Benny Carter: ‘The King’
11th October 2016…he is a king, man! You got Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and my man the Earl
of Hines, right? Well, Benny’s right up there with all them cats. Everybody
that knows who he is call him King! He is a King!
Louis Armstrong
Generations of jazz fans grew up in the firm belief that the three greatest alto saxophone players were Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Charlie Parker. Of this wondrous trio, only one could claim to be multi-talented; he was Benny Carter. His principal instruments were the alto sax and trumpet, which prompted someone with the pen-name of Snooty McSiegle to wax poetic: