Six or Seven Times

Benny Carter

1929

We usually go with live video

However, Benny Carter’s career goes so far back and he was not filmed early in his career. Therefore if we’re going to appreciate him fully, we have to be satisfied with his somewhat risque slide show of photos from the era.

Recorded in 1929 with a few friends…Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins, and Don Redman. So early that the label calls it a “foxtrot” and the word “jazz” is nowhere to be seen on the label. They even throw in some “barbershop” vocals in the mix.

Carter wrote the arrangement. You’re hearing jazz being invented.