[Deathwatch] Benny Carter, jazz pioneer, 95

[Deathwatch Central]

Jazz Great Benny Carter Dead at 95 in Los Angeles

By Kevin Krolicki

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary jazz pioneer and big band leader
Benny Carter, who helped break Hollywood's bar to black composers, died
on Saturday at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, friends said on
Sunday. He was 95.

Carter, who was one of the first black composers and arrangers to work
on mainstream Hollywood films, including such classics as "Stormy
Weather," had been hospitalized for about two weeks, complaining of
bronchitis and fatigue, said family friend Virginia Wicks.

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

In a career that spanned seven decades, Carter played with such jazz
luminaries as pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, Fats Waller, Miles Davis
and Dizzie Gillespie. He is also credited with launching Ella
Fitzgerald's career by introducing her to bandleader Chick Webb.

A largely self-taught musician, Carter established the swing-era, big
band sound through ensemble compositions for the Fletcher Henderson
orchestra and later his own band.

Born in 1907 in New York City, Carter studied piano with his mother and
was inspired by his neighbor, Bubber Miley, a musician with Duke
Ellington's band.

He began sitting in at Harlem night spots at the age of 15, having left
school. By 1928, he was recording with Henderson's band and is credited
with groundbreaking arrangements like "Keep A Song In Your Soul."

"He was one of the architects of the big band sound," said longtime
Carter friend and biographer Ed Berger.

Carter applied the principles of the jazz solo to whole sections of the
orchestra in a way that made them swing as they never had before, said
Berger.

As a result, the major big bands at the peak of their popularity in the
1930s sought him out and his own orchestra attracted a who's who of
jazz musicians, including such sidemen as saxophonist Chu Berry and
pianist Teddy Wilson.

"They were sort of an incubator for great soloists," said Berger.

Carter's compositions, including "Blues in My Heart" and "When Lights
Are Low," have become jazz standards.

In 1941, he formed a sextet that included such bebop pioneers as
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Kenny Clarke. Known as a courtly
and patient mentor, Carter nurtured some of the next generation's major
stars in jazz.

"Everyone should listen to Benny Carter, he's a whole musical
education," said Miles Davis, who played with Carter in his
California-based big band that also included trombonist J.J. Johnson
and drummer Max Roach.

Carter was also a pioneer in breaking down color barriers for black
musicians and composers. He formed the first international and
interracial band in the Netherlands in the mid-1930s and a decade later
became one of the first black composers to work in film and television.


A self-effacing and private man, Carter was modest about his
accomplishments. "No one was ever more articulate than Benny Carter --
except about himself," said Berger. "He would not admit that this was
any great, earth-shattering thing. To him it was just another gig."

Carter is survived by his wife, Hilma, a daughter, Joyce Mills, a
grandchild and a great grandchild, said Wicks. (Additional reporting by
Arthur Spiegelman)