James carter saxophone biography channel
•
JAZZ : Horns Aplenty : Although a relative youngster, saxman--and inveterate collector of instruments--James Carter has already made his mark with a style that resonates with the sounds of jazz history.
James Carter, described by Rolling Stone as “the most exciting ung saxophonist to arrive on the scene in the past 25 years,” has never played a saxophone he didn’t like. And he’s got several rooms full of gleaming instruments to prove it.
Carter’s New York apartment fryst vatten bursting at the seams with at least one example of nearly every variation of the versatile instrument devised by Belgian Adolphe Sax in the midth Century--from the tiny sopranino to the elephantine bass. And the collection is growing by leaps and bounds.
“I’m in the lower 40s right now,” Carter says, carefully avoiding a frown from his fiancee, Telvis Williams, “and knocking on 50’s door real hard.”
A few of those instruments--most likely his trusty soprano, tenor and baritone--will turn up on June 18 during Cart
•
“You have to be totally comfortable wherever,” Carter says. “I feel that music equals life, that’s the way my teacher always taught me. You just can’t go through life and experience it fully with a set of blinders on. I think there’s tremendous beauty in cross-pollinations of music and influences.”
In many ways, weaving together divergent impulses is at the heart of Carter’s music. Like the late tenor sax titan Ben Webster, he’s given to furious, high-velocity solos, but is just as likely to wax sentimental, using his big, bruising tone to tenderly caress a comely melody. In , he released two albums simultaneously that amounted to an anti-manifesto, a proclamation that everything is fair game.
On Chasin’ the Gypsy, a voluptuous, lyrical session partly inspired by the timeless collaboration between Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, he assembled a thrilling group with violinist Regina Carter and Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo, for a project born out of some sound chec
•
| Photo credit &#; Vincent Soyez |
&#;You have to be totally comfortable wherever,&#; Jazz saxophonist James Carter says. &#;I feel that music equals life, that&#;s the way my teacher always taught me. You just can&#;t go through life and experience it fully with a set of blinders on. I think there&#;s tremendous beauty in cross-pollinations of music and influences.&#;
Before his performance in Seattle last fall, Carter spent a few minutes to talk with Seattle Opera. His conversation touched on Charlie Parker&#;s musical influence, his discovery of tenor Enrico Caruso, and his reasoning for playing classical, Latin and other music genres as well as other topics.
Carter has won Down Beat magazine&#;s Critics and Readers Choice award for baritone saxophone several years in a row. His discography includes more than 15 albums, among them Chasing the Gypsy () featuring his cousin jazz violinist Regina Carter; Caribbean Rhapsody (), a collaboration with contemporary class