Today would have been Benny Carter's 115th birthday. In past ATJ's I've written about Carter's wondrous skills as a saxophonist (in the 1920's he was one of the first great alto sax players in jazz and still ranks among the masters), composer and arranger. In this post, however, we'll showcase Benny's beautiful trumpet playing.

As a youngster, Benny initially hoped to be a trumpet player. After saving up the money to buy a horn, he became frustrated when he couldn't master it quickly and returned it for a C-melody saxophone. By his late teens, he was playing professionally around New York as a saxophonist, but kept trying his hand at the trumpet. Eventually he got it...to say the least. The ability to play both brass instruments (trumpet, trombone, etc.) and woodwinds (sax, clarinet, etc.) is rare. The ability to play both at a world class level is even rarer. But Benny maintained that switching embouchures wasn't a problem for him...the real issue was not having enough time to practice both instruments.

Although he had first recorded on trumpet in March 1933, his first great trumpet feature was from a session in October of that year, playing his own lovely composition Once Upon a Time. Everything in Carter's approach - his tone, phrasing, articulation, sense of time, wider vibrato, and the half-valve notes at the end - reflects the prevalent style of the day, that is, the style of Louis Armstrong.

Within a few years, Benny had developed a unique and bravura trumpet style. More Than You Know, from 1939, is one of the great Swing Era trumpet solos. He states the theme in the first chorus, staying reasonably close to the melody, but decorating it with arpeggios and riffs. His tone is full, with a trace of vibrato. After a chorus by vocalist Raymond Felton, Benny returns for a short closing episode that builds to a dramatic conclusion as he nails a high "F" at the end.

A few months later, in January 1940, Carter recorded a lyrical and relaxed muted trumpet feature Slow Freight. (Joe Thomas plays the open trumpet solo in the third chorus.)

I Surrender Dear from 1944 represents Benny's mature trumpet style. He states the melody with a full, graceful tone that yields nothing to the leading Big Band trumpeters such as Harry James and Roy Eldridge. The band then kicks into double time, and Benny soars over the ensemble with a thrilling, swinging solo.