On July 12, 2003, Bennett Lester “Benny” Carter, died aged 96. He was musician (alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet), composer, arranger, and bandleader,  regarded a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s. In his career the “King” performed with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Coleman Hawkins, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Miles Davis,  Django Reinhardt, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Phil Woods, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Ben Webster, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Slack and Mel Torme.

For his work Benny Carter received big number of awards including: “The NEA Jazz Masters Award by The National Endowment for the Arts”, “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award” , “Grammy Award” for his solo “Prelude to a Kiss”, “A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame”, “National Endowment for the Arts”, “National Medal of Arts”.