Reviews
It's all music to him
One of
the larger lions of modern-day jazz, raps both hands around a saxophone
that only he can see. Practiced fingers fly up and down invisible keys
as he vocalizes an explosion of notes. That, says Carter, is how he
did it when he was 11 years old, back when he first piced up a horn
and just sort of puzzled it out -- playing along with his mom's Ellington
and Basie records.
--Lawrence
B. Johnson, Detroit
News
James
Carter jazzes DSO audience
You
read accounts of premieres 150 years ago where the audience clamored
to have movements repeated. In your lifetime, did you ever witness such
a thing--the reprise of a new work, on the spot? Neither did I , until...Carter
and Neeme Jarvi finally gave into a storm that showed no signs of abating
and recapped the last long stretch of Roberto Sierra's brilliant "Concerto
for Saxophones."
Make no mistake: Carter...has emerged as one of the brightest stars
in jazzdom, was the man. His performance was nothing short of a virtuoso
clinic, a toe-tapping, heart-stopping, smile making romp.
--Lawrence B. Johnson, Detroit News
Sax
star's DSO gig might get him back on CD racks
Sony's vice president for jazz, Yves Beauvais, traveled
to Detroit and was so taken with the Sierra concerto, according to DSO
officials, that he plans to pitch the project up the line at Sony. The
concerto, conducted by DSO music director Neeme Jarvi, was received
rapturously by audiences and critics. It marries classical and jazz
elements and showcases Carter's virtuosity.
DSO vice president and general manager Stephen Millen says that, should
Sony give the project a green light, the record company would either
buy the rights to tapes of last week's concerts or arrange to record
the work again at Orchestra Hall under more controlled circumstances.
--Mark Stryker, Free Press
SAXOPHONE
GREAT ROCKS THE HALL
The music, commissioned by the DSO and written for Carter, shows
off his brilliant technical command of the tenor and soprano saxes and
carves out space for improvisation in which his ideas burst like fireworks.
Echoing Carter's style, Sierra gives him furiously skittering phrases
that zip from the basement of the tenor sax into the stratosphere. Carter's
personal articulation and tone -- his wide, intensely throbbing vibrato
owes nothing to Marcel Mule and everything to a curious cross between
Ben Webster and Albert Ayler -- give these written lines the illusion
of improvisation. Sierra turns the music completely over to Carter only
a few bars at a time, so that his improvised phrases suggest fluttering
elaboration rather than a complete departure from the score.
--Mark Stryker, Free Press
Sonorous
metal blowing martial sounds.
-- John Milton
James
Carter has cemented his reputation as one of the most adventurous, visionary
young reed players on the cusp of this new millennium. Carter’s
passion for the roots of his music and the tools of his trade run deep,
and he speaks with infectious enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge
both about the his tribal elders and the history of his instruments.
Not as an outsider, but as one of the most exciting young virtuosos
in contemporary music; as an accomplished wind player who has taken
on the challenge of mastering all the single reed and double reed instruments;
as an eternal searcher...
--Chip Stern, Jazz Times
Carter
Coaxes Diverse Tones From Array of Saxophones
Think of James Carter as the Lon Chaney of jazz, able to
slip in and out of diverse musical disguises at a moment's notice. Or
maybe as the Jimi Hendrix of the saxophone, scouring the instrument's
innards to extract every imaginable kind of sound.
There were passages in the program, especially during pieces such as
Joe Henderson's "Recorda Me," in which Carter played with
a surprisingly soft and tender sound, his improvisations filled with
subtle melodic paraphrases. At other times, he added an appealing, burry
edge to his tone--the result calling up images, on soprano saxophone,
of Sidney Bechet.
--Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
The
Gypsy spirit and jazz
Belgian guitar legend Django Reinhardt died 16 years before saxophonist
James Carter was even born. Yet ...Reinhardt's spirit started talking
to Carter when he was just 14, listening to a jazz radio program in
his Detroit home. It was his habit to tape the show and cut the announcer's
portion, so he wasn't aware who he was listening to, only that it moved
him. Sixteen years later, the spirit of Reinhardt rose again...
--James Hale, The Ottawa Citizen
James
Carter, On a Subtler Note
Carter's ease with swing, bop and avant-garde styles also gave notice
that a staggeringly inclusive figure--the apotheosis of the postmodern
jazzman--was now among us.
Placed against a funk background, it becomes obvious how much Carter's
overall style owes to R&B. Despite its instrumentation, there's
nothing earthshakingly outre about the recording; this is old-school
'70s-style groove playing with slight punk-funk traces. Neither contemporary
hip-hop rhythms nor production effects show their faces.
--Steve Futterman, The Washington Post
Chasin'
The Gypsy, James Carter
...whether he's playing tenor or soprano sax, shows off a sweet,
sinuous tone; when he reinterprets Reinhardt's classic Nuages with a
bass sax, the muscular sound is distancing at first, but then it wraps
itself around the listener like an anaconda.
--Christopher John Farley, Time Magazine
Management:
|
Copyright © 2007 American International Artists, Inc.