1907 Benny Carter*
1910 Lucky Millinder*
1923 Jimmy Witherspoon*
1953 Tim Gaze*
1953 Lady Bianca*
1955 Caroline Aiken*
1962 Deak Harp*
1967 Erkan Özdemir*
Happy Birthday
Caroline Aiken *08.08.1955
Caroline Aiken (born August 8, 1955) is a singer and guitarist from Atlanta, Georgia whose work spans genres, from folk to blues to rock. Aiken has released seven albums and performed with Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls.[1]
Aiken also teaches workshops on songwriting and performing.
Independent to the bone with seven CDs, and with a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk CD in 2006, Caroline Aiken has performed numerous times to benefit thousands of causes, and has played thousands of shows in her 40-plus years of touring at home and abroad. Writing, producing shows, festivals, theaters, and series, Caroline has also served 12 years as Entertainment Director for the Atlanta Dogwood Festival.
Caroline has recorded with and shared stages with The Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, and has been a guest performer at major venues with them such as San Antonio’s Majestic Theater, Denver’s Red Rocks, and Berkeley’s Greek Theater. Caroline has headlined at the Kerrville, Texas Music Festival (Main Stage since ’95), Seattle’s Bumbershoot (since ’96), Folk Life Festival (since ’76), NY’s Falcon Ridge, and Northern California’s High Sierra Music Festival.
Course description:
Caroline’s class, "How to Enjoy the Time on the Stage," teaches how to be an independent artist, a booking agent, a manager, a record label, and how to read the fine print, as well as song writing, and guitar-percussive finger style.
Caroline’s finger picking style won an invitation to the Stuttgart Germany Guitar Seminar in May 2006 and 2007.
Atlanta Magazine calls Caroline the "BEST ACOUSTIC ARTIST" (June 2003 GA MUSIC pictorial feature) and includes her full page picture next to Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, The Black Crowes, the Indigo Girls, India Arie, and many more.
Atlanta's Piedmont Review Magazine features Caroline with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland on the cover in 2003.
Blue Suede News says; "Caroline tears her 12 string a whole new consciousness."
Caroline's honors include performances opening Mother's Finest and the B52s at the GA Music Hall of Fame, as well as her own shows at the Hall (since 2004), her very own display box in the Atlanta Hard Rock Café's 'Atlanta Rhythm Section' Room (2003). Invited to perform at the Troubadour in LA with Martin Sexton by the National Songwriter's Association in 1998. The CocaCola Awards nominated Caroline as the best acoustic guitar player/vocalist in Atlanta (1993-1994).
In 2004, Caroline received a prestigious endorsement from Martin Guitars and Strings, and won a 1000 CD manufacturing certificate from Discmakers through CAMPJAM In The Pines/ NJ. Voila -- Are We There Yet Mama? was born. 2004 also saw the completion of a 30,000 mile USA driving tour, crossing the country four times during April through October performing over 150 shows, followed by a five week European tour in November and December.
Caroline’s performances, direct and sincere, are known for emanating a high level of infectious energy, and those that have heard her perform live leave wanting more. Her genre spans many styles, from rock/blues/folk/country to piano ballads to finger style guitar picking--all accompanied by her rich and soulful voice. Caroline is an accomplished and diverse musician, being at home on both guitar and piano. Victory Music in Seattle raved about Caroline’s “sensual voice, expert guitar, [and] masterful songwriting.”
2005 saw the live recording Are We There Yet Mama?, the completion of the 2005 Atlanta Dogwood Festival, a driving tour with many shows and radio play across the USA, headlining the famed Kerrville Folk Festival (headlining since 1995).
In 2010, Caroline released Welcome Home, her 8th and newest album to date. Her 2011 tour to support this album includes the West Coast.
Caroline’s career started started on the coast of Georgia with musical influences from Emma Lee Ramsey of the Georgia Sea Island Singers. In 1969, she found herself in NY playing in her first rock band 'Father Time', then touring in California during the early 70's, followed by performing in South America from '73 -'74, to the streets and venues of Seattle in the mid 70's, heading East to Greenwich Village in the early 80's and finally full circle, back to Atlanta. Since 1986, Caroline’s base has been Atlanta, where she has received numerous accolades. She has caught the ears and hearts of everyone who hears her, including Bonnie Raitt. She opened shows for Bonnie in 1985, and Bonnie performed on Caroline's first recording in 1988, Line Of Vision. In 2002 and 2003 Bonnie Raitt introduced Caroline to the Austin and San Antonio scenes.
Performed and recorded with Bonnie Raitt , Indigo Girls, Moses Mo (Mother’s Finest), Jaimoe (Allman Brothers), and Randall Bramblett. Support: Muddy Waters, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen, Arlo Guthrie, Randy Newman, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, Janis Ian, 38 Special, Allan Toussaint, Chuck Leavell, Derek Trucks, Richie Havens, Doc and Merle Watson, David Bromberg, and Louden Wainwright, III.
Caroline heard the Indigo Girls in 1980 in an alley behind Good Old Days in Atlanta, practicing a CSNY song. When she put a third part harmony on it, they became friends. Caroline invited them on to her stage when the Indigo Girls were 16 to 17 years old, and sang on their first recording (song - Finlandia), touring with them nationally in 1992, 1994, and 1997. In '95, Caroline
In addition to her busy tour schedule, Caroline was the Entertainment Director for the Atlanta Dogwood Festival from 1992-1994 and 1996-2005. She brought the Dogwood Music Festival to state-wide and national awareness by booking regional and national acts such as Sugarland, Shawn Mullins, Ellen McIlwaine, Dave Mason, Chuck Leavell, Vassar Clements, B52s' Cindy Wilson, Martha Reeves, Derek Trucks, Mother's Finest, and many Grammy-winners and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Caroline is also a talented and gifted teacher and has taught her courses 'Zen And The Art Of Performance'; 'Songwriting In Your Sleep' and 'Guerilla Guitar Works' at many venues, colleges, music stores, festivals, and one on one. She has taught at Summer Songs in California, Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina, the South Florida Folk Festival, Lamb's Songwriters' Retreat in Michigan, at the Schorndorf Guitar Festival, and most recently at the Pepperland Farm Kids Rock Camp in Murphy, NC.
Caroline has recorded with and shared stages with The Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, and has been a guest performer at major venues with them such as San Antonio’s Majestic Theater, Denver’s Red Rocks, and Berkeley’s Greek Theater. Caroline has headlined at the Kerrville, Texas Music Festival (Main Stage since ’95), Seattle’s Bumbershoot (since ’96), Folk Life Festival (since ’76), NY’s Falcon Ridge, and Northern California’s High Sierra Music Festival.
Course description:
Caroline’s class, "How to Enjoy the Time on the Stage," teaches how to be an independent artist, a booking agent, a manager, a record label, and how to read the fine print, as well as song writing, and guitar-percussive finger style.
Caroline’s finger picking style won an invitation to the Stuttgart Germany Guitar Seminar in May 2006 and 2007.
Atlanta Magazine calls Caroline the "BEST ACOUSTIC ARTIST" (June 2003 GA MUSIC pictorial feature) and includes her full page picture next to Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, The Black Crowes, the Indigo Girls, India Arie, and many more.
Atlanta's Piedmont Review Magazine features Caroline with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland on the cover in 2003.
Blue Suede News says; "Caroline tears her 12 string a whole new consciousness."
Caroline's honors include performances opening Mother's Finest and the B52s at the GA Music Hall of Fame, as well as her own shows at the Hall (since 2004), her very own display box in the Atlanta Hard Rock Café's 'Atlanta Rhythm Section' Room (2003). Invited to perform at the Troubadour in LA with Martin Sexton by the National Songwriter's Association in 1998. The CocaCola Awards nominated Caroline as the best acoustic guitar player/vocalist in Atlanta (1993-1994).
In 2004, Caroline received a prestigious endorsement from Martin Guitars and Strings, and won a 1000 CD manufacturing certificate from Discmakers through CAMPJAM In The Pines/ NJ. Voila -- Are We There Yet Mama? was born. 2004 also saw the completion of a 30,000 mile USA driving tour, crossing the country four times during April through October performing over 150 shows, followed by a five week European tour in November and December.
Caroline’s performances, direct and sincere, are known for emanating a high level of infectious energy, and those that have heard her perform live leave wanting more. Her genre spans many styles, from rock/blues/folk/country to piano ballads to finger style guitar picking--all accompanied by her rich and soulful voice. Caroline is an accomplished and diverse musician, being at home on both guitar and piano. Victory Music in Seattle raved about Caroline’s “sensual voice, expert guitar, [and] masterful songwriting.”
2005 saw the live recording Are We There Yet Mama?, the completion of the 2005 Atlanta Dogwood Festival, a driving tour with many shows and radio play across the USA, headlining the famed Kerrville Folk Festival (headlining since 1995).
In 2010, Caroline released Welcome Home, her 8th and newest album to date. Her 2011 tour to support this album includes the West Coast.
Caroline’s career started started on the coast of Georgia with musical influences from Emma Lee Ramsey of the Georgia Sea Island Singers. In 1969, she found herself in NY playing in her first rock band 'Father Time', then touring in California during the early 70's, followed by performing in South America from '73 -'74, to the streets and venues of Seattle in the mid 70's, heading East to Greenwich Village in the early 80's and finally full circle, back to Atlanta. Since 1986, Caroline’s base has been Atlanta, where she has received numerous accolades. She has caught the ears and hearts of everyone who hears her, including Bonnie Raitt. She opened shows for Bonnie in 1985, and Bonnie performed on Caroline's first recording in 1988, Line Of Vision. In 2002 and 2003 Bonnie Raitt introduced Caroline to the Austin and San Antonio scenes.
