Benny Carter
1907 - 2003

ASCAP member Benny Carter, the award-winning composer, arranger, bandleader, solo artist, music educator and one of the world's most respected jazz musicians, passed away on July 12, 2003, at age 95. He was among the last survivors of a jazz generation that also included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins.

Throughout his amazing career of 80 years, Carter's talent was both vast and diverse. A distinguished artist on many instruments, Carter mastered the trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, piano and trombone. He was also well known as a musical mentor to many of the players who followed him into jazz.

The New York City-born Carter was inspired to pursue music by his neighbor, Bubber Miley, a trumpeter in Duke Ellington's band. Benny studied piano with his mother, and taught himself how to play the saxophone at age 13. By the time he was 15, Carter was already playing with bands in Harlem. Four years later, he landed a gig playing with Charlie Johnson's band at Smalls' Paradise in Harlem. In the ensuing years, Carter contributed arrangements to the orchestras led by Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, served as leader of the notable McKinney's Cotton Pickers and his own big bands and played all over Britain and Europe. The 1930s found Carter creating many of the compositions and arrangements that became classics of the Swing Era, including "Blues in My Heart," "When Lights Are Low," and "Lonesome Nights."

In the early 1940s, he challenged himself even further by becoming a composer of film music. With the advent of his scoring career, Carter joined ASCAP in 1942, and quickly became an active and generous member of the Society. His film contributions include scoring and arranging for Stormy Weather (in which he also performed), The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Flower Drum Song. Later in the 50s, Carter also began to score television shows, most notably, M Squad, Banyon and Ironside.

His stellar and impressive work in jazz and film and television music earned Carter numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, induction into the Big Band and Jazz Halls of Fame, and the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor.

Carter was the first Living Legend to be inducted into ASCAP's Jazz Wall of Fame, which was inaugurated in 1997. At the time, ASCAP President Marilyn Bergman said, "Carter is a giant in the world of jazz, and a major figure in film and television scoring… A brilliant saxophonist, trumpeter, arranger and composer, the grace and poise of Benny Carter's music are matched only by his personal demeanor."

During his career, Carter also worked with a super-star list of artists including Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Willie Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Peggy Lee, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Billy Eckstine, Mel Torme, Miles Davis, J.J. Johnson, Max Roach, Teddy Wilson, and Ella Fitzgerald. Known for his modesty and dignity, Carter was a beloved composer and musician who will be missed by everyone who knew him or his work.