Benny Carter

Benny Carter
Carter in 1984
Background information
Birth name	Bennett Lester Carter
Born	(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
Occupation(s)	Musician bandleader composer musical arranger
Instruments	Saxophone trumpet clarinet
Years active	1920s–1997
Labels	Clef Norgran Verve Pablo Concord MusicMasters
Website	bennycarter.com

Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and trumpeter. He was a a pioneer of the alto saxophone. He started playing in the 1920s. He was a music arranger. He wrote music for Fletcher Henderson's big band. This influenced the swing style. He had a very long career. He played music into the 1990s. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. It was given a a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Death

Carter died at the age of 95. He died in Los Angeles on July 12, 2003, from bronchitis.

Awards and honors

He was put into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1977. In 1978, put in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. In 1980, he was given the Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. His 75th birthday was celebrated by a radio station in New York. They played his music for over a week with no stop. The National Endowment for the Arts gave him the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986.

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". He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2000, he was given the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.

Discography

Information from AllMusic.com

Movies 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)

Related pages

• List of jazz arrangers

References

Other websites

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benny Carter.

• Benny's Music Class, Audio clips at the National Museum of American History web site
• Biography on swingmusic.net Archived January 28, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
• Benny Carter's entry in Jazz Improv magazine
• Benny Carter Audio Collection, Institute of Jazz Studies, Dana Library, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey
• Benny Carter Interview NAMM Oral History Library (1994)
• Benny Carter interview, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program at the National Museum of American History
• Benny Carter recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
• Benny Carter Oral Interview at the Institute of Jazz Studies