Happy Birthday, Benny Carter!
Soloist and composer/arranger Benny Carter just celebrated his 118th birthday on August 8th. In 1969, Professor of Sociology Morroe Berger, long a Carter fan, invited him to Princeton University for a brief stay. Carter would come back many times, leading to a visiting professorship in 1973. By that time, he was a living legend and was showered with awards. Berger’s son Ed, who became associate director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, became his manager and traveled the world with him for concerts and recordings.
Unfortunately, Benny never had a true hit record during the big band era, although he led excellent bands on both coasts. He hosted many excellent musicians in his ensembles, including Miles Davis, Max Roach, and J.J. Johnson (the legendary Robert Farnon got good advice from Carter ca. 1933 when he was still a trumpet player). He was one of the first black composers to work in Hollywood (along with Will Vodery, Phil Moore, and Calvin Jackson), and by the 1960s was busy free-lancing as a sideman and in the television trenches until his career exploded in the 1970s, touring as a soloist and bandleader all over the world.
I am proud to say that he sought my help in 1999 with his catalog, and I worked on some music projects with him as well. Happily, a great deal of his music is available from Sierra Music Publications and Jazz Lines Publications, and Jazz Lines continues to issue more, including his arrangements for Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Peggy Lee.
Featured here are recordings that are less-commonly heard among the many which were recorded through the years, excellent examples of the life of a free-lance arranger.
This is one of the first Carter arrangements to be recorded. It is played by Charlie Johnson’s Paradise Ten. It features a saxophone chorus which became a Carter trademark in his arranging toolbox, and also includes a short Carter solo. This is an alternate take:
Even when he was leading his own bands, Carter free-lanced for others. One of them was Benny Goodman when he led his first orchestra in 1934. Benny arranged “Take My Word” from his own band’s book, but also a few other ballad arrangements. Billed as The Modernists in the U.S., this is Benny’s treatment of Solitude.
Carter moved to Europe in 1936, and was immediately hired to write for the BBC Dance Orchestra led by Henry Hall. I’ve always loved the introduction of this arrangement, which goes from key to key.
This small-group track spurred quite a reaction at the time, both positive and negative.
He came back to the U.S. and after leading a band in New York, he moved to the West Coast.
Here is Anita O’Day from 1946 singing Benny’s song and arrangement of Key Largo.
From a date with Ella Fitzgerald while she was still with Decca — Old Devil Moon.
For Abbey Lincoln — Two Cigarettes in the Dark.
For Earl Bostic on King Records. — East of the Sun.
Louis Armstrong — Christmas Night in Harlem.
Dakota Staton – ’Round Midnight.
And Billy Daniels — Blue Prelude.
Benny was always fascinated by newer sounds in music and never stopped exploring until his death in 2003, 95 years young.
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