John Carter (jazz musician)

John Wallace Carter (September 24, 1929 – March 31, 1991) was an American jazz clarinet, saxophone, and flute player.[1]

John Carter
Clarinetist John Carter
Background information
Birth nameJohn Wallace Carter
Born(1929-09-24)September 24, 1929
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
DiedMarch 31, 1991(1991-03-31) (aged 61)
Inglewood, California, U.S.
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician, educator
InstrumentsClarinet, saxophone, flute

Biography

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Carter attended I.M. Terrell High School, and played music with schoolmates Ornette Coleman and Charles Moffett in the 1940s.[2][3][4][5]

Carter earned a Bachelor of Arts from Lincoln University in Jefferson, Missouri in 1949 and a Master of Arts from the University of Colorado in 1956. He also studied at the North Texas State and University of California at Los Angeles.

From 1961, Carter was based mainly on the West Coast. There he met Bobby Bradford in 1965, with whom he subsequently worked on a number of projects, notably the New Jazz Art Ensemble. He also played with Hampton Hawes and Harold Land. In the 1970s Carter became well known on the basis of his extraordinary solo concerts. At New Jazz Festival Moers 1979 he and the German clarinet player Theo Jörgensmann performed on three days. Afterwards Carter received complimentary reviews and wide recognition from around the world. He and Jörgensmann met again in 1984. The program of the Berlin JazzFest was built around the clarinet. After Carter's solo performance, he and Jörgensmann also played together.

Between 1982 and 1990 Carter composed and recorded Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, five albums focused on African Americans and their history. The complete set was acclaimed by jazz critics as containing some of the best releases of the 1980s.

A clarinet quartet with Perry Robinson, Jörgensmann and Eckard Koltermann was planned for 1991, but Carter did not recover from a nonmalignant tumor. Later that year he was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

Discography

As leader/co-leader
  • 1969: Seeking (Revelation/Hatology)
  • 1969: Flight for Four (Flying Dutchman)
  • 1970: Self Determination Music (Flying Dutchman)
  • 1972: Secrets (Revelation)
  • 1975: No U-Turn – Live in Pasadena, 1975 (Dark Tree)
  • 1977: Echoes from Rudolph's (Ibedon)
  • 1979: Variations on Selected Themes for Jazz (Moers)
  • 1980: Suite of Early American Folk Pieces for Solo Clarinet (Moers)
  • 1980: Night Fire (Black Saint)
  • 1982: Tandem 1 (Emanem)
  • 1989: Comin' On (hat Art) with Bobby Bradford
  • 1996: Tandem 2 (Emanem)
  • 1982: Dauwhe (Black Saint)
  • 1985: Castles of Ghana (Gramavision)
  • 1987: Dance of the Love Ghosts (Gramavision)
  • 1988: Fields (Gramavision)
  • 1989: Shadows on a Wall (Gramavision)

As sideman

With Tim Berne

  • The Five Year Plan (Empire, 1979)

With Clarinet Summit

  • You Better Fly Away (MPS, 1979)[6]
  • Clarinet Summit (India Navigation, 1983)
  • Clarinet Summit, Vol. 2 (India Navigation, 1983)
  • Southern Bells (Black Saint, 1987)[7]

With Vinny Golia

  • Spirits in Fellowship (Nine Winds, 1977)
  • Live at the Century City Playhouse - Los Angeles, 1979 (Dark Tree, 2017)
  • Compositions for Large Ensemble (Nine Winds, 1982)

With Richard Grossman

  • In the Air (Nine Winds Records, 1991)

With John Lindberg

  • The East Side Suite (Sound Aspects Records, 1983)

With James Newton

  • The Mystery School (India Navigation, 1980)
  • Water Mystery (Gramavision, 1986)

With Horace Tapscott

References
  1. Kelsey, Chris. John Carter at AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  2. Litweiler, John (1994) [1992]. "Chapter 1". Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life (paperback ed.). New York: Da Capo. pp. 27–30. ISBN 0-306-80580-4.
  3. Kristi Strickland, "CARTER, JOHN," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed July 26, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
  4. Collier, Caroline (February 27, 2008). "Jazz jumps back onto the Cowtown scene". Fort Worth Weekly. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
  5. Patoski, Joe Nick (2008). Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. Little, Brown. p. 50. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
  6. You Better Fly Away at Discogs
  7. Southern Bells at Discogs
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