Benny Carter - Further Definitions

Acoustic Sounds Series reissues from Verve/Universal Music Enterprises!

Monthly releases highlighting the world's most historic and best jazz records!

Mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab from the original analog tape

180-gram LPs pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Stoughton Printing gatefold old-style tip-on jackets

Series supervised by Chad Kassem CEO of Acoustic Sounds

Recorded on November 19 and 21, 1961, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio and released in 1962 on Impulse!, Further Definitions stands as one of Benny Carter's most celebrated late-period achievements, reuniting him with an all-star saxophone section — Coleman Hawkins, Phil Woods, and Charlie Rouse — supported by a top-tier rhythm team of Dick Katz, Jimmy Garrison, and Jo Jones.

The album blends orchestral polish with swinging small-ensemble improvisation, featuring standards and Carter originals reimagined from earlier big band charts, such as "Crazy Rhythm," "Blue Star," and "Doozy," which showcase harmonically rich, tightly voiced lines and space for each soloist's distinct voice.

Hawkins' monumental tenor, Woods' modernist alto, Rouse's lyrical tenor, and Carter's poised statements are anchored by a rhythm section of light touch and impeccable time, making the album a refined, intergenerational conversation and one of the most accomplished small-ensemble saxophone records of the 1960s.

 

Side A

1. Honeysuckle Rose

2. That Midnight Sun Will Never Set

3. Crazy Rhythm

4. Blue Star

Side B

1. Cotton Tail

2. Body and Soul

3. Cherry

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