James Carter

[Homer Simpson]

Does anyone know what label James Carter is signed to currently? Also, does anyone know what his new website is (if he has one) and who'd booking his gigs :?:

Thanks everyone

[David Spiegelthal]

I'm afraid I can't answer any of Mr. Simpson's questions, because I just recently (the other night) became aware of James Carter---heard some cuts of his on the radio with the most powerful, in-tune, and agile BASS sax playing I've ever heard. Phenomenal......... I'd like to hear more of him!

[Homer Simpson]

David-

I heard James for the first time when I took my girlfriend to the gig on Valentine's Day. It was awesome!! He puts so much energy into his playing. The gig was great, he even serenated us! You gotta go see him live.

[David Spiegelthal]

Homer,
Where is James Carter from, where does he do most of his playing, etc.? Any details would be appreciated (by me, anyway.....).

[Mike Ruhl]

Carter is from Detroit. He's been playing "on the scene" for nearly 15 years now. I'm really surprised you only recently discovered him - he was on the cover of Down Beat 4 or 5 years ago, heralded as the "new face of jazz" or something like that. He's recorded with just about everyone. Do a Google search for "james carter sax" and you'll get a ton of hits. I don't think he has an official web page, though.

If you enjoy bass sax, pick up his "Chasin' the Gypsy" cd from a couple pf years ago. It's a tribute to Django Reinhardt.

[Mike Ruhl]

Here's a funny James Carter story:

http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~bucheger/JamesCarterRuinedMyLife.html

[David Spiegelthal]

Meruhl,
Thanks for the good info on James Carter. In fact, it was "Chasin' the Gypsy" that was being played on the radio on which I heard him playing the unbelievable bass sax stuff.
Part of the reason I hadn't heard of him until recently is that here in the Washington, DC area, we no longer have any full-time jazz radio stations, not one! I rarely get to hear jazz on the radio any more, and with three small kids and a demanding full-time day gig and a fair amount of playing gigs I hardly ever get out to just listen to other players --- so I'm quite ignorant of who's "on the scene" nowadays.
But the point is.....James Carter is GREAT!!!!

[Mike Ruhl]

Meruhl,
Thanks for the good info on James Carter. In fact, it was "Chasin' the Gypsy" that was being played on the radio on which I heard him playing the unbelievable bass sax stuff.
Part of the reason I hadn't heard of him until recently is that here in the Washington, DC area, we no longer have any full-time jazz radio stations, not one! I rarely get to hear jazz on the radio any more, and with three small kids and a demanding full-time day gig and a fair amount of playing gigs I hardly ever get out to just listen to other players --- so I'm quite ignorant of who's "on the scene" nowadays.
But the point is.....James Carter is GREAT!!!!
I can relate!
No jazz radio in DC? Amazing... :Rant2:

[David Spiegelthal]

Not only does DC not have a single full-time jazz radio station anymore, but the one and only full-time classical music station has, over the past several years, dumbed-down their playlist to the point where all they play now is Mozart, Haydn, Teleman, etc. --- nothing more recent than Brahms, not even during the 3 am. late-night show where they used to get into some interesting 'modern' (20th-century) classical music. So DC has a full-time "elevator classical" station, a full-time "elevator jazz" station ("smooth" jazz), but no real music. Our nation's capital! Pathetic...

[Homer Simpson]

David-

I can't imagine what my commute would be like without a full time jazz station to ease the pain of gridlock. :Rant:

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to check out the Chasin the Gypsy cd. No one seems to carry his stuff in any of the rtores I go to. The cd I have is "In Carterian Fashion." There's some really cool tracks on it.

[hornstar]

I first noticed James Carter after hearing JC On The Set. Later, I think it was in '94, I saw him perform at a club in downtown Buffalo. I will never forget it, nothing has come close by anyone before or since. He was bigger than life, held the room spellbound for the entire performance, and did things on the horn with power that I still don't believe is humanly possible. His recorded output does not do him justice, he must be seen and heard live.