Performed and recorded with Bonnie Raitt , Indigo Girls, Moses Mo (Mother’s Finest), Jaimoe (Allman Brothers), and Randall Bramblett. Support: Muddy Waters, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen, Arlo Guthrie, Randy Newman, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, Janis Ian, 38 Special, Allan Toussaint, Chuck Leavell, Derek Trucks, Richie Havens, Doc and Merle Watson, David Bromberg, and Louden Wainwright, III.
Caroline heard the Indigo Girls in 1980 in an alley behind Good Old Days in Atlanta, practicing a CSNY song. When she put a third part harmony on it, they became friends. Caroline invited them on to her stage when the Indigo Girls were 16 to 17 years old, and sang on their first recording (song - Finlandia), touring with them nationally in 1992, 1994, and 1997. In '95, Caroline
In addition to her busy tour schedule, Caroline was the Entertainment Director for the Atlanta Dogwood Festival from 1992-1994 and 1996-2005. She brought the Dogwood Music Festival to state-wide and national awareness by booking regional and national acts such as Sugarland, Shawn Mullins, Ellen McIlwaine, Dave Mason, Chuck Leavell, Vassar Clements, B52s' Cindy Wilson, Martha Reeves, Derek Trucks, Mother's Finest, and many Grammy-winners and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
Caroline is also a talented and gifted teacher and has taught her courses 'Zen And The Art Of Performance'; 'Songwriting In Your Sleep' and 'Guerilla Guitar Works' at many venues, colleges, music stores, festivals, and one on one. She has taught at Summer Songs in California, Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina, the South Florida Folk Festival, Lamb's Songwriters' Retreat in Michigan, at the Schorndorf Guitar Festival, and most recently at the Pepperland Farm Kids Rock Camp in Murphy, NC.
Jimmy Witherspoon *8.8.1923
Jimmy Witherspoon (* 8. August 1923[1] in Gurdon, Arkansas; † 18. September 1997 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien), eigentlich James Witherspoon, von seinen Fans einfach Spoon genannt, war ein US-amerikanischer Blues- und Jazz-Sänger. Im Laufe seiner Karriere soll er an über 200 Alben beteiligt gewesen sein. Zu seinen Hits gehören Blues Around the Clock, Some of My Best Friends are the Blues und Blue Spoon.Erste Aufmerksamkeit erregte Witherspoon als Sänger der Band von Teddy Weatherford in Kalkutta, Indien, die während des Zweiten Weltkriegs regelmäßig in Radiosendungen für die US-Armee zu hören war.
1945 machte Witherspoon seine ersten Aufnahmen mit der Band von Jay McShann. Seinen ersten Hit unter eigenem Namen, Ain't Nobody's Business, den er mit McShanns Band einspielte, hatte er 1949. Es folgten 1950 die Hits No Rollin' Blues und Big Fine Girl. Mitte der 1950er ließ der Erfolg nach, doch wurde das Album Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1959 begeistert aufgenommen.
Witherspoon machte Aufnahmen und hatte Auftritte mit vielen Größen des Blues und Jazz, u. a. mit Ben Webster, Eric Burdon, Van Morrison, Count Basie, Alexis Korner, Earl Hines, Robben Ford, Bonnie Raitt und T-Bone Walker. Daneben trat er in einer Reihe von Kino- und TV-Filmen auf, z. B. Georgia mit Jennifer Jason Leigh und The Big Easy.
In den 1980ern wurde bei Witherspoon Krebs festgestellt. Nach einer Operation erholte er sich und kehrte auf die Bühne zurück. 1997 erhielt er für das Album Live At The Mint eine Grammy-Nominierung.
Jimmy Witherspoon starb 1997 im Alter von 74 Jahren. 2008 wurde er in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues singer.[1]
Early life and career
James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas.[2] He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Witherspoon made his first records with Jay McShann's band in 1945. In 1949, recording under his own name with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business,"[2] a song which came to be regarded as his signature tune. In 1950 he had hits with two more songs closely identified with him: "No Rollin' Blues", "Big Fine Girl", as well as "Failing By Degrees" and "New Orleans Woman" recorded with the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra which included Herman Washington and Don Hill on the Modern Records label. These were recorded from a live performance on May 10, 1949 at a "Just Jazz" concert Pasadena, CA sponsored by Gene Norman. Another classic Witherspoon composition is "Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough".
Witherspoon's style of blues - that of the "blues shouter" - became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album, Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which featured Roy Eldridge, Woody Herman, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines and Mel Lewis, among others.[3] He later recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Leroy Vinnegar, Richard "Groove" Holmes and T-Bone Walker.[2]
Tours and successes
In 1961 he toured Europe with Buck Clayton and returned to the UK on many occasions, featuring on a mid-sixties live UK recording Spoon Sings and Swings (1966) with tenor sax player Dick Morrissey's quartet. In 1970, he appeared on Brother Jack McDuff's London Blue Note recording To Seek a New Home together with British jazz musicians, including Dick Morrissey, again, and Terry Smith. In the 1970s he also recorded the album Guilty! (later released on CD as Black & White Blues) with Eric Burdon[2] and featuring Ike White & the San Quentin Prison Band. He then toured with a band of his own featuring Robben Ford and Russ Ferrante. A recording from this period, Spoonful, featured 'Spoon accompanied by Robben Ford, Joe Sample, Cornell Dupree, Thad Jones and Bernard Purdie.[4] He continued performing and recording into the 1990s.[4]
Other performers with whom Witherspoon recorded include Jimmy Rowles, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Vernon Alley, Mel Lewis, Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wiggins, John Clayton, Paul Humphrey, Pepper Adams, Kenny Burrell, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jimmy Smith, Long John Baldry, Junior Mance, Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode, Kenny Clarke, Gerry Mulligan, Jim Mullen, Count Basie, Van Morrison, Dutch Swing College Band, Gene Gilbeaux and others.
Acting
In the 1995 film Georgia, Witherspoon portrayed a traveling, gun-collecting blues singer, Trucker, who has a relationship with the troubled character Sadie, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Death
Witherspoon died of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California on September 18, 1997.
Early life and career
James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas.[2] He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Witherspoon made his first records with Jay McShann's band in 1945. In 1949, recording under his own name with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business,"[2] a song which came to be regarded as his signature tune. In 1950 he had hits with two more songs closely identified with him: "No Rollin' Blues", "Big Fine Girl", as well as "Failing By Degrees" and "New Orleans Woman" recorded with the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra which included Herman Washington and Don Hill on the Modern Records label. These were recorded from a live performance on May 10, 1949 at a "Just Jazz" concert Pasadena, CA sponsored by Gene Norman. Another classic Witherspoon composition is "Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough".
Witherspoon's style of blues - that of the "blues shouter" - became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album, Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which featured Roy Eldridge, Woody Herman, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines and Mel Lewis, among others.[3] He later recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Leroy Vinnegar, Richard "Groove" Holmes and T-Bone Walker.[2]
Tours and successes
In 1961 he toured Europe with Buck Clayton and returned to the UK on many occasions, featuring on a mid-sixties live UK recording Spoon Sings and Swings (1966) with tenor sax player Dick Morrissey's quartet. In 1970, he appeared on Brother Jack McDuff's London Blue Note recording To Seek a New Home together with British jazz musicians, including Dick Morrissey, again, and Terry Smith. In the 1970s he also recorded the album Guilty! (later released on CD as Black & White Blues) with Eric Burdon[2] and featuring Ike White & the San Quentin Prison Band. He then toured with a band of his own featuring Robben Ford and Russ Ferrante. A recording from this period, Spoonful, featured 'Spoon accompanied by Robben Ford, Joe Sample, Cornell Dupree, Thad Jones and Bernard Purdie.[4] He continued performing and recording into the 1990s.[4]
Other performers with whom Witherspoon recorded include Jimmy Rowles, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Vernon Alley, Mel Lewis, Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wiggins, John Clayton, Paul Humphrey, Pepper Adams, Kenny Burrell, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jimmy Smith, Long John Baldry, Junior Mance, Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode, Kenny Clarke, Gerry Mulligan, Jim Mullen, Count Basie, Van Morrison, Dutch Swing College Band, Gene Gilbeaux and others.
Acting
In the 1995 film Georgia, Witherspoon portrayed a traveling, gun-collecting blues singer, Trucker, who has a relationship with the troubled character Sadie, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Death
Witherspoon died of throat cancer in Los Angeles, California on September 18, 1997.
Lady Bianca *08.08.1953
Lady Bianca (born August 8, 1953) is an American electric blues singer, songwriter and arranger.[1] She has worked as a session singer, depicted Billie Holiday on stage, and since 1995 released six solo albums, three of which were nominated for a Grammy Award.She is currently based in Oakland, California.
She was born Bianca Thornton,[2] in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.[1] She was the eldest child, with two sisters and one brother.[3]
Her first exposure to music was through gospel, and she studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.[1] Her first professional gig was with Quinn Harris and the Masterminds, when she was aged 17. Harris dubbed her 'Lady Bianca', and the combination contributed two tracks to a compilation album released by Reynolds Records in 1970.[3]
In 1972, she played the role of Billie Holiday in the San Franciscan stage production of Jon Hendricks' Evolution of the Blues.[1] In the mid 1970s, she worked in various clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she met the bass guitarist Henry Oden. They were subsequently married for 15 years. She then joined Sly and the Family Stone as backing vocalist and keyboard player, and appeared on their 1976 album, Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back. Late the same year she briefly toured with Frank Zappa, and a recording of her singing Wind Up Workin' in a Gas Station" appeared on the albums Zoot Allures and Philly '76, and was re-released in 1992 on You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6. When not touring, she performed locally in the recording studio, backing musicians such as Lee Oskar, Merle Haggard and Taj Mahal. In 1977, she co-founded the short-lived ensemble Vitamin E, and they released the commercially doomed Sharing album on Buddah Records. Lady Bianca then joined another group, Zingara, which was set up by Lamont Dozier in 1980. The trio included James Ingram, Wali Ali and Lady Bianca, but again it did not have any lasting appeal.[3]
Between 1981 and 1986, Lady Bianca toured and recorded backing vocals for Van Morrison, and appeared recordings such as Beautiful Vision (1982), Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (1983), Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast (1984), A Sense of Wonder (1985), and No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986). Lady Bianca also worked with John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.[1] In 1984, she met Stanley Lippitt, a songwriter and her eventual husband. She continued to perform locally and undertook more low-key recording work.[3]
After recording demos with Lippitt, she was noticed by Joe Louis Walker who helped arrange a recording contract.[1] Her debut solo album, Best Kept Secret was released in 1995 on Telarc Distribution.[4] Her backing work continued in the 1990s, when she worked with Frankie Lee and Maria Muldaur. Lady Bianca's next solo effort was the critically acclaimed Rollin' (2001), which was released on the Rooster Blues label.[5] In 2002, she was given the 'Keys to the City' in Oakland.[3]
She formed her own record label Magic-O Records, and with Lippitt have their own production and publishing company.[6] Further albums were recorded and issued on Magic-O. These included All by Myself (2004),[7] Let Love Have Its Way (2005), Through a Woman's Eyes (2007), and A Woman Never Forgets (2009).[8]
In April 2007, at the Bay Area Black Music Awards, Lady Bianca was awarded as Best Blues Performer. In March 2008, she was voted in to the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame. In 2009, she appeared with Van Morrison at the Royal Albert Hall in London.[6]
Lady Bianca and the Magic-O Rhythm Band have appeared at many blues music festivals, including the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1987, and the Sarasota Blues Fest in 1996.[3]
Three of her albums have been nominated for a Grammy Award – Best Kept Secret, Rollin', and Through a Woman's Eyes. She is currently working on her projected seventh release.
Lucky Millinder *08.08.1910
Lucky Millinder (* 8. August 1900 in Anniston, Alabama; † 28. September 1966 in New York City), eigentlich Lucius Venable Millinder, war ein US-amerikanischer R&B- und Swing-Bandleader und Sänger.
Geboren in Alabama, aufgewachsen in Chicago, arbeitete Millinder in den späten 1920er Jahren als Tänzer, Sänger und Bandleader. Er konnte weder Noten lesen noch spielte er ein Instrument, dennoch war er mit seiner Musik erfolgreich.
Im Juni 1930 tourte er mit einer Band in Europa, zu der auch der Sänger Freddy Taylor gehörte, mit Auftritten in Monte Carlo und Paris, im Oktober 1933 kam er erst nach New York zurück. Nach seiner Rückkehr wurde er Ende 1933 Leiter der Mills Blue Rhythm Band, wo er bis 1938 blieb. Am 4. Dezember 1933 machte Millinder erste Aufnahmen mit der Mills Blue Rhythm Band, und zwar Drop Me Off In Harlem und Love Is The Thing. Im Januar 1936 brachte die Mills Blue Rhythm Band die Single Broken Dreams of You / Yes! Yes! unter seiner Leitung heraus, es folgte im Juli 1937 The Image of You / Lucky Swing. Bereits ab Dezember 1934 komponierte Millinder auch Stücke für die Mills Blue Rhythm Band, so etwa den Hit Ride Red Ride oder St. Louis Wiggle Rhythm (Mai 1936).
Ab 1938 übernahm er die Band von Bill Doggett, weil dieser temporär zahlungsunfähig war und seine Bandmitglieder nicht mehr bezahlen konnte. Später allerdings erholte sich Doggett finanziell wieder und lieferte große Hits ab.
Im September 1940 stellte er seine eigene Band zusammen; darunter waren Buster Bailey (Klarinette), Bill Doggett (Piano), der Schlagzeuger „Panama“ Francis; später spielten auch Sir Charles Thompson und Eddie „Lockjaw“ Davis (beide Saxophon) mit. Als Sänger wurden Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Wynonie Harris oder „Big“ John Greer eingesetzt. Einen ersten Hit konnte er mit Big Fat Mama (mit Trevor Bacon als Sänger) landen; sein früher Hitparadenerfolg When The Lights Go On Again / That’s All wurde gleich zur Nummer 1 der Rhythm & Blues-Hitparade. Auch Apollo Jump und Sweet Slumber gelangten bis zur Spitzenposition. Ab 1944 rekrutierte er als Sänger Wynonie Harris, der zu Millinders größtem Hit Who Threw The Wiskey in the Well? den Gesang beisteuerte. Nun war Millinders Band mit vier aufeinander folgenden Top-Platzierungen in der Hitparade einer der erfolgreichsten Interpreten des Decca-Labels.
Bei King Records war er bereits als Komponist zusammen mit Henry Glover bei Love Me Tonight für Bull Moose Jackson, aufgenommen am 5. Januar 1949, und weiteren Aufnahmen aufgetaucht. Der offizielle Wechsel zu King Records wurde im Juli 1950 vollzogen. Hier half er auch bei anderen Bands aus, so etwa bei Bull Moose Jacksons Big Fat Mamas Are Back In Style Again (King 4412), das am 4. Mai 1951 entstand. King Records brachten jedoch sieben Singles heraus, bis endlich mit Bongo Boogie / I’m Waiting Just for You Millinder mit einem zweiten Platz wieder die R&B-Hitparade erreichen konnte. Bei BMI sind für Millinder insgesamt 49 Kompositionen registriert,[1] wovon drei einen BMI-Award erhielten.
Im Jahre 1952 löste er seine Band auf. In späteren Jahren schlug er sich als Verkäufer und Diskjockey durch. Millinder rekrutierte für sein Orchester talentiertes Personal, von dem später viele Einzelinterpreten Karriere machen konnten. Er war ein exzellenter Organisator, entwickelte ein Gehör für komplizierte Sounds und verstand die Tiefen des Musikgeschäfts.[2]
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Millinder
Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910[1] – September 28, 1966[2]) was an American rhythm and blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful. His group was said to have been the greatest big band to play rhythm and blues,[3] and gave a break to a number of influential musicians at the dawn of the rock and roll era. He is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
Early career
Millinder was born in Anniston, Alabama, United States,[2] and was raised in Chicago, Illinois. In the 1920s he worked in clubs, ballrooms, and theatres in Chicago as a master of ceremonies and dancer. He first fronted a band in 1931 for an RKO theater tour, and in 1932 took over leadership of Doc Crawford's orchestra in Harlem, New York City, as well as freelancing elsewhere.
In 1933, he took a band to Europe, playing residencies in Monte Carlo and Paris. He returned to New York to take over leadership of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, which included Henry "Red" Allen, Charlie Shavers, Harry "Sweets" Edison and J. C. Higginbotham, and which had a regular slot at The Cotton Club. Around this time he also discovered singer and guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, with whom he performed for many years and first recorded with on "Trouble In Mind" in 1941.
With his own orchestra
In 1938 he teamed up with pianist Bill Doggett's group, and by 1940 had formed a completely new orchestra, which included Doggett and drummer "Panama" Francis. He established a residency at New York's Savoy Ballroom, and won a contract with Decca Records. Dizzy Gillespie was the band's trumpeter for a while, and featured on Millinder's first charted hit, "When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)", which reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 14 on the pop chart in 1942. The follow-up records "Apollo Jump" and "Sweet Slumber" were also big hits, with vocals by Trevor Bacon.
By the mid-1940s the band was drifting towards what would be known as rhythm and blues. Other band members around this time included saxophonists Bull Moose Jackson, Tab Smith and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and pianist "Sir" Charles Thompson. In 1944 Millinder recruited singer Wynonie Harris, and their recording together of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" became the group's biggest hit in 1945, staying at No. 1 on the R&B chart for eight weeks and also crossing over to reach No. 7 on the US pop chart. After Harris left for a solo career, Millinder followed up with another hit, "Shorty's Got to Go", on which he took lead vocals. Soon afterwards, Ruth Brown became the band's singer for a short period before her own solo career took off.
In the late 1940s the band continued to remain popular and toured around all the large R&B auditoriums, although it had few chart hits for several years. In 1949 the band left Decca Records and joined first RCA Victor and then King Records, recording with singers Big John Greer and Annisteen Allen. The band's last big hit was "I'm Waiting Just for You" with Allen in 1951, which reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 19 pop.
Later years
By 1952 Millinder was working as a radio DJ as well as continuing to tour with his band, but his style was beginning to fall out of favor and the band went through many personnel changes. In 1954 he took over the leadership of the house band at the Apollo Theater for a while. He effectively retired from performing around 1955, although his final recordings were in 1960.
He became active in music publishing, and in public relations for a whiskey distillery, before dying from a liver ailment in New York City in September 1966.
Early career
Millinder was born in Anniston, Alabama, United States,[2] and was raised in Chicago, Illinois. In the 1920s he worked in clubs, ballrooms, and theatres in Chicago as a master of ceremonies and dancer. He first fronted a band in 1931 for an RKO theater tour, and in 1932 took over leadership of Doc Crawford's orchestra in Harlem, New York City, as well as freelancing elsewhere.
In 1933, he took a band to Europe, playing residencies in Monte Carlo and Paris. He returned to New York to take over leadership of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, which included Henry "Red" Allen, Charlie Shavers, Harry "Sweets" Edison and J. C. Higginbotham, and which had a regular slot at The Cotton Club. Around this time he also discovered singer and guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, with whom he performed for many years and first recorded with on "Trouble In Mind" in 1941.
With his own orchestra
In 1938 he teamed up with pianist Bill Doggett's group, and by 1940 had formed a completely new orchestra, which included Doggett and drummer "Panama" Francis. He established a residency at New York's Savoy Ballroom, and won a contract with Decca Records. Dizzy Gillespie was the band's trumpeter for a while, and featured on Millinder's first charted hit, "When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)", which reached No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 14 on the pop chart in 1942. The follow-up records "Apollo Jump" and "Sweet Slumber" were also big hits, with vocals by Trevor Bacon.
By the mid-1940s the band was drifting towards what would be known as rhythm and blues. Other band members around this time included saxophonists Bull Moose Jackson, Tab Smith and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and pianist "Sir" Charles Thompson. In 1944 Millinder recruited singer Wynonie Harris, and their recording together of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" became the group's biggest hit in 1945, staying at No. 1 on the R&B chart for eight weeks and also crossing over to reach No. 7 on the US pop chart. After Harris left for a solo career, Millinder followed up with another hit, "Shorty's Got to Go", on which he took lead vocals. Soon afterwards, Ruth Brown became the band's singer for a short period before her own solo career took off.
In the late 1940s the band continued to remain popular and toured around all the large R&B auditoriums, although it had few chart hits for several years. In 1949 the band left Decca Records and joined first RCA Victor and then King Records, recording with singers Big John Greer and Annisteen Allen. The band's last big hit was "I'm Waiting Just for You" with Allen in 1951, which reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 19 pop.
Later years
By 1952 Millinder was working as a radio DJ as well as continuing to tour with his band, but his style was beginning to fall out of favor and the band went through many personnel changes. In 1954 he took over the leadership of the house band at the Apollo Theater for a while. He effectively retired from performing around 1955, although his final recordings were in 1960.
He became active in music publishing, and in public relations for a whiskey distillery, before dying from a liver ailment in New York City in September 1966.
Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra - D' Natural
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTF8GdN0Oo#t=14
http://slowhand.com.au/
THE ÖZDEMIRS – Das sind Bassist Erkan Özdemir, Urgestein der europäischen Bluesszene, und seine Söhne Kenan Özdemir (Jahrgang 1994) an der Gitarre und am Gesang und Levent Özdemir (Jahrgang 1995) am Schlagzeug.
Seit über 20 Jahren ist Erkan Özdemir Europaweit unterwegs mit den Bluescasters um Memo Gonzalez und diversen anderen Formationen und hat dabei schon so ziemlich jeden Club und jedes Festival bespielt. Die jungen Özdemirs sind dadurch schon sehr früh mit der Bluesmusik in Berührung gekommen und haben sich schnell dafür begeistern können.
Über die eher traditionelleren Blues-Stile der 50er und 60er Jahre wie z. B. die der von Freddie King, B.B. King und Albert Collins fanden die beiden jungen Özdemirs auch Zugang zu anderen Richtungen Amerikanischer Roots Musik. Al Green, James Brown, The Meters, Bootsy Collins sind nur einige wenige Namen. Soul, Funk….Ihre Begeisterung wuchs Tag für Tag und ihre spielerischen Fertigkeiten wurden besser und besser und so wurde beschlossen zusammen mit Vater Erkan Özdemir eine Band zu gründen: The Özdemirs!
Diese Generationenübergreifende Besetzung verbindet Einflüsse aus über 60 Jahren Musikgeschichte. Der jugendliche Überschwang und die Energie der beiden jungen Özdemirs vereint mit der Routine und Gelassenheit des Vaters garantiert ein kurzweiliges Konzertvergnügen.
Kenan Özdemir – Gitarre & Gesang
Erkan Özdemir – Bass
Levent Özdemir – Drums
Tim Gaze *08.08.1953
Tim Gaze (born 8 August 1953) is an Australian rock and blues guitarist, songwriter, singer and producer. He was a member of several prominent Australian groups of the 1960s and 1970s including Tamam Shud, Kahvas Jute, Ariel and Rose Tattoo.
Gaze joined his first major band, Tamam Shud, in late 1969, replacing founding member Zac Zytnic at the age of fifteen.[3] He played with Shud for about six months but quit suddenly around June 1970, just after the recording of their second LP Goolutionites and The Real People (which was released in October 1970).[4]
Gaze then joined a new band, Kahvas Jute and contributed his first compositions to their only album, Wide Open (released in January 1971). Soon after its release Gaze rejoined Tamam Shud, remaining with them until the band broke up in August 1972. During this period Gaze and the other members of Tamam Shud played on the sessions for the soundtrack of the landmark Australian surfing film Morning Of The Earth, which became the first Australian film soundtrack to earn a gold record award.
DOC SPAN BLUES-TIM GAZE @ BROADBEACH BLUES (26-05-2012) #4
DOC SPAN HARP-VOX
TIM GAZE GUITAR
GLEN MUIRHEAD KEYS
GUS FENWICK BASS
MAX SPORTELLI DRUMS
TIM GAZE GUITAR
GLEN MUIRHEAD KEYS
GUS FENWICK BASS
MAX SPORTELLI DRUMS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBroPujPW78#t=15
http://www.deakharp.com/photo.html
http://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/issue-9-30-july-23-2015/
Eric Clapton Live Tribute Show - Tim Gaze
Deak Harp *08.08.1962
http://www.deakharp.com/photo.html
http://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/issue-9-30-july-23-2015/
Deak Harp has been playing harmonica since he was 12 years old. His biggest early inspiration came when his brother introduced him to the music of James Cotton.
Deak followed Cotton's band along the east coast for close to five years before Cotton offered Deak a job driving his van. For the next six years, Deak toured with the James Cotton blues band, eventually opening acts and playing along with "Superharp" himself.
Deak has since played with multiple bands and has shown his flexibility as a musician in the varying styles of his performances. From the classic blues standards, to Chicago blues, all the way to Mississippi Hill Country blues, Deak's repertoire continues to grow.
Deak has spent time with the Deak Harp Band in its various forms throughout the years, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band (including a tour of London), and has played in states across the country.
Deak has traveled in recent years with Big City Rhythm and Blues magazine, performing his innovative one-man show at festivals and events, including the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise in the Caribbean and the 2013 SPAH convention, where Deak played in front of hundreds of fellow harmonica players and was given a standing ovation by his audience.
Deak gets his unique sound by playing an amplified harmonica while simultaneously playing electric guitar or diddley bow, keeping rhythm with a snare drum and a stomp box, and singing his own vocals.
Deak's latest move brought him to his new home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Although his move was in summer of 2013, Deak frequented enough local events in the past ten years that many thought he was already a resident of the Delta.
Deak followed Cotton's band along the east coast for close to five years before Cotton offered Deak a job driving his van. For the next six years, Deak toured with the James Cotton blues band, eventually opening acts and playing along with "Superharp" himself.
Deak has since played with multiple bands and has shown his flexibility as a musician in the varying styles of his performances. From the classic blues standards, to Chicago blues, all the way to Mississippi Hill Country blues, Deak's repertoire continues to grow.
Deak has spent time with the Deak Harp Band in its various forms throughout the years, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band (including a tour of London), and has played in states across the country.
Deak has traveled in recent years with Big City Rhythm and Blues magazine, performing his innovative one-man show at festivals and events, including the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise in the Caribbean and the 2013 SPAH convention, where Deak played in front of hundreds of fellow harmonica players and was given a standing ovation by his audience.
Deak gets his unique sound by playing an amplified harmonica while simultaneously playing electric guitar or diddley bow, keeping rhythm with a snare drum and a stomp box, and singing his own vocals.
Deak's latest move brought him to his new home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Although his move was in summer of 2013, Deak frequented enough local events in the past ten years that many thought he was already a resident of the Delta.
Deak Harp - Blues Harp One Man Band @ Urbana Sweet Corn Festival 2012 - Louie the Alligator Mascot
Erkan Özdemir *08.08.1967
THE ÖZDEMIRS – Das sind Bassist Erkan Özdemir, Urgestein der europäischen Bluesszene, und seine Söhne Kenan Özdemir (Jahrgang 1994) an der Gitarre und am Gesang und Levent Özdemir (Jahrgang 1995) am Schlagzeug.
Seit über 20 Jahren ist Erkan Özdemir Europaweit unterwegs mit den Bluescasters um Memo Gonzalez und diversen anderen Formationen und hat dabei schon so ziemlich jeden Club und jedes Festival bespielt. Die jungen Özdemirs sind dadurch schon sehr früh mit der Bluesmusik in Berührung gekommen und haben sich schnell dafür begeistern können.
Über die eher traditionelleren Blues-Stile der 50er und 60er Jahre wie z. B. die der von Freddie King, B.B. King und Albert Collins fanden die beiden jungen Özdemirs auch Zugang zu anderen Richtungen Amerikanischer Roots Musik. Al Green, James Brown, The Meters, Bootsy Collins sind nur einige wenige Namen. Soul, Funk….Ihre Begeisterung wuchs Tag für Tag und ihre spielerischen Fertigkeiten wurden besser und besser und so wurde beschlossen zusammen mit Vater Erkan Özdemir eine Band zu gründen: The Özdemirs!
Diese Generationenübergreifende Besetzung verbindet Einflüsse aus über 60 Jahren Musikgeschichte. Der jugendliche Überschwang und die Energie der beiden jungen Özdemirs vereint mit der Routine und Gelassenheit des Vaters garantiert ein kurzweiliges Konzertvergnügen.
Kenan Özdemir – Gitarre & Gesang
Erkan Özdemir – Bass
Levent Özdemir – Drums
Denn wie oft erlebt man es schon, dass ein Vater gemeinsam mit seinen beiden jungen Söhnen auf der Bühne steht? Bei „The Özdemirs“ aus Münster spielt Familienoberhaupt Erkan Özdemir Bass. Er ist bereits seit über 20 Jahren eine feste Größe in der europäischen Bluesmusik und hat schon mit diversen Größen der Szene gespielt.
Und da er seine Vorliebe für den Blues offenbar vererbt hat, wurde vor einigen Jahren eine familieninterne Band gegründet – Sohn Levent (Jahrgang 1995) sitzt am Schlagzeug, der andere Sprössling, Kenan (Jahrgang 1994), spielt Gitarre und singt. Und dass diese Familienbande, mittlerweile europaweit unterwegs, musikalisch enorm viel zu bieten hat, demonstrierte sie vor gut 120 Zuschauern im voll besetzten Hot Jazz Club eindrucksvoll.
Über zwei Stunden lang spielten The Özdemirs eine leidenschaftliche Mischung aus Blues- und Rockmusik und bedienten sich dabei neben Klassikern der Genres auch eher unbekannter Lieder. Unterstützt wurden die Münsteraner dabei vom renommierten Organisten Wolfgang Roggenkamp, der nicht nur mit virtuosem Spiel an der Hammond-Orgel begeisterte, sondern auch mit herrlich skurrilem Mienenspiel amüsierte.
Als gegen Ende mit Alegra Weng – die durch ihre Teilnahme an The Voice of Germany bekannte münsterische Sängerin tritt schon seit Jahren immer mal wieder mit der Özdemir-Familie auf – als stimmgewaltiger Überraschungsgast auf die Bühne geholt wurde, hielt es schließlich auch den Letzten im Publikum nicht mehr auf seinem Sitz.
Und da er seine Vorliebe für den Blues offenbar vererbt hat, wurde vor einigen Jahren eine familieninterne Band gegründet – Sohn Levent (Jahrgang 1995) sitzt am Schlagzeug, der andere Sprössling, Kenan (Jahrgang 1994), spielt Gitarre und singt. Und dass diese Familienbande, mittlerweile europaweit unterwegs, musikalisch enorm viel zu bieten hat, demonstrierte sie vor gut 120 Zuschauern im voll besetzten Hot Jazz Club eindrucksvoll.
Über zwei Stunden lang spielten The Özdemirs eine leidenschaftliche Mischung aus Blues- und Rockmusik und bedienten sich dabei neben Klassikern der Genres auch eher unbekannter Lieder. Unterstützt wurden die Münsteraner dabei vom renommierten Organisten Wolfgang Roggenkamp, der nicht nur mit virtuosem Spiel an der Hammond-Orgel begeisterte, sondern auch mit herrlich skurrilem Mienenspiel amüsierte.
Als gegen Ende mit Alegra Weng – die durch ihre Teilnahme an The Voice of Germany bekannte münsterische Sängerin tritt schon seit Jahren immer mal wieder mit der Özdemir-Familie auf – als stimmgewaltiger Überraschungsgast auf die Bühne geholt wurde, hielt es schließlich auch den Letzten im Publikum nicht mehr auf seinem Sitz.
The Özdemirs playing "Move on Up" Rathausplatz Festival Lippstadt,Germany 27.07.2012
Curtis Mayfields "Move On Up" played by The Özdemirs:
Kenan Özdemir - guitar & vocals, Levent Özdemir - drums, Erkan Özdemir - bass.
with special guests Wolfgang Roggenkamp - organ & Kai Strauss - guitar.
www.the-oezdemirs.com
Kenan Özdemir - guitar & vocals, Levent Özdemir - drums, Erkan Özdemir - bass.
with special guests Wolfgang Roggenkamp - organ & Kai Strauss - guitar.
www.the-oezdemirs.com
The Mannish Boys - Jazzwoche Burghausen 2012 fragm. 2
Finis Tasby - vocals
Frank Goldwasser - vocals, guitar
Kirk "Eli" Fletcher - guitar
Randy Chortkoff - vocals, harmonica
Big Pete - vocals, harmonica
Erkan Özdemir - bass
Jini Bott - drums
Frank Goldwasser - vocals, guitar
Kirk "Eli" Fletcher - guitar
Randy Chortkoff - vocals, harmonica
Big Pete - vocals, harmonica
Erkan Özdemir - bass
Jini Bott - drums
Benny Carter *08.08.1907
Bennett Lester „Benny“ Carter (* 8. August 1907 in New York, USA; † 12. Juli 2003 in Los Angeles) war ein US-amerikanischer Jazzmusiker (Saxophonist, Trompeter, Bandleader, Arrangeur und Komponist).
Biographie
Carter lernte bei seiner Mutter Klavier spielen und war sonst auf allen anderen Instrumenten Autodidakt. Sein Vater spielte autodidaktisch Gitarre,[1] Beeinflusst von seinem Cousin Cuban Bennett begann er seine Laufbahn als Trompeter in der Band von June Clark, ging dann zu Billy Paige, Lois Deppe und Earl Hines. 1925 und 1926 arbeitete er mit Horace Henderson; 1928 wechselte er zu dessen Bruder Fletcher Henderson. Nach einem Intermezzo bei McKinney’s Cotton Pickers und einem ersten eigenen Versuch als Bandleader (1928) war er 1930 wieder bei F. Henderson und dann bei Chick Webb (1931) engagiert. 1932 gründete er wieder ein eigenes Orchester, dem unter anderem Wilbur de Paris, Chu Berry, Teddy Wilson und Sid Catlett angehörten, und das er bis 1934 halten konnte. Daneben schrieb er Arrangements, beispielsweise für Duke Ellington.
1935 schloss sich Benny dem Orchester von Willie Bryant als Trompeter an, als dieses auf Europatournee ging. In England arrangierte er für das BBC-Tanzorchester, in Paris arbeitete er bei Willie Lewis. Dort nahm er 1937 für das Label Swing mit Coleman Hawkins und Django Reinhardts Quintette du Hot Club de France auf. Er war auch der erste amerikanische Jazzmusiker, der in Spanien spielte. Nach weiteren Aufenthalten in den Niederlanden und Skandinavien gründete er Anfang 1939 in New York eine Band, die im Harlemer Savoy Ballroom begann und der u. a. Vic Dickenson, Eddie Heywood, Jonah Jones und Tyree Glenn angehörten. Im Mai 1940 gelang ihm mit „Sleep“ ein erster Charts-Erfolg; 1944 hatte er mit „Poinciana (Song of the Tree)“ und seiner Komposition „Hurry, Hurry“ noch zwei weitere Hits.
Die späteren Bebopper Dizzy Gillespie (1941), 1943 auch Max Roach, J. J. Johnson und Buddy Rich spielten ebenfalls in seiner Combo. Eine größere Popularität beim Publikum, vergleichbar den Bands Goodmans/ Dorseys oder James blieb aber aus.
Seit der Mitte der 1940er wirkte er in Hollywood in Filmen mit, darunter Stormy Weather (1943, er spielt dort Trompete), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) und schrieb Filmmusiken (u. a. zur Gene Krupa Story und 1958 zur Fernsehserie M Squad). Aus diesem Grund zog er auch nach Los Angeles, wo er tagsüber komponierte und nachts in Clubs auftrat. 1944 leitete er im Swing Club in Hollywood eine Band und machte Aufnahmen für Capitol; Sängerin war Savannah Churchill. 1951 begleitete er die Sängerin Little Miss Cornshucks bei ihren Aufnahmen für Coral, 1955 Billie Holiday auf ihrem Verve-Album Music for Torching. 1960 wandte er sich vorübergehend wieder der Konzertbühne zu und besuchte Australien und mit Jazz at the Philharmonic Europa. Er blieb aber auch im Fernsehgeschäft und schrieb und arrangierte in den Studios, auch für Count Basie. 1961 nahm er mit Coleman Hawkins für Impulse! Records sein wohl bekanntestes Album auf, Further Definitions, eine Art Neuauflage der legendären Paris-Session 1937 mit Hawk, Stéphane Grappelli, Alix Combelle und Django Reinhardt. 1968 spielte er beim Newport Jazz Festival mit Gillespie. Ab den 1970er Jahren trat er wieder als Solist auf, widmete sich auch der Jazzpädagogik und gab regelmäßig Workshops. Noch über 90-jährig gab Carter Konzerte (beispielsweise mit Doug Lawrence) inklusive respektabler Saxophon-Soli und starb einen Monat vor seinem 96. Geburtstag.
Sein Einfluss
Auf Tonträgern ist Benny Carter als Pianist zu hören, als Trompeter, als Posaunist, als Klarinettist und auf beinahe allen Instrumenten der Saxophonfamilie – berühmt geworden ist er aber auf dem Altsaxophon. Mit Johnny Hodges hat er zur Entwicklung der Jazzstilistik auf diesem Instrument besonders beigetragen. Er spielte flüssig, in einem eleganten, oft zum Double Time übergehenden Swing-Stil. Dabei improvisierte er mit besonderer Eleganz, melodischer Vielfalt, vollem und schönen Ton.
Carter spielte auch mit Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Peggy Lee und Ella Fitzgerald. Einige seiner Kompositionen sind When Lights Are Low (mit Spencer Williams), Only Trust Your Heart, Key Largo, Blue Star, I’m Sorry, I Still Love Him So und The Marriage Blues. Für Count Basie schrieb er 1961 die Kansas City Suite.
Auszeichnungen
Er wurde mit der nationalen Kunstmedaille der Vereinigten Staaten (National Medal of Arts 2000) ebenso ausgezeichnet wie mit dem französischen Orden für Kunst und Literatur (Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2001). 1986 erhielt er die NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. 1982 feierte der New Yorker Radiosender WKCR Carters 75. Geburtstag mit einer Sendung, in der seine Musik 177 Stunden gespielt wurde. 1987 erhielt Carter einen Grammy für sein Lebenswerk. Seine abendfüllende Komposition "Central City Sketches", die 1987 aufgenommen wurde, wurde 1988 für einen Grammy nominiert. Insgesamt wurde er siebenmal für den Grammy nominiert und erhielt ihn zweimal (für Harlem Renaissance und Elegy in Blue 1994). 1989 wurde er vom Down Beat im Internationalen Kritikerpoll als Arrangeur ausgezeichnet. 1990 wurde der immer noch aktive Carter sowohl vom Down Beat als auch von der Jazz Times International zum Künstler des Jahres ernannt. 1994 erhielt er einen Stern auf dem Hollywood Walk of Fame und 1996 die Kennedy Center Honor. 1973 hielt er Vorlesungen in Princeton und 1974 deren Ehrendoktor. Außerdem war er Ehrendoktor der Rutgers University (1991), der Harvard University (1994), wo er ebenfalls Vorlesungen hielt, und des New England Conservatory (1998).
Biographie
Carter lernte bei seiner Mutter Klavier spielen und war sonst auf allen anderen Instrumenten Autodidakt. Sein Vater spielte autodidaktisch Gitarre,[1] Beeinflusst von seinem Cousin Cuban Bennett begann er seine Laufbahn als Trompeter in der Band von June Clark, ging dann zu Billy Paige, Lois Deppe und Earl Hines. 1925 und 1926 arbeitete er mit Horace Henderson; 1928 wechselte er zu dessen Bruder Fletcher Henderson. Nach einem Intermezzo bei McKinney’s Cotton Pickers und einem ersten eigenen Versuch als Bandleader (1928) war er 1930 wieder bei F. Henderson und dann bei Chick Webb (1931) engagiert. 1932 gründete er wieder ein eigenes Orchester, dem unter anderem Wilbur de Paris, Chu Berry, Teddy Wilson und Sid Catlett angehörten, und das er bis 1934 halten konnte. Daneben schrieb er Arrangements, beispielsweise für Duke Ellington.
1935 schloss sich Benny dem Orchester von Willie Bryant als Trompeter an, als dieses auf Europatournee ging. In England arrangierte er für das BBC-Tanzorchester, in Paris arbeitete er bei Willie Lewis. Dort nahm er 1937 für das Label Swing mit Coleman Hawkins und Django Reinhardts Quintette du Hot Club de France auf. Er war auch der erste amerikanische Jazzmusiker, der in Spanien spielte. Nach weiteren Aufenthalten in den Niederlanden und Skandinavien gründete er Anfang 1939 in New York eine Band, die im Harlemer Savoy Ballroom begann und der u. a. Vic Dickenson, Eddie Heywood, Jonah Jones und Tyree Glenn angehörten. Im Mai 1940 gelang ihm mit „Sleep“ ein erster Charts-Erfolg; 1944 hatte er mit „Poinciana (Song of the Tree)“ und seiner Komposition „Hurry, Hurry“ noch zwei weitere Hits.
Die späteren Bebopper Dizzy Gillespie (1941), 1943 auch Max Roach, J. J. Johnson und Buddy Rich spielten ebenfalls in seiner Combo. Eine größere Popularität beim Publikum, vergleichbar den Bands Goodmans/ Dorseys oder James blieb aber aus.
Seit der Mitte der 1940er wirkte er in Hollywood in Filmen mit, darunter Stormy Weather (1943, er spielt dort Trompete), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) und schrieb Filmmusiken (u. a. zur Gene Krupa Story und 1958 zur Fernsehserie M Squad). Aus diesem Grund zog er auch nach Los Angeles, wo er tagsüber komponierte und nachts in Clubs auftrat. 1944 leitete er im Swing Club in Hollywood eine Band und machte Aufnahmen für Capitol; Sängerin war Savannah Churchill. 1951 begleitete er die Sängerin Little Miss Cornshucks bei ihren Aufnahmen für Coral, 1955 Billie Holiday auf ihrem Verve-Album Music for Torching. 1960 wandte er sich vorübergehend wieder der Konzertbühne zu und besuchte Australien und mit Jazz at the Philharmonic Europa. Er blieb aber auch im Fernsehgeschäft und schrieb und arrangierte in den Studios, auch für Count Basie. 1961 nahm er mit Coleman Hawkins für Impulse! Records sein wohl bekanntestes Album auf, Further Definitions, eine Art Neuauflage der legendären Paris-Session 1937 mit Hawk, Stéphane Grappelli, Alix Combelle und Django Reinhardt. 1968 spielte er beim Newport Jazz Festival mit Gillespie. Ab den 1970er Jahren trat er wieder als Solist auf, widmete sich auch der Jazzpädagogik und gab regelmäßig Workshops. Noch über 90-jährig gab Carter Konzerte (beispielsweise mit Doug Lawrence) inklusive respektabler Saxophon-Soli und starb einen Monat vor seinem 96. Geburtstag.
Sein Einfluss
Auf Tonträgern ist Benny Carter als Pianist zu hören, als Trompeter, als Posaunist, als Klarinettist und auf beinahe allen Instrumenten der Saxophonfamilie – berühmt geworden ist er aber auf dem Altsaxophon. Mit Johnny Hodges hat er zur Entwicklung der Jazzstilistik auf diesem Instrument besonders beigetragen. Er spielte flüssig, in einem eleganten, oft zum Double Time übergehenden Swing-Stil. Dabei improvisierte er mit besonderer Eleganz, melodischer Vielfalt, vollem und schönen Ton.
Carter spielte auch mit Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Peggy Lee und Ella Fitzgerald. Einige seiner Kompositionen sind When Lights Are Low (mit Spencer Williams), Only Trust Your Heart, Key Largo, Blue Star, I’m Sorry, I Still Love Him So und The Marriage Blues. Für Count Basie schrieb er 1961 die Kansas City Suite.
Auszeichnungen
Er wurde mit der nationalen Kunstmedaille der Vereinigten Staaten (National Medal of Arts 2000) ebenso ausgezeichnet wie mit dem französischen Orden für Kunst und Literatur (Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2001). 1986 erhielt er die NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. 1982 feierte der New Yorker Radiosender WKCR Carters 75. Geburtstag mit einer Sendung, in der seine Musik 177 Stunden gespielt wurde. 1987 erhielt Carter einen Grammy für sein Lebenswerk. Seine abendfüllende Komposition "Central City Sketches", die 1987 aufgenommen wurde, wurde 1988 für einen Grammy nominiert. Insgesamt wurde er siebenmal für den Grammy nominiert und erhielt ihn zweimal (für Harlem Renaissance und Elegy in Blue 1994). 1989 wurde er vom Down Beat im Internationalen Kritikerpoll als Arrangeur ausgezeichnet. 1990 wurde der immer noch aktive Carter sowohl vom Down Beat als auch von der Jazz Times International zum Künstler des Jahres ernannt. 1994 erhielt er einen Stern auf dem Hollywood Walk of Fame und 1996 die Kennedy Center Honor. 1973 hielt er Vorlesungen in Princeton und 1974 deren Ehrendoktor. Außerdem war er Ehrendoktor der Rutgers University (1991), der Harvard University (1994), wo er ebenfalls Vorlesungen hielt, und des New England Conservatory (1998).
Bennett Lester "Benny" Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King. Carter performed with major artists from several generations of jazz, and at major festivals, such as his 1958 appearance with Billie Holiday at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986.[1] He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and both won a Grammy Award for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss" and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.[2] In 2000 awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.[3][4]
Biography
Born in New York City in 1907, the youngest of six children and the only boy, received his first music lessons on piano from his mother. Largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained professional experience as a sideman in some of New York's most prominent bands. As a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley, who was Duke Ellington's featured trumpeter. Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldn't play like Miley, he traded the trumpet in for a saxophone. For the next two years, he played with jazz musicians including cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianists Earl Hines, Willie "The Lion" Smith, pianist Fats Waller, pianist James P. Johnson, pianist Duke Ellington, and their respective groups.
