Benny Carter
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Born

  • August 8, 1907
  • New York, NY

Died

  • July 12, 2003
  • Los Angeles, CA

Full Name

  • Bennett Lester Carter

Theme Song

  • Melancholy Lullaby

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Benny Carter

One of the most important figures in twentieth century jazz, Benny Carter was a noted arranger, composer, bandleader, and soloist. He is recognized as one of the top alto sax players of all time and his talents served many fellow musicians and bandleaders.

Born in New York City, Carter learned to play the piano as a child, later experimenting with the trumpet and the C-melody sax before settling on the alto. By his teens Carter was working with groups in Harlem and Pittsburgh. He had planned to study theology upon entering Wilberforce College in Ohio in 1925 but was sidetracked when he joined Horace Henderson's campus band, the Wilberforce Collegians.

Carter left the Collegians in 1926 and worked with various orchestras, including those of Billy Fowler, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, and Fletcher Henderson before joining Charlie Johnson, with whom he made his recording debut in 1928. Carter spent a year with Johnson then briefly formed his own band.

In 1930 Carter rejoined Fletcher Henderson and then worked for Chick Webb before becoming musical director of McKinney's Cotton Pickers. In 1932 he formed his own group, which came to be known as the Chocolate Dandies. During this period he also regularly arranged for several bandleaders, including Ellington and Teddy Hill. In 1934 he disbanded his group and began arranging for Benny Goodman. He worked with Charlie Barnet and Willie Bryant before moving to Paris to join Willie Lewis.

In 1936 Carter became arranger for Henry Hall's London-based orchestra, later moving to Amsterdam to play with Freddy Johnson. He led his own groups in Amsterdam and Paris before returning to the United States in 1938. He briefly led a big band in 1939 and again in 1940, reducing it in size to a sextet in the autumn of 1941. In 1943 he formed a new orchestra and began working on both coasts, eventually moving to Los Angeles in 1945, where he continued to lead his own outfit.

In 1947 Carter organized a septet and occassionally toured, but he began to devote more of his time to composing and arranging for Hollywood and television. During the 1950s and 1960s he worked with several vocalists, including Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford. In 1968 he briefly rejoined Duke Ellington. Benny Carter remained active well into the 1990s and still did not officially consider himself retired when he died of complications from bronchitis in 2003.