Benny Carter Quartet - Summer Serenade (1982/2017) [DSD/Hi-Res]

Jazz is an international music and Benny Carter is one of its leading statesmen.

„Benny Carter has recorded so many excellent swing sessions throughout his lengthy career that it is very difficult to pick out the best ones. This quartet date (Summer Serenade) recorded August 17, 1980 for the Danish Storyville label matches his alto with pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Jesper Lundgaard and drummer Ed Thigpen for four of Carter's originals and three standards. As a bonus, Richard Boone sings the good-humored "All That Jazz." (Scott Yanow, AMG)

Although he has played trumpet, trombone, clarinet, tenor and piano it is as an alto saxophonist that Benny has achieved his enviable reputation as an instrumentalist. He has acted as an inspiration to hundreds of younger men, all of whom have been fascinated by the seemingly effortless way in which that flawless tone was produced. The broad, sweeping phrases of his improvisations have the structural stability of compositions in their own right.

In 1987, Benny was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1994 he was winner for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss” and in the same year received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in film music. In 2000 Carter was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts, National Medal of Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton.

„Everybody ought to listen to Benny. He's a whole musical education.“ (Miles Davis to Leonard Feather, Down Beat)

„He's everything a musician would want to be.“ (Ella Fitzgerald in Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs, a film by Harrison Engle, 1991)

„…probably the most rounded and sophisticated of all the jazz composers.“ (André Previn in Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs, a film by Harrison Engle, 1991)

„He's the consummate musician. More than anyone else, he represents what American music is all about.“ (David Sanborn (in Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs, a film by Harrison Engle, 1991)

Benny Carter, alto saxophone
Kenny Drew, piano
Jesper Lundgard, double bass
Ed Thigpen, drums
Richard Boone, vocals

Recorded Sunday, August 17, 1980 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Engineered by Hans Nielsen
Produced by Karl Emil Knudsen, Richard Boone

Digitally remastered