James Carter Preview (Showcase)

By Bob PROTZMAN

For the past six years, jazz critics and fans have voted James Carter the best baritone saxophone player in the world via polls in Down Beat magazine.

As impressive as that is, it is but a small part of the 38-year-old Carter's prowess, since he is a multi-multi instrumentalist.

"If it has a reed on it, I'm there," he said in a phone interview from his New York residence.

Even then, he shortchanges himself. More accurately, he plays the entire saxophone "family" (tenor, soprano, alto, f mezzo, bass); clarinet, bass clarinet, and contra bass; flute, oboe, and bassoon. "Oh," Carter adds, "I just acquired an English horn to go with the oboe."

Besides, he plays piano, and is a self-described "frustrated guitarist." He also whistles - and is on several recordings doing so.

The Detroit-born Carter, however, is not regarded as one of the greatest younger players of the day ("After Wynton Marsalis, no one caused more of an uproar when he appeared on the New York jazz scene," says All Music Guide) for how many horns he plays, but for how incredibly well he plays them and the eclecticism and scope of what he plays.

How many jazz saxophonists can match such diversity as working with opera singer Kathleen Battle, Cape Verdean vocalist Cesaria Evora, and bluesman Little Milton; appearing in a major movie (as Ben Webster in Robert Altman's "Kansas City"), and performing (tenor and soprano) as soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of composer Roberto Sierra's "Concerto for Saxophones"?

That is why many critics, fans and other musicians regard Carter as one of the most exciting, adventurous, and virtuosic players on any instrument to come along in years. Carter's current band is The James Carter Organ Trio (Ed: The contractual name of the group), with fellow Detroiters Gerard Gibbs on B3 organ and Leonard King, drums.

The trio, whose most recent CD is "Out of Nowhere" (Half Note), is coming to Erie for an 8 p.m. Saturday performance at the Erie Maennerchor Club.

Carter and the organ have been friends since as a youngster, James spent weekends with his late aunt. The highlight of such occasions, says Carter, was Sunday church services where music was as important as the word. "There was the organ, a full choir, a band and whatnot," he recalls.

His first professional encounter with the over-sized instrument came circa 1989 when he joined the late trumpeter Lester Bowie's organ band.

"It was a very potent group, and because of the organ, was able to cover a lot of musical ground-gospel, funk, soul and anything that's swinging," says Carter. "That's what we do."

Proudly announcing that The James Carter Organ Trio recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, the leader heaps praise upon his band mates, both of whom also appear along with other notables like saxophonist David Murray, on Carter's CD, "Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge" (Warner Bros.) Baker's is a legendary Detroit jazz spot, so Carter's 2001 appearance and recording there was quite the homecoming.

"Gerard is the complete organist who incorporates all his appendages in his playing," says Carter. "He began as one of (the late Richard) Groove Holmes' prize pupils, and has become an individual who isn't just playing, but is completely involved with, his instrument."

Of his drummer, he boasts, "Leonard has an encyclopedic understanding of what came before and what's happening currently and manifests that knowledge on the band stand." In telling us what he likes about Gibbs and King, Carter also is revealing his own musical values.

One critic said Carter "plays the history of jazz saxophone," and a check of the 10 or so recordings he's made as a leader and in his still developing career will provide evidence of that observation.

"I appreciate that comment," he says, "because for anyone to cover the history of anything requires some studying and some applied gray matter."

Debatably, he has gone beyond Mr. Marsalis as someone who, while tremendously respectful and knowledgeable about the past, also absorbs today's music and restlessly anticipates what is to come.

"I like to say that music is whole-istic. I've got one foot in the past, the other in the future," he explains. "I'm trying to tie a ribbon around the fact that all the different facets of jazz are not such strange bedfellows as some might think, not so distant from one another. I feel Sweets (Edison) is as valid as Lester (Bowie) is."

If Carter weren't capable of looking backward and forward simultaneously, why would such stylistically extreme musicians as Marsalis and Bowie want Carter in their bands? "Yeah," chuckles Carter, "during the '90s I was going back and forth between those two, and I was kind of a referee in some things the media said about them."

In Carter's playing, the listener will hear strains of past saxophone giants like Sidney Bechet ("I think he was to soprano saxophone what Louis Armstrong was to trumpet"), Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Don Byas (Carter's favorite of favorites). Carter's equally at home with modernists like Julius Hemphill and contemporary avant gardists such as multi-saxophonist David Murray (a guest on Carter's "Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge") and baritone sax colleague, Hamiet Bluiett, a guest (along with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer) on The James Carter Organ Trio's "Out of Nowhere."

Perhaps more effectively than any other saxophonist today, Carter can attract a broad audience, offering mainstream listeners beautiful balladry and hot swing with an exquisite tone and melodic approach.

On the same tune, he will excite more adventurous fans by suddenly soaring into a horn's uppermost reaches for piercing, squealing utterances, or drop into the lowest register for bellows and honks.

Some lovers of the former may be baffled by why Carter does the latter.

One critic said Carter is "trying to extract every imaginable kind of sound" from his instrument. Others are not so positive, describing these sonic extremes as "gimmicks," "effects," or "tricks."

Mr. Carter gets very upset at that. "I hate those words. I don't employ those things. The way I play is who I am; it comes naturally. It just happens. I'm taking you somewhere, on a musical journey. Are we there yet? No, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. We're going to get there. Just try to remember, you're not in control of the vehicle. Someone else is driving."

BTW, Carter almost certainly will bring three horns, and says maybe four-tenor, soprano, baritone and flute.

The James Carter Organ Trio
8 p.m. Saturday
Erie Maennerchor Club, 1607 State St.

Tickets: $10, students; $20, JazzErie members; $25, non-members
For information, check the JazzErie website or call the Maennerchor at (814)-452-4731.
A 6 p.m. dinner will be served in the Crystal Room at $20 per person. Call Sue at 459-9150, Ext. 225.

Tickets: Erie Art Museum, Glass Growers Gallery, Erie Book Store, East Erie Turners, World of Music, Mercyhurst College's D'Angelo Auditorium box office, Lynch's Music, Fairview; Romolo Chocolates.

Bob Protzman has written about jazz for five decades and hosts "Everything Jazz," 9 to midnight Sundays on WQLN-FM 91.3. You can reach Bob at protz@verizon.net or jazzhosts@wqln.org.

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