Saxaphonist and composer Benny Carter won the NEA Jazz Masters award in 1986. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievment Award in 1987. He won a Grammy  in 1994 for his solo "Prelude to a Kiss", and the same year, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Benny Carter started on piano and played trumpet, clarinet and sax.  He grew up in New York and by 15 was sitting in at the Harlem night spots.  He lived to be 95 and spent 75 years as a working musician.  Hear his music and learn more about this jazz legend Monday night on the 9 O'clock Special on K-Jazz.

  Carter was one of the first black men to compose music for films. He was an inspiration and a mentor for Quincy Jones when Jones began writing for television and films in the 1960s. Carter's successful legal battles in order to obtain housing in then-exclusive neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area made him a pioneer in an entirely different area.