With the Chocolate Dandies & Mezz Mezzrow

Benny Carter took up trumpet aged 13 and made rapid progress, quickly perfecting his sight reading and learning to arrange and compose. By his late teens he had mastered the alto saxophone, the trumpet, soprano and tenor saxophones, clarinet, trombone and piano. Carter first led a band at the age of 21 - he took over Horace Henderson's Wilberforce Collegians and led the band for over a year, culminating in a residency at the prestigious Arcadia Ballroom. After that, the band broke up. Stints with Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb followed. In April 1932, after a stint as musical director of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, he formed a new band which proved to be an artistic triumph. The band recorded it's first full session in March 1933. By then it was said in musical circles that if you made it with Carter, you held the passkey to any other top band. This collection presents six complete recording sessions, featuring Carter as both leader and sideman. All Carter's musical gifts - as leader, arranger, composer and multi-instrumentalist - are on display. By general agreement, a creative peak was reached in the sides of October 1933. Teddy Wilson is on piano and Carter's trumpet solo in Once Upon A Time is a masterpiece by any standards.