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Hello Ken,</div>
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Many thanks for your contribution! </div>
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Quite a few years ago, I had a long conversation with a woman, in whom's house Benny Carter was renting rooms in the late 1930's when both Benny and Coleman Hawkins were working in the Netherlands. </div>
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She told me very similar stories, that Benny was modest, or even shy. He seems to have been quite opposite to Hawkins in his entire ways. Hawkins always chasing women, large bottle with strong drinks all day long, whereas Benny was here with his wife, never
drinking, always very decent and polite. </div>
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The nicest story was, that he said: well, since I am in Holland, I guess I should have a bike, and he took the woman I spoke to, to a bycicle shop, to help him making a choice. So as a young lady she was at the backseat of Benny Carter's bike, never realising
what an important musician he actually was! <span id="😂">😂 </span></div>
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<span>I will see if it is possible to find an affordable copy of the book you just mentioned. </span></div>
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<span>In my evaluation of Coleman Hawkins career I make for Dr. Jazz, I'm just at the chapter when Hawk and Benny made those lovely 1937 recordings with Django and Grappelli in Paris, and then went to The Hague! <br>
Hawkins at this time had quite a few discussions with jazz enthousiasts, and seems to have been annoyed by people who were stating that only black musicians could play jazz properly. I found the following interesting comments:</span></div>
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<li><span>his favourite band was the Casa Loma Orchestra, until Jimmy Lunceford became known. </span></li><li><span>he thought Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were much better clarinet players than Dodds and Noone.</span></li><li><span>When someone asked about his opinion of Chu Berry, he replied Alex Combelle was just as good and Ben Webster was better. </span></li><li><span>in Hawkins opinion, Goodman played the Henderson arrangements better than Henderson did himself. </span></li><li><span>Henderson was a smart guy, selling arrangements to Goodman that didn't exist at all. They were head arrangements that Fletcher transcribed of his own records! </span></li><li><span>although Hawk had started his prof. career in Mamie Smith's band, he wasn't very fond of the blues. </span></li></ul>
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<span>Kind regards,</span></div>
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<span>Bert </span></div>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> Ken Mathieson <ken@kenmath.free-online.co.uk><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, November 13, 2019 10:07 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Bert Brandsma <mister_bertje@hotmail.com><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Dixielandjazz] Questions about laws regarding musicians and segregation</font>
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<div class="PlainText">On this topic, it's worth noting that Benny Carter was hugely important
<br>
in the merging the separate Black and White Musicians' Unions in Los <br>
Angeles in the early 1950s. He was one of the few musicians in either <br>
union who was total respected in both. As chairman of the Black Union's <br>
negotiating team, he was massively important in conducting discussions <br>
that led to the amalgamation, which in turn led to the acceptance of <br>
black players into the studio orchestras of the film, TV and recording <br>
industries and their acceptance, based solely on talent and reliability, <br>
of black composers and orchestrators. The successful amalgamation <br>
established in the LA negotiations became the template as desegregation <br>
of the AFM spread across the USA. It was typical of Benny's modesty that <br>
he would make light of his role when the topic came up in conversation <br>
and stress that it was a team effort on both sides, even though I <br>
suspect he was, within himself, immensely proud of the achievement.<br>
<br>
This is covered in Chapter 8 of Volume 1 of Berger, Berger and Patrick's <br>
biography of Carter - Benny Carter, A Life in American Music, which is a <br>
very well researched and detailed account of Carter's career, but even <br>
in such a meticulously researched work, there's very little detail about <br>
the roles of those involved or the processes of the amalgamation. I <br>
suspect the ever-modest and tactful Benny wasn't prepared to make <br>
statements that others might see as biased or controversial and just <br>
didn't say much about it.<br>
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