Jazz Giant Benny Carter Dies

Jazz man extraordinaire Benny Carter, a big-band leader, multi-instrumentalist and one of the first black composers to find success in Hollywood, died Saturday in Los Angeles, according to a notice on his Website. He was 95.

"Although physically weak, he remained completely lucid and enjoyed speaking with many of his friends worldwide over the past few weeks," the statement reads.

Carter had checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center two weeks ago with bronchitis and had been ailing for some time.

He was best known for his stylish compositions and arrangements performed by swing-era bandleaders Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Lou Rawls and Mel Tormé.

Long before Elvis, it was Carter who owned the nickname "the King," a moniker bestowed by his peers for his towering musical presence, even though he largely learned to play on his own.

"You got Duke Ellington, Count Basie and my man, Earl of Hines, right? Well, Benny's right up there with all them cats," Louis Armstrong once remarked. "Everybody that knows who he is calls him 'King.' He is a king."

One of jazz's preeminent jack-of-all-trades, Carter's improvisations on the trumpet, clarinet, piano, tenor and bass saxophone and his favorite instrument, alto sax, can be heard alongside such jazz pioneers as Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Fats Waller, Max Roach and Willie "the Lion" Smith.

Critics have singled out Carter for virtuoso playing that inspired and influenced generations of jazz musicians. He's also credited for helping to bring swing to mainstream America as a composer for the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and later fronting his own band from 1929 to 1946. Carter was one of the first to incorporate jazz solos within the confines of a big band, attracting top players to the burgeoning swing movement.

"If Benny was not there, we wouldn't be here," Carter's friend, composer and protégé Quincy Jones told Reuters. "We walked through the door on his shoulders. He was a quiet and dignified man. And one of a kind."

As a bandleader, Carter was among those who spread jazz to European audiences following several successful tours in the 1930s in which his outfit gigged in halls in France, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Carter was born in New York City on August 8, 1907, and by the age of 10, he was studying piano. He quickly mastered brass instruments, and at the tender age of 15, he had already ditched school for jam sessions in Harlem clubs.

He penned such innovative arrangements as "Keep a Song in Your Soul," "Blues in My Heart" and "When Lights Are Low." He wrote the all-black musical Stormy Weather.

"The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he," Duke Ellington once said in admiration.

Perhaps Carter will be best remembered, though, for crossing show biz's color barrier.

After returning from Europe in the late '30s, Carter made his way to California, where he became one of the first African-American composers to work in Tinseltown, arranging music for numerous films (including An American in Paris and The Guns of Navarone) and TV shows (M Squad, Ironside, The Name of the Game and It Takes a Thief).

Carter won two Grammys in seven nominations and also received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1987. He was presented with Kennedy Center Honors by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

"From the small clubs of the Harlem Renaissance, where he began playing saxophones, to world tours for the biggest of the bands, Benny Carter redefined American jazz," Clinton said as he bestowed the award.

Carter continued performing and recording well into his eighties. He is survived by his wife, Hilma, a daughter, a grandchild and a great-grandchild.