Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career in the 1920s, he worked as an arranger, including writing charts for Fletcher 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 eight Grammy Awards, which included receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Career
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 with C melody saxophone before settling on alto saxophone. In the 1920s, he performed with June Clark, Billy Paige, and Earl Hines, then toured as a member of the Wilberforce Collegians, led by Horace Henderson.
He appeared on record for the first time in 1927 as a member of the Paradise Ten, led by Charlie Johnson. He returned to the Collegians and became their bandleader through 1929, including a performance at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City.
He left Henderson to take Redman's former job as leader of McKinney's Cotton Pickers in Detroit. In 1932, he formed a band in New York City that included Chu Berry, Sid Catlett, Frankie Newton, Dicky Wells, Wayman Carver, and Teddy Wilson.
By the early 1930s, Carter and Johnny 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, for Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the name The Chocolate Dandies.
thumb|left|250px|Carter stands with [[Robert Goffin, Louis Armstrong, and Leonard Feather in 1942.]]
In 1933, Carter participated in sessions with the British composer/musician Spike 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 time Spike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra, were initially only issued in England. The musicians were from Carter's band and included Red Allen, Dicky Wells, Wayman Carver, Coleman Hawkins, J. C. Higginbotham, and Chu Berry.
Carter moved to London and spent two years as arranger for the BBC Big Band. During the 1950s and '60s, he wrote arrangements for vocalists
Time had little effect on Carter's abilities. During the 1980s, he wrote the long composition Central City Sketches, which was performed at Cooper Union by the American Jazz Orchestra. Another long composition, Glasgow Suite, was performed in Scotland. Lincoln Center commissioned him to write "Good Vibes" in 1990. The National Endowment for the Arts gave him a grant that led to Tales of the Rising Sun Suite and Harlem Renaissance Suite. This music was performed in 1992 when he was 85 years old.
Awards and honors
He was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1977. In 1978, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. In 1980, he received the Golden Score award of the American 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.
He was given a Grammy 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 by Ernestine Anderson and Sylvia Syms. In 1990, he was named Jazz Artist of the Year in the DownBeat and JazzTimes polls. He was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1996 and received honorary doctorates from Princeton (1974), Rutgers (1991), Harvard (1994), and the New England Conservatory of Music (1998). In 2016, the National Museum of American History made Carter the subject of its Jazz Appreciation Month poster.
In 2000, he was given the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.
Grammy Awards
- Wins: 3
- Nominations: 9
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! 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
|}
Discography
Information from AllMusic.com
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Year
!Title
!Notes
!Label
|-
|1930-52
|Benny Carter: The Master
|4 CD boxset
|Proper
|-
|1952
|Alone Together
|with the Oscar 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 as Moonglow
|Norgran
|-
|1955
|New Jazz Sounds
|with Dizzy Gillespie and Bill Harris
|Norgran
|-
|1955
|Urbane Jazz
|with Roy Eldridge
|Verve
|-
|1958
|Jazz Giant
|
|Contemporary
|-
|1958
|Swingin' the '20s
|with Earl 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 as The Benny Carter Jazz Calendar
|United Artists
|-
|1960
|Sax ala Carter!
|
|United Artists
|-
|1961
|Further Definitions
|
|Impulse!
|-
|1962
|BBB & Co.
|with Ben Webster & Barney Bigard
|Swingville
|-
|1963
|Benny Carter in Paris
|
|20th Century Fox
|-
|1966
|Additions to Further Definitions
|reissued as bonus tracks on the Further Definitions CD release in 1997
|Impulse!
|-
|1976
|The King
|
|Pablo
|-
|1976
|Carter, Gillespie Inc.
|with Dizzy 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
|with Billy Eckstine
|EmArcy
|-
|1987
|Benny Carter Meets Oscar Peterson
|with Oscar Peterson
|Pablo
|-
|1987
|Central City Sketches
|with the American 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
|with Phil Woods
|MusicMasters
|-
|1991
|All That Jazz: Live at Princeton
|
|MusicMasters
|-
|1992
|Harlem Renaissance
|
|MusicMasters
|-
|1992
|Legends
|with Hank 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
|}
As arranger
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!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 the Count Basie Orchestra
|Jazz
|Pablo
|}
As sideman
With Louis Bellson
- Skin Deep (Norgran, 1953)
With Ella Fitzgerald
- Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (Verve, 1961)
With Dizzy Gillespie
- The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (Bluebird, 1937–1949, [1995])
With Jazz at the Philharmonic
- The Drum Battle (Verve, 1952 [1960])
With Peggy Lee
- Blues Cross Country (Capitol, 1962) -- also some arrangements
With Dave Pell
- I Remember John Kirby (Capitol, 1961)
With Nancy Wilson
- The Sound of Nancy Wilson (Capitol, 1968)
- Nancy (Capitol, 1969)
Songs composed by Carter
- "Blues in My Heart" (1931) with Irving Mills
- "When Lights Are Low" (1936) with Spencer Williams
- "Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" (1942) with Don Raye and Gene De Paul
- "King Size Papa" with Paul Vandervoort II (1947)
- "Key Largo" (1948) with Karl Suessdorf, Leah Worth
- "Rock Me to Sleep" (1950) with Paul Vandervoort II
- "A Kiss from You" (1964) with Johnny Mercer
- "Only Trust Your Heart" (1964) with Sammy Cahn
Film and video
- Thousands Cheer (1943)
- An American in Paris (1951)
- Clash by Night (1952)
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
- Buck and the Preacher (1972)
- Jazz at the Smithsonian: Benny Carter (1982)
- Benny Carter in Japan (1986)
- Wolf Trap Salutes Dizzy Gillespie (1988)
- Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs (1989)