[Homer Simpson]

Does anyone know where James Carter is giggin' next? :?:

[BayviewSax]

Last I knew, JC was signed to Atlantic Records, but good luck getting any information about tour dates from their website. Last I knew of him in the Northeast was when he opened for Wynton's big band at the Boston Globe Jazz Festival. I couldn't bear paying to see Wynton so I opted out. A friend saw him in New York with David Murray (can you say WOW?!!?!?!?).

Of the recommendations on here, I'd say Chasin' the Gypsy and Layin' in the Cut are his best stuff to date. He's also done some nice work as a sideman (Ginger Baker's COWARD OF THE COUNTY) and I recently heard an album with both he and Abraham Burton (can I get another WOW!!!???!?!?!). Among JCs older stuff, I STRONGLY recommend Jurassic Classics. If you like JC, I'd suggest checking out Robert Stewart as well. http://www.therobertstewartexperience.com/

[doug]

I believe I had seen that James is now with Warner Brothers and that he will have a new live release sometime this summer. This was a gig with Aretha Franklin among others that took place in Chicago.

[David Spiegelthal]

I finally found and bought James Carter's "Chasin' the Gypsy" CD and I can't stop listening to it --- the guy is unbelievably good. If you asked me what was so good about his playing I wouldn't know where to start.......EVERYTHING is good about his playing.

[BayviewSax]

Yeah, well put. Only complaint I can find is that sometimes he gets a little too involved with the notion that he's James Carter (much like Sonny Rollins), but that's not necessarily a *bad* thing. La Dernier Bergiere must be about the greatest thing ever committed to disc. In the opening of that song, you can actually see some melodramatic actress in an old black and white film purring about her mistreatment. Outstanding!

[Mike Ruhl]

The new JC cd is due out in November, on Columbia. It's a tribute to Bille Holiday:

http://www.jazztimes.com/JazzNews/JazzNews.asp?cmd=view&articleid=1078

Funny, though, no mention of it on the Columbia website that I could find.

[Mike Ruhl]

I finally found a press release from August:

http://www.columbiarecords.com/news/pressreleases/08252003.html

[BayviewSax]

Good and bad news. Good news is, it's there... bad news is, Columbia has said it's not going to produce Jazz any longer, so who knows how good this records going to be. More power to JC if he can cash in on the major labels, I just hope it doesn't take the edge of his incredible playing.

[Vader]

Wow, things are changing.....

[rek]

OK, here's a tune to check out: "Pick Up The Pieces," a live recording that shows up on a Phil Collins big band CD. Everybody does their solo, they're all very nice, and then James Carter comes on. Man, does he smoke! It sounds like his horn is exploding! Flying out of his horn like machine-gun fire are honks, squeaks, and even what sounds like a vocal scream. If you want to hear crowd pleasing stuff this is it. The crowd goes wild!

[Vader]

Yeah, i've heard that. It's pretty crazy.

[Mike Ruhl]

Which cd is that on?

[rek]

This is the CD: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000JLMP/ref=m_art_li_1/002-9295064-3540016?v=glance&s=music

[ramZsax]

I went to see James carter live and it was the best concert I’ve been to by far! I was completely amazed by his playing I never would have thought it was possible to do the kinds of things he was doing on the sax, he did a circular breathing solo for I don’t know how long it was unbelievable everyone’s jaws at the concert dropped the second he started to play. I seriously never dreamed stuff like that could have been done. After the concert I stuck around for about 15min and wait till one of them came back out to get their stuff when the organ player came out I asked if I could get a picture with James carter or the trio, he said he would check and then James came out and (at the time i was wearing a Dexter Gordon shirt) and he said "oh yeah!" i get to take a picture with dex. lol the picture came out great btw :wink:

Before the concert i also got out of school early to go see his master class which lasted an hour and 1/2 long then it was supposed to but it was worth it only about 15-20 ppl went so it was kind of like a personal concert

I liked the concert so much that I bought tickets to the next one and it was even better then the first

im only 14 so i kno i haven't been to as many concerts(the jazz concerts i have been to are...chris potter, jim cullum, ernie watts,brubeck institute,joshua redman some other that didn't leave me wih much of an impression, and of course james carter) as half the ppl here or listen as much but i dont think many ppl would dissagree that he is an amazing player and fantastic inavator.

sorry this post isn't answering anion your questions but i wanted to show how much i love his playing!

ramz