Benny Carter

A memorial service and concert for saxophonist, composer-arranger and bandleader Benny Carter will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Schoenberg Hall on the UCLA campus. Carter died July 12 at the age of 95.

Maria Cole, the widow of music legend Nat King Cole and the mother of singer Natalie Cole whose own singing career included a stint as vocalist for Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1940s, has died. She was 89. Cole died Tuesday at a hospice in Boca Raton, Fla., after a short battle with cancer, her family said. "Our mom was in a class all by herself," her three daughters said in a joint statement. "She epitomized class, elegance, and truly defined what it is to be a real lady.

It was a great night for a party: one of the hottest evenings of the year to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of the coolest musicians in jazz--saxophonist-composer-bandleader Benny Carter. And, although the sizzling weather held the Hollywood Bowl crowd Wednesday night to less than overflow proportions, the music was first-rate, providing a sterling tribute to the legendary jazz veteran. Carter has long been one of the most respected artists in the music's history.

Gerald Wiggins, a jazz pianist whose long career embraced numerous recordings with his trio, performances with Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, Zoot Sims, accompaniment for Lena Horne and Nat "King" Cole, and vocal coaching for Marilyn Monroe, has died. He was 86. Wiggins died Sunday morning at Encino-Tarzana Medical Center, where he had spent the last six weeks. According to his wife, Lynn, Wiggins had been in poor health for months.

Jazz great Benny Carter will be honored at "An Evening With Benny Carter and His Friends," Monday at 6 p.m. at the Ventura Club, 13920 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Saxophonists Buddy Collette and Plas Johnson will be among those performing at the event, sponsored by the Musician Foundation of Local 47 in celebration of Carter's 90th birthday. Individual tickets are $50, with a reduction for members of the local. Tables are $750 and $1,000. Information: (213) 654-4265.

Benny Carter, the saxophonist and jazz composer who has worked with such legends as Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday. Carter, who began performing at age 15, has arranged music for films including "Stormy Weather," "An American in Paris," and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." His star will be number 2,042 on the Walk of Fame.

Alto saxophonist Benny Carter, at 90, is a venerable jazz icon. Yet his performance Wednesday night in the opening set of a five-night run at Catalina Bar & Grill had an immediacy and an aliveness that transcended historical associations. The only concession Carter has made to age has been the abandonment of his trumpet playing. In his early years he was, remarkably, a talented performer on both instruments--a not-at-all common double.

Octogenarian Benny Carter may not be young , but he acts young and thinks young, and that makes all the difference. Filling in Saturday for the previously scheduled Stan Getz (who is still convalescing from surgery late last year) at Marsee Auditorium, Carter revealed the perennially youthful flexibility of his musical attitude, bringing along a quintet that mixed swing, be-bop and post-bop styles into an invigorating, urbane whole.

The question is not large, relative to matters of international relations or the debt crisis. But it gets to the heart of persisting attitudes about jazz and jazzmakers. Will popular audiences accept a portrait of a great jazzman who is also a solid citizen with no known major bad habits? Harrison Engle, whose documentary on Theodore Roosevelt, "T.R.

Asked recently if he had any idols, alto sax great Phil Woods said without hesitation, "Benny Carter. The guys like him who keep going into their 70s and 80s are the true heroes of American society. The main lesson in life is instilled in Mr. Carter. They don't call him 'King' for nothing. To play for 60 years is a helluva accomplishment."

The Benny Carter tribute Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl couldn't have come on a more appropriate date: the 100th anniversary of the birth of the iconic, multiskilled artist who died in 2003. So it wasn't surprising that Carter's creative imagination -- a vital element through nearly eight decades -- was a constant presence in the long and varied program. The event-packed evening, hosted by Quincy Jones, featured a diverse group of performers.

A memorial service and concert for saxophonist, composer-arranger and bandleader Benny Carter will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Schoenberg Hall on the UCLA campus. Carter died July 12 at the age of 95.

Benny Carter, whose versatility as a first-rate saxophonist, composer-arranger and bandleader made him a leading figure in jazz for more than eight decades, has died. He was 95. Carter died Saturday morning in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following a brief illness. Carter was hospitalized in late June with bronchitis and other ailments, said publicist Virginia Wicks.

Benny Carter will be 95 on Thursday. A veteran of virtually every part of the great 20th century expansion of jazz, an important influence upon the music as an instrumentalist, a composer and an arranger, he is now one of the patriarchs of the art, a direct conduit into its checkered history. Carter has lived for the last 25 years with his wife, Hilma, in a sunny, airy home situated near the top of the Hollywood Hills.

Benny Carter recorded for such a lengthy period in so many different settings that one could make a dozen, entirely different lists of his finest work. That said, here's a grouping that offers a brief introduction to the remarkable range of his talents. * Six CDs on the Melodie Jazz Classic label (available from Amazon.com) provide a comprehensive overview of Carter's early career.

Alto saxophonist Benny Carter, at 90, is a venerable jazz icon. Yet his performance Wednesday night in the opening set of a five-night run at Catalina Bar & Grill had an immediacy and an aliveness that transcended historical associations. The only concession Carter has made to age has been the abandonment of his trumpet playing. In his early years he was, remarkably, a talented performer on both instruments--a not-at-all common double.

Alto sax man Benny Carter didn't shred jazz traditions to establish new forms like Charlie Parker did. Instead, Carter, whose roots are in the days of Big Band swing, built a career around his sophisticated composing and arranging skills and a subtle sound that emphasizes warm, melodic ideas above all else. At 83, Carter continues to turn out the polished, swinging improvisations and catchy, original songs that have been his trademark since he launched his career in Big Bands during the 1920s.

At 84, Benny Carter is rightly regarded as one of the masters of jazz. In his extraordinary 65-year career, which is still going strong, he has excelled as an alto saxophonist, composer, arranger, racial barrier-breaker and jazz dignitary, with lesser, though sometimes substantial, success as a trumpeter, bandleader and singer.

Jazz great Benny Carter will be honored at "An Evening With Benny Carter and His Friends," Monday at 6 p.m. at the Ventura Club, 13920 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Saxophonists Buddy Collette and Plas Johnson will be among those performing at the event, sponsored by the Musician Foundation of Local 47 in celebration of Carter's 90th birthday. Individual tickets are $50, with a reduction for members of the local. Tables are $750 and $1,000. Information: (213) 654-4265.

It was a great night for a party: one of the hottest evenings of the year to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of the coolest musicians in jazz--saxophonist-composer-bandleader Benny Carter. And, although the sizzling weather held the Hollywood Bowl crowd Wednesday night to less than overflow proportions, the music was first-rate, providing a sterling tribute to the legendary jazz veteran. Carter has long been one of the most respected artists in the music's history.