James Carter (musician)

James Carter (born January 