Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1969, James Carter started playing saxophone when he was 11. He recorded his first recordings with a Detroit student band in 1986. By 1991, he had recorded with Lester Bowie, the legendary trumpeter, on The Organizer. After arriving in New York City to perform under Lester Bowie’s tutelage in 1988, James Carter masterfully mastered a variety of reed instruments. When Carter was just 23 years old, his debut album, JC On The Set was released in Japan. It marked the beginning of a new and significant musical force in jazz. Carter’s next album, Jurassic Classics (1994), was recorded at the same session that his debut. It saw him enter the Top Jazz Albums charts for the first time. This feat was repeated with four more Carter releases: The Real Quiet Storm (1995), In Carterian Fashion (1998) and Conversin’ With The Elders(1996). Gardenias For Lady Day, the first James Carter collection, is the result of the June 2000 simultaneous release of Layin’ in The Cut, an electric jazz/funk collective jam session and Chasin’ The Gypsy. This was an homage Django Reinhardt. Rolling Stone’s August 3, 2000 review stated that James Carter, “….saxophonist, is as close as jazz gets to a Young Turk. He is not an ironically avant-post rock experimentalist, but a cocky scene stealer who has a knack for making notable records. Carter has performed live and in the studio with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra as well as Ronald Shannon Jackson, Julius Hemphill, the Charles Mingus Big Band, Kathleen Battle, Aretha, David Murray, Ginger Baker, Sonny Rollins, among others. In 1994, he appeared on PBS’ “Live at Lincoln Center”, and in Robert Altman’s 1996 film “Kansas City,” he played the role of Ben Webster, a saxophonist. James Carter was recently the top performer in Downbeat’s annual Critics Poll for the Baritone Saxophone category. This is the third consecutive year. Copyright (c), 2003 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. User contributed text may be available under Creative Commons By–SA License.
