Benny Carter The Early Benny Carter

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…

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

Volume ten in the complete chronological recordings of Benny Carter, as compiled and presented on compact disc in 2006 by the Classics label, contains most of the originally issued master takes from his Verve and Victor sessions which transpired in New York and Los Angeles during the period between July 26, 1952 and January 4, 1954. What didn't make it onto this disc was a chunk of the Carter discography dating from August and October 1952, including the material released as the Alone Together album by "Benny Carter with the Oscar Peterson Trio and Buddy Rich" and a couple of tunes by Benny Carter's Orchestra with vocals by Savannah Churchill…

To say that Benny Carter had a remarkable and productive career would be an extreme understatement. As an altoist, arranger, composer, bandleader, and occasional trumpeter, Carter was at the top of his field since at least 1928, and in the late '90s, Carter was as strong an altoist at the age of 90 as he was in 1936 (when he was merely 28). His gradually evolving style did not change much through the decades, but neither did it become at all stale or predictable except in its excellence. Benny Carter was a major figure in every decade of the 20th century since the 1920s, and his consistency and longevity were unprecedented…

Benny Carter - Swingin' The 20's (1958) {Contemporary Japan, VDJ-1562, Early Press}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 210 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 85 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 159 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1958, 1986 Contemporary / VictorJapan | VDJ-1562
Jazz / Jazz Blues / East Coast Blues / Saxophone

Benny Carter swings material from the 20s – but the results are a lot better than you might expect! We'll be honest in saying that the cover and theme of this one always made us figure the record was some sort of "old timey" affair – but Benny's surprisingly cool on the record, and is working in a small group mode that may well be even more deftly compelling than his earlier combo sides for Verve! The group here is only a quartet – with Benny on alto and trumpet, Earl Hines on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums – and it's possibly the modern rhythm section that gives the record a nicely soulful groove, and lets the tunes come off as more than just rehashed classics. Carter's tone on the alto is great – and very nicely recorded, with that edge that was showing up strongly in these later years.

As a follow-up to bassist Ray Brown’s previous record in which he collaborated with several of his favorite pianists, Some of My Best Friends Are…The Sax Players features six major saxophonists (tenors Joe Lovano, Ralph Moore, Joshua Redman and Stanley Turrentine plus altoists Benny Carter and Jesse Davis) on two songs apiece with his regular trio. Although more than 60 years separate the ageless Carter from Redman, each of the saxes originally developed their own voice in the straight-ahead jazz tradition. Highlights of the colorful set include Benny Carter’s playful rendition of “Love Walked In,” Moore’s cooking solo on “Crazeology” (a Benny Harris bop classic which the record mistakenly lists as written by Bud Freeman), Davis ripping through “Moose the Mooche” and Turrentine’s romp on the blues “Port of Rico.”

Benny Carter - Jazz Giant
SACD ISO (Stereo): 780 MB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 685 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Contemporary, Fantasy # CSA-7555-6 | Country/Year: US 2004, 1958
Genre: Jazz | Style: Classic Jazz

"…There is a serious dearth of high quality, well-recorded, hi-rez jazz. Well, this disc can help fill an important gap in a hi-rez collection." ~sa-cd.net

Thirteen hours of unreleased and ultra-rare music. The Eternal Myth Revealed is a 14 disc docu-biography of Ra's life and career, from his birth in 1914 up to 1959. In addition to his own music, it includes music he was influenced by, and a lot of stuff he may or may not have had a hand in as arranger, vocal coach, pianist or something else. Sun Ra's output was as prolific as Ellington's, and discographers have had nightmares and arguments attempting to document it accurately.