Title: Composer, Arranger, and Multi-Instrumentalist
Product review: Benny Carter was born in 1907 and died in 2003, after an active career in jazz that spanned eight decades. That has provided a wealth of material to draw on for this 4-CD set, which spans his earlier years, from 1930 to 1952. As a reference guide to his career progression, from the Chocolate Dandies, Spike Hughes Negro Orchestra, the London and Continental sessions, thence back to pre and postwar America, it is hard to see how this compilation could be bettered.Throughout, Benny Carter's sophisticated and elegant approach is on display, which marked him out early on as one of the supreme stylists, particularly on the alto saxophone, although his talents encompassed also trumpet, clarinet, trombone, tenor sax, and piano. The set is rounded out in Proper Box fashion with a 52-page illustrated booklet by the indefatigable Joop Visser.
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