Benny Waters

Benjamin "Benny" Waters (born January 23, 1902 in Brighton , Maryland, † August 13, 1998 in Columbia , Maryland) was an American jazz musician ( saxophonist and clarinetist ).

Live and act

Waters, who came from a Seneca family, initially played church music and European classical music. At the age of three he learned the piano and organ; in school age he switched to the clarinet; only later did the saxophone become a relevant instrument in jazz. He first worked with Charlie Miller (1918-1921) before studying at the New England Conservatory of Music . He then worked at Clarence Williams . Then he wrote arrangements for Charlie Johnson , in whose Paradise Ten he played between 1926 and 1931 and with King Oliver , for whom he also arranged, he made studio recordings in 1927; between 1933 and 1936 he worked at Fletcher Henderson . Harry Carney , who later became Duke Ellington's baritone saxophonist , received lessons from him. He continued to work with Hot Lips Page , Benny Carter and Claude Hopkins before he was employed as a sentence manager at Jimmie Lunceford in 1941 ; after leading his own band in New York , he worked in the rhythm and blues band of Roy Milton and then with Jimmy Archey . Waters lived in Europe between 1949 and 1989, where he was part of Jack Butler's band for many years , which he took over in 1967. He also toured other European countries and recorded with Benno Walldorf in 1969, for example . In the last years of his life he often appeared with Jan Jankeje , Andi Maile , Klaus Graf , Doc Cheatham or Thilo Wagner . In 1995 he toured with the Statesman of Jazz .

The swing musician Waters, who described himself as a mainstreamer and was an idiosyncratic entertainer, played across styles, from old-time jazz to hip-hop : with Let's Talk About Jazz, he rapped on stage in old age. Waters, who went blind from a cataract in the late 1980s , has since performed mostly with the alto saxophone because he had difficulties changing instruments. He was killed in a hotel fire.

literature

• Chip Deffaa Voices of the Jazz Age: Profiles of Eight Vintage Jazzmen Univ. of Illinois Press; 1992; ISBN 978-0252062582
• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .