James Carter (musician)


James Carter is an American jazz musician widely recognized for his technical virtuosity on saxophones and a variety of woodwinds. He is the cousin of noted jazz violinist Regina Carter.
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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, Carter was a last-minute addition for guest artist Lester Bowie, which turned into an invitation to play with his new quintet 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, focusing on saxophones, flute and clarinets.
In 1996, he took part in Robert Altman's film Kansas City, where he played Ben Webster alongside several other contemporary jazz musicians playing the roles of players from the 1930s, including Joshua Redman as Lester Young, Craig Handy as Coleman Hawkins and Geri Allen as Mary Lou Williams. "Seldom Seen" 's fictional "Hey Hey Club" set the stage for several jam sessions caught on film in real time and included on a soundtrack produced by Hal Willner and trumpeter Steven Bernstein.
Carter embraces all elements of jazz history, from dixieland to fusion to free jazz, and was one of the few prominent players of his generation to do so, participating in a number of projects in all these styles, and incorporating these different influences in the compositions and soloing on his own albums.
On his album Chasin' the Gypsy, he recorded with his cousin 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.
Carter is an authority on vintage saxophones, and he owns an extensive collection of such instruments, including one formerly played by Don Byas.

Discography

As sideman

With Karrin Allyson
With the Art Ensemble of Chicago
With Ginger Baker and the DGQ20
  • Coward of the County
With Kathleen Battle
  • So Many Stars
With Hamiet Bluiett
with Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble
With Dee Dee Bridgewater
With Regina Carter
With Cyrus Chestnut
  • Cyrus Chestnut
With Jayne Cortez & The Firespitters
  • Cheerful & Optimistic
With Benny Golson
With Herbie Hancock
With the Julius Hemphill Sextet
With D. D. Jackson
With Ronald Shannon Jackson
  • What Spirit Say
  • Live in Warsaw
With Wynton Marsalis
With Christian McBride
With Liz McComb
  • Brassland
With Marcus Miller
With Junco Onishi
With Madeleine Peyroux
With Odean Pope
  • Odeans List
With Steve Turre
With Roseanna Vitro and Kenny Werner
With Rodney Whitaker
  • Children of the Light
  • Hidden Kingdom
With the World Saxophone Quartet'