James Carter (musician)
![]() | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (September 2019) |
James Carter | |
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![]() James Carter, Bad Ischl 2006 | |
Background information | |
Born | January 3, 1969 |
Origin | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Genres | Jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Bass clarinet Saxophones Flutes |
Labels | DIW Atlantic Columbia Half Note |
Associated acts | |
Website | jamescarterlive.com |
James Carter (born January 3, 1969) is an American jazz musician. He is the cousin of jazz violinist Regina Carter.
Biography[]
Carter was born in Detroit, Michigan, and learned to play under the tutelage of Donald Washington, becoming a member of his youth jazz ensemble Bird-Trane-Sco-NOW!! As a young man, Carter attended Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, becoming the youngest faculty member at the camp. He first toured Scandinavia with the International Jazz Band in 1985 at the age of 16.
On May 31, 1988, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Carter was a last-minute addition for guest artist Lester Bowie, which turned into an invitation to play with his new quintet (forerunner of his New York Organ Ensemble) in New York City that following November at the now defunct Carlos 1 jazz club. This was pivotal in Carter's career, putting him in musical contact with the world, and he moved to New York two years later. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the late 1980s, playing saxophones, flute, and clarinets. On his album Chasin' the Gypsy (2000), he recorded with his cousin, the jazz violinist Regina Carter.
Carter has won DownBeat magazine's Critics and Readers Choice award for baritone saxophone several years in a row. He has performed, toured and played on albums with Lester Bowie, Julius Hemphill, Frank Lowe & the Saxemble, Kathleen Battle, the World Saxophone Quartet, Cyrus Chestnut, Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Mingus Big Band.[1]
Carter is an authority on vintage saxophones, and he owns an extensive collection of such instruments,[2] including one formerly played by Don Byas.[3]
Discography[]
- 1991: Tough Young Tenors: Alone Together
- 1994: JC on the Set (DIW)
- 1995: Jurassic Classics (DIW)
- 1995: The Real Quiet Storm (Atlantic)
- 1995: Duets (Atlantic) with Cyrus Chestnut [promotional CD]
- 1996: Conversin' with the Elders (Atlantic)
- 1998: In Carterian Fashion (Atlantic)
- 2000: Chasin' the Gypsy (Atlantic)
- 2000: Layin' in the Cut (Atlantic)
- 2003: Gardenias for Lady Day (Columbia)
- 2004: Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge (Warner Bros.) - recorded 2001
- 2005: Out of Nowhere (Half Note)
- 2005: Gold Sounds (Brown Brothers)
- 2008: Present Tense (EmArcy)
- 2009: Heaven on Earth (Half Note)
- 2009: Skratyology (Stotbrock) with De Nazaten
- 2011: Caribbean Rhapsody (EmArcy)
- 2011: At the Crossroads (EmArcy)
- 2019: Live From Newport Jazz (Blue Note)
As sideman[]
With Karrin Allyson
- Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (Concord Jazz, 2001)
With the Art Ensemble of Chicago
With Ginger Baker and the DGQ20
- Coward of the County (Atlantic, 1999)
With Kathleen Battle
- So Many Stars (Sony Classical, 1995)
With Hamiet Bluiett
- Libation for the Baritone Saxophone Nation (Justin Time, 1998)
- Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Group Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory, 1998)
with Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble
- The Organizer (DIW, 1991)
- Funky T. Cool T. (DIW, 1992)
With Dee Dee Bridgewater
With Regina Carter
- Motor City Moments (Verve, 2000)
With Cyrus Chestnut
- Cyrus Chestnut (Atlantic, 1998)
With Jayne Cortez & The Firespitters'
- Cheerful & Optimistic (Bola Press, 1994)
With Benny Golson
- Tenor Legacy (Arkadia Jazz, 1996)
With Herbie Hancock
- Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998)
With the Julius Hemphill Sextet
- Fat Man and the Hard Blues (Black Saint, 1991)
- Five Chord Stud (Black Saint, 1994)
With D. D. Jackson
- Paired Down Volume One (Justin Time, 1997)
- Anthem (RCA Victor, 2000)
- What Spirit Say (DIW, 1994)
- Live in Warsaw (Knit Classics, 1994 [1999])
With Wynton Marsalis
- Blood on the Fields (Columbia, 1995)
With Christian McBride
- SciFi (Verve, 2000)
With Liz McComb
- Brassland (GVE/LMC, 2013)
With Marcus Miller
- M² (Telarc, 2001)
With Junco Onishi
- Baroque (Verve, 2010)
With Madeleine Peyroux
- Dreamland (Atlantic, 1996)
With Odean Pope
- Odeans List (In+Out, 2009)
With Steve Turre
- TNT (Trombone-N-Tenor) (Telarc, 2001)
- The Spirits Up Above (HighNote, 2004)
With Roseanna Vitro and Kenny Werner
- The Delirium Blues Project: Serve or Suffer (Half Note, 2008)
With Rodney Whitaker
- Children of the Light (DIW, 1996)
- Hidden Kingdom (DIW, 1997)
With the World Saxophone Quartet
- Yes We Can (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010)
References[]
- ^ "Biography". Jamescarterlive.com. October 28, 2010.
- ^ "Stern, Chip "Jazz Instruments: James Carter blows through saxophone history", Jazz Times (June 2000)". Archived from the original on 2016-04-14.
- ^ Chip Chandler (2014-01-15). "Musician in long-term love affair with sax". Amarillo Globe-News. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
External links[]
- Official website
- High kicks and belly blows – article with photos by Tony Gieske
- James Carter – biography from American International Artists
- Photographed live at Jazz Alley – photos by Bruce C. Moore
- Edutain-The James Carter Discography
- James Carter Interview (with Alexander Mclean) at All About Jazz
- "The James Carter Interview" by Marissa Dodge, Jazz History Online
- 1969 births
- Living people
- Post-bop clarinetists
- Post-bop saxophonists
- American jazz bass clarinetists
- American jazz baritone saxophonists
- Musicians from Detroit
- Avant-garde jazz clarinetists
- Avant-garde jazz saxophonists
- African-American jazz musicians
- 21st-century saxophonists
- Jazz musicians from Michigan
- 21st-century clarinetists
- World Saxophone Quartet members