First recordings
He first recorded in 1928 with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra, also arranging the titles recorded, and formed his first big band the following year. He played with Fletcher Henderson in 1930 and 1931, becoming his chief arranger in this time, then briefly led the Detroit-based McKinney's Cotton Pickers[5] before returning to New York in 1932 to lead his own band, which included such swing musicians as Leon "Chu" Berry (tenor saxophone), Teddy Wilson (piano), Sid Catlett (drums), and Dicky Wells (trombone). Carter's arrangements were sophisticated and very complex, and a number of them became swing standards which were performed by other bands ("Blue Lou" is a great example of this). He also arranged for Duke Ellington during these years. Carter was noted for his arrangements. Among the most significant are "Keep a Song in Your Soul", written for Fletcher Henderson in 1930, and "Lonesome Nights" and "Symphony in Riffs" from 1933, both of which show Carter's fluid writing for saxophones.[6] By the early 1930s he and Johnny Hodges were considered the leading alto players of the day. Carter also quickly became a leading trumpet soloist, having rediscovered the instrument. He recorded extensively on trumpet in the 1930s. Carter's name first appeared on records with a 1932 Crown label release of "Tell All Your Day Dreams to Me" credited to Bennie Carter and his Harlemites. Carter's short-lived Orchestra played the Harlem Club in New York but only recorded a handful of records for Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the name Chocolate Dandies. His trumpet solo on the October 1933 recording of "Once Upon A Time" by the Chocolate Dandies (OKeh 41568 and subsequently reissued on Decca 18255 and Hot Record Society 16) has long been considered[by whom?] a milestone solo achievement.
In 1933 Carter took part in a series of sessions that featured the British band leader Spike Hughes, who went to New York specifically to organize a series of recordings featuring prominent African American musicians. These 14 sides plus four by Carter's big band were only issued in England at the time, originally titled Spike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra. The musicians were mainly made up from members of Carter's band. The bands (14–15 pieces) include such major players as Henry "Red" Allen (trumpet), Dicky Wells (trombone), Wayman Carver (flute), Coleman Hawkins (saxophone), J.C. Higginbotham (trombone), and Leon "Chu" Berry (saxophone),[7] tracks include: "Nocturne", "Someone Stole Gabriel's Horn", "Pastorale", "Bugle Call Rag", "Arabesque", "Fanfare", "Sweet Sorrow Blues", "Music at Midnight", "Sweet Sue Just You", "Air in D Flat", "Donegal Cradle Song", "Firebird", "Music at Sunrise", and "How Come You Do Me Like You Do".
Europe
Carter moved to Europe in 1935 to play trumpet with Willie Lewis's orchestra, and also became staff arranger for the British Broadcasting Corporation dance orchestra and made several records. Over the next three years, he traveled throughout Europe, playing and recording with prominent British, French, and Scandinavian jazzmen, as well as with visiting American musicians such as his friend Coleman Hawkins. Two recordings that typify his sound are 1937's "Honeysuckle Rose," recorded with Django Reinhardt and Coleman Hawkins in Europe, and the same tune revisited on his 1961 album Further Definitions.
Return to Harlem and a move to Los Angeles
Returning home in 1938, he quickly formed another orchestra, which spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlem's famed Savoy Ballroom. His arrangements were much in demand and were featured on recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey. Though he only had one major hit in the big band era (a novelty song called "Cow-Cow Boogie," sung by Ella Mae Morse), during the 1930s Carter composed and/or arranged many of the pieces that became swing era standards, such as "When Lights Are Low," "Blues in My Heart," and "Lonesome Nights."
He relocated to Los Angeles in 1943, and moved increasingly into studio work. Beginning with Stormy Weather in 1943, he arranged for dozens of feature films and television productions.[8] In Hollywood, he wrote arrangements for such artists as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Slack and Mel Torme. In 1945, trumpeter Miles Davis made his first recordings with Carter as sideman on album Benny Carter and His Orchestra,[9] and considered him a close friend and mentor. Carter was one of the first black men to compose music for films. He was an inspiration and a mentor for Quincy Jones when Jones began writing for television and films in the 1960s. Carter's successful legal battles in order to obtain housing in then-exclusive neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area made him a pioneer in an entirely different area.
Benny Carter visited Australia in 1960 with his own quartet, performed at the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival with Dizzy Gillespie, and recorded with a Scandinavian band in Switzerland the same year. His studio work in the 1960s included arranging and sometimes performing on Peggy Lee's Mink Jazz, (1962) and on the single "I'm A Woman" in the same year.
Academia
In 1969, Carter was persuaded by Morroe Berger, a sociology professor at Princeton University who had done his master's thesis on jazz, to spend a weekend at the college as part of some classes, seminars, and a concert. This led to a new outlet for Carter's talent: teaching. For the next nine years he visited Princeton five times, most of them brief stays except for one in 1973 when he spent a semester there as a visiting professor. In 1974 Princeton awarded him an honorary master of humanities degree. He conducted workshops and seminars at several other universities and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard for a week in 1987. Morroe Berger also wrote the book Benny Carter – A Life in American Music (1982), a two-volume work, covers Carter's career in depth, an essential work of jazz scholarship.[10]
In the late summer of 1989 the Classical Jazz series of concerts at New York's Lincoln Center celebrated Carter's 82nd birthday with a set of his songs, sung by Ernestine Anderson and Sylvia Syms. In the same week, at the Chicago Jazz Festival, he presented a recreation of his Further Definitions album, using some of the original musicians. In February 1990, Carter led an all-star big band at the Lincoln Center in a concert tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. Carter was a member of the music advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Carter was named "Jazz Artist of the Year" in both the Down Beat[11] and Jazz Times International Critics' polls. In 1978, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame[12] and in 1980 received the Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers. Carter was also a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1996, and received honorary doctorates from Princeton (1974),[13] Rutgers (1991),[14] Harvard (1994), and the New England Conservatory (1998).[15]
Carter had an unusually long career, and was perhaps the only musician to have recorded in eight different decades.[16] Having started a career in music before music was electronically recorded, Carter remained a musician, arranger and composer until he retired from performing in 1997. In 1998, Benny Carter was honored at Third Annual Awards Gala and Concert at Lincoln Center. He received the Jazz at Lincoln Center Award for Artistic Excellence and his music was performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and Bobby Short. Wynton accepted on Carter's behalf. (Back trouble prevented Carter from attending.)[citation needed]
Carter died in Los Angeles, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center July 12, 2003 from complications of bronchitis at the age of 95. In 1979, he married Hilma Ollila Arons, who survived him, along with a daughter, a granddaughter and a grandson.[17][18]
Songs composed by Carter
"Blues in My Heart" (1931) with Irving Mills
"When Lights Are Low" (1936) with Spencer Williams
"Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" (1942) with Don Raye and Gene De Paul
"Key Largo" (1948) with Karl Suessdorf, Leah Worth
"Rock Me to Sleep" (1950) with Paul Vandervoort II
"A Kiss from You" (1964) with Johnny Mercer
"Only Trust Your Heart" (1964) with Sammy Cahn
Other songs by Carter include "A Walkin' Thing", "My Kind of Trouble Is You", "Easy Money", "Blue Star", "I Still Love Him So", "Green Wine" and "Malibu".
Selective awards and recognitions
Inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame, 1977.
In 2016 the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History made Carter the focus of its Jazz Appreciation Month celebration, and featured him on the 2016 JAM poster from the National Museum of American History.[19]
Grammy history
Career Wins: 2[20]
Career Nominations: 7
Benny Carter Grammy Awards History
Year Category Title Genre Label Result
1963 Best Background Arrangement Busted (Ray Charles) R&B Rhino / Wea Nominee
1986 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Group Swing Reunion Jazz Musicmasters Nominee
1987 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
1992 Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance Harlem Renaissance Jazz Music Masters Nominee
1993 Best Jazz Instrumental Solo "The More I See You" Jazz Telarc Nominee
1994 Best Jazz Instrumental Solo "Prelude to a Kiss" Jazz Music Masters Winner
1994 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Individual or Group Elegy in Blue Jazz
Music Masters Nominee
The National Endowment for the Arts honored Benny Carter with its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986.[1] He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and both won a Grammy Award for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss" and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.[2] In 2000 awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.[3][4]
Biography
Born in New York City in 1907, the youngest of six children and the only boy, received his first music lessons on piano from his mother. Largely self-taught, by age fifteen, Carter was already sitting in at Harlem night spots. From 1924 to 1928, Carter gained professional experience as a sideman in some of New York's most prominent bands. As a youth, Carter lived in Harlem around the corner from Bubber Miley, who was Duke Ellington's featured trumpeter. Carter was inspired by Miley and bought a trumpet, but when he found he couldn't play like Miley, he traded the trumpet in for a saxophone. For the next two years, he played with jazz musicians including cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist-soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, pianists Earl Hines, Willie "The Lion" Smith, pianist Fats Waller, pianist James P. Johnson, pianist Duke Ellington, and their respective groups.
First recordings
He first recorded in 1928 with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra, also arranging the titles recorded, and formed his first big band the following year. He played with Fletcher Henderson in 1930 and 1931, becoming his chief arranger in this time, then briefly led the Detroit-based McKinney's Cotton Pickers[5] before returning to New York in 1932 to lead his own band, which included such swing musicians as Leon "Chu" Berry (tenor saxophone), Teddy Wilson (piano), Sid Catlett (drums), and Dicky Wells (trombone). Carter's arrangements were sophisticated and very complex, and a number of them became swing standards which were performed by other bands ("Blue Lou" is a great example of this). He also arranged for Duke Ellington during these years. Carter was noted for his arrangements. Among the most significant are "Keep a Song in Your Soul", written for Fletcher Henderson in 1930, and "Lonesome Nights" and "Symphony in Riffs" from 1933, both of which show Carter's fluid writing for saxophones.[6] By the early 1930s he and Johnny Hodges were considered the leading alto players of the day. Carter also quickly became a leading trumpet soloist, having rediscovered the instrument. He recorded extensively on trumpet in the 1930s. Carter's name first appeared on records with a 1932 Crown label release of "Tell All Your Day Dreams to Me" credited to Bennie Carter and his Harlemites. Carter's short-lived Orchestra played the Harlem Club in New York but only recorded a handful of records for Columbia, OKeh and Vocalion. The OKeh sides were issued under the name Chocolate Dandies. His trumpet solo on the October 1933 recording of "Once Upon A Time" by the Chocolate Dandies (OKeh 41568 and subsequently reissued on Decca 18255 and Hot Record Society 16) has long been considered[by whom?] a milestone solo achievement.
In 1933 Carter took part in a series of sessions that featured the British band leader Spike Hughes, who went to New York specifically to organize a series of recordings featuring prominent African American musicians. These 14 sides plus four by Carter's big band were only issued in England at the time, originally titled Spike Hughes and His Negro Orchestra. The musicians were mainly made up from members of Carter's band. The bands (14–15 pieces) include such major players as Henry "Red" Allen (trumpet), Dicky Wells (trombone), Wayman Carver (flute), Coleman Hawkins (saxophone), J.C. Higginbotham (trombone), and Leon "Chu" Berry (saxophone),[7] tracks include: "Nocturne", "Someone Stole Gabriel's Horn", "Pastorale", "Bugle Call Rag", "Arabesque", "Fanfare", "Sweet Sorrow Blues", "Music at Midnight", "Sweet Sue Just You", "Air in D Flat", "Donegal Cradle Song", "Firebird", "Music at Sunrise", and "How Come You Do Me Like You Do".
Europe
Carter moved to Europe in 1935 to play trumpet with Willie Lewis's orchestra, and also became staff arranger for the British Broadcasting Corporation dance orchestra and made several records. Over the next three years, he traveled throughout Europe, playing and recording with prominent British, French, and Scandinavian jazzmen, as well as with visiting American musicians such as his friend Coleman Hawkins. Two recordings that typify his sound are 1937's "Honeysuckle Rose," recorded with Django Reinhardt and Coleman Hawkins in Europe, and the same tune revisited on his 1961 album Further Definitions.
Return to Harlem and a move to Los Angeles
Returning home in 1938, he quickly formed another orchestra, which spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlem's famed Savoy Ballroom. His arrangements were much in demand and were featured on recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey. Though he only had one major hit in the big band era (a novelty song called "Cow-Cow Boogie," sung by Ella Mae Morse), during the 1930s Carter composed and/or arranged many of the pieces that became swing era standards, such as "When Lights Are Low," "Blues in My Heart," and "Lonesome Nights."
He relocated to Los Angeles in 1943, and moved increasingly into studio work. Beginning with Stormy Weather in 1943, he arranged for dozens of feature films and television productions.[8] In Hollywood, he wrote arrangements for such artists as Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Slack and Mel Torme. In 1945, trumpeter Miles Davis made his first recordings with Carter as sideman on album Benny Carter and His Orchestra,[9] and considered him a close friend and mentor. Carter was one of the first black men to compose music for films. He was an inspiration and a mentor for Quincy Jones when Jones began writing for television and films in the 1960s. Carter's successful legal battles in order to obtain housing in then-exclusive neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area made him a pioneer in an entirely different area.
Benny Carter visited Australia in 1960 with his own quartet, performed at the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival with Dizzy Gillespie, and recorded with a Scandinavian band in Switzerland the same year. His studio work in the 1960s included arranging and sometimes performing on Peggy Lee's Mink Jazz, (1962) and on the single "I'm A Woman" in the same year.
Academia
In 1969, Carter was persuaded by Morroe Berger, a sociology professor at Princeton University who had done his master's thesis on jazz, to spend a weekend at the college as part of some classes, seminars, and a concert. This led to a new outlet for Carter's talent: teaching. For the next nine years he visited Princeton five times, most of them brief stays except for one in 1973 when he spent a semester there as a visiting professor. In 1974 Princeton awarded him an honorary master of humanities degree. He conducted workshops and seminars at several other universities and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard for a week in 1987. Morroe Berger also wrote the book Benny Carter – A Life in American Music (1982), a two-volume work, covers Carter's career in depth, an essential work of jazz scholarship.[10]
In the late summer of 1989 the Classical Jazz series of concerts at New York's Lincoln Center celebrated Carter's 82nd birthday with a set of his songs, sung by Ernestine Anderson and Sylvia Syms. In the same week, at the Chicago Jazz Festival, he presented a recreation of his Further Definitions album, using some of the original musicians. In February 1990, Carter led an all-star big band at the Lincoln Center in a concert tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. Carter was a member of the music advisory panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1990, Carter was named "Jazz Artist of the Year" in both the Down Beat[11] and Jazz Times International Critics' polls. In 1978, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame[12] and in 1980 received the Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers. Carter was also a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1996, and received honorary doctorates from Princeton (1974),[13] Rutgers (1991),[14] Harvard (1994), and the New England Conservatory (1998).[15]
Carter had an unusually long career, and was perhaps the only musician to have recorded in eight different decades.[16] Having started a career in music before music was electronically recorded, Carter remained a musician, arranger and composer until he retired from performing in 1997. In 1998, Benny Carter was honored at Third Annual Awards Gala and Concert at Lincoln Center. He received the Jazz at Lincoln Center Award for Artistic Excellence and his music was performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and Bobby Short. Wynton accepted on Carter's behalf. (Back trouble prevented Carter from attending.)[citation needed]
Carter died in Los Angeles, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center July 12, 2003 from complications of bronchitis at the age of 95. In 1979, he married Hilma Ollila Arons, who survived him, along with a daughter, a granddaughter and a grandson.[17][18]
Songs composed by Carter
"Blues in My Heart" (1931) with Irving Mills
"When Lights Are Low" (1936) with Spencer Williams
"Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" (1942) with Don Raye and Gene De Paul
"Key Largo" (1948) with Karl Suessdorf, Leah Worth
"Rock Me to Sleep" (1950) with Paul Vandervoort II
"A Kiss from You" (1964) with Johnny Mercer
"Only Trust Your Heart" (1964) with Sammy Cahn
Other songs by Carter include "A Walkin' Thing", "My Kind of Trouble Is You", "Easy Money", "Blue Star", "I Still Love Him So", "Green Wine" and "Malibu".
Selective awards and recognitions
Inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame, 1977.
In 2016 the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History made Carter the focus of its Jazz Appreciation Month celebration, and featured him on the 2016 JAM poster from the National Museum of American History.[19]
Grammy history
Career Wins: 2[20]
Career Nominations: 7
Benny Carter Grammy Awards History
Year Category Title Genre Label Result
1963 Best Background Arrangement Busted (Ray Charles) R&B Rhino / Wea Nominee
1986 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Group Swing Reunion Jazz Musicmasters Nominee
1987 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
1992 Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance Harlem Renaissance Jazz Music Masters Nominee
1993 Best Jazz Instrumental Solo "The More I See You" Jazz Telarc Nominee
1994 Best Jazz Instrumental Solo "Prelude to a Kiss" Jazz Music Masters Winner
1994 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Individual or Group Elegy in Blue Jazz
Music Masters Nominee
Benny Carter All Stars 1985
1. Stockholm Riff
2. Here's That Rainy Day
3. Work Song
4. Just Friends
5. Lover Man
6. What Is This Thing Called Love
Benny Carter - alto sax
Nat Adderley - trumpet
Horace Parlan - piano
Red Norvo - vibes
Red Mitchell - bass
Ronnie Gardiner - drums
2. Here's That Rainy Day
3. Work Song
4. Just Friends
5. Lover Man
6. What Is This Thing Called Love
Benny Carter - alto sax
Nat Adderley - trumpet
Horace Parlan - piano
Red Norvo - vibes
Red Mitchell - bass
Ronnie Gardiner - drums
Benny Carter - Blues for George
Album: Benny Carter A Gentleman and His Music 1985
Personnel: Benny Carter (alto saxophone); Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophone); Joe Wilder (trumpet, flugelhorn); Gene Harris (piano); Ed Bickert (guitar); John Clayton (bass); Jimmie Smith (drums)
Personnel: Benny Carter (alto saxophone); Scott Hamilton (tenor saxophone); Joe Wilder (trumpet, flugelhorn); Gene Harris (piano); Ed Bickert (guitar); John Clayton (bass); Jimmie Smith (drums)
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