Benny Carter All-Star Sax Ensemble: Over the Rainbow

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing any innovator, no matter what the art form, is coming to terms with his past. Some artists studiously avoid any hint of comparison with former glories; others spend a lifetime trying to relive past triumphs. In this album, Benny Carter, whose career in music is unsurpassed in both longevity and accomplishment, reveals his solution to this dilemma. Using a framework he virtually created and certainly perfected -- the saxophone ensemble -- Carter clearly acknowledges his past while making music that is very much of the present. The eight new arrangements heard here show Carter's writing, as well as his playing, to be as inspirational to today's soloists as it was to previous generations of jazz stars.