[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 103 (Monday, July 14, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H6682]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2000
                  CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF BENNY CARTER

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I announce the 
passing of the legendary musician, Benny Carter, this past Saturday at 
Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 95.
  Benny Carter's life and career literally spanned the 20th century. 
His music encompassed the history of jazz and much more. Ranked with 
the likes of Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker, Benny Carter is 
considered one of the greatest alto saxophonists of all times. Ella 
Fitzgerald described him as ``everything a musician would want to be''; 
while Miles Davis said, ``Everybody ought to listen to Benny. He is a 
whole musical education.'' And the great Ben Webster said about Carter, 
``He is the only person that I get the shakes trying to play my horn 
behind or with him.''
  Born in New York in 1907, Carter received his first music lessons 
from his mother, but was largely a self-taught musician. In the late 
1920s he joined Fletcher Henderson's seminal orchestra and in 1931 
became musical director for McKinney's Cotton Pickers.
  Returning to New York in 1938, Carter formed his own top-flight 
orchestra and spent much of 1939 and 1940 at Harlem's famed Savoy 
Ballroom. His arrangements were much in demand and featured on 
recordings by Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, 
Gene Krupa, and Tommy Dorsey.
  We will miss this outstanding and this exemplary musician. May he 
rest in peace.

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