Oslo on his ninetieth birthday in 1997, and then celebrated his birthday again at a two-day tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Carter died on July 12, 2003, from bronchitis at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. “I don’t know that I’ve made any real contribution,” a modest Carter told National Public Radio. “I’ve done what I’ve set out to do, that was have fun with the music, enjoy it and perform it and listen to it, to other people. And I have, to my satisfaction, achieved much that I had not even thought of.”