Throughout much of the 20th century,
Benny Carter was an accomplished composer, arranger, leader, sideman, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2004 the U.K.'s Proper label served his memory well with Proper Box 68 which carefully examines a 22-year segment from his unusually lengthy career. If a reasonably priced 88-track, four-CD set of swing and early modern mainstream jazz dating from 1930-1952 seems like too much of a good thing, maybe you really need to hear more jazz and not less, for here in the land of its birth we still have a lot of catching up to do in order to better comprehend this important part of our cultural heritage. A sensible two-CD equivalent would be Living Era's 51-track compilation
When Lights Are Low, which has 31 tracks in common with Proper Box 68 and includes examples of
Carter with
Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra and
McKinney's Cotton Pickers. Proper focuses more closely on bands which operated under
Carter's direct leadership or influence. Although
Carter is most often pictured holding an alto saxophone, he played a lot of trumpet as well as clarinet, tenor sax, and even a bit of drums. As an altoist he resembled
Hilton Jefferson,
Willie Smith,
Johnny Hodges, and the young
Pete Brown. For all his expertise as a reedman,
Carter blows plenty of fine trumpet on
Music Master.