Jazz musician Benny Carter, known for his sophisticated compositions andarrangements, was also a virtuoso alto saxophone player. Fellow musiciansfrequently cited Carter's groundbreaking improvisational style, which avoided theexpected run up and down the chord changes and instead spread out phrasefragments over the chord progression. In 1934, just six years after his firstrecording, Carter played at the opening of the Apollo Theater in Harlem and thenled the first interracial big band to tour Europe. In the ensuing quarter century,Carter wrote music for film and television in Hollywood, where he played a key rolein the merger of the trade unions of Black musicians and White musicians.
