Benny Carter: Cookin' at Carlos I

Benny Carter Cookin' at Carlos I

Much of our jazz history is shaped by recordings. This heavy reliance on recorded evidence, however, can lead to occasional imbalances and misconceptions. For various reasons, some significant artists either never recorded at all, or the few records that do survive fail to do them justice. Others have recorded extensively, but may have facets to their artistry which studio recordings do not fully reveal. To some degree, such is the case with Benny Carter. Although Carter has enjoyed a prolific recording career, there is a disparity between the Benny Carter of the studios and the Benny Carter heard in an informal club setting. The impeccability of the former was born of an innate perfectionism where posterity is concerned, and honed by years of exacting film and television work. Carter's measured approach earned him such labels as "urbane," "smooth," "logical," and "sophisticated" from critics. While Carter has nothing more to prove at this stage, he would just as soon shed these labels which tend to emphasize the more cerebral aspects of his style. His playing on this, his first live club recording, is exciting, daring, and, yes, even "hot"-- to use an old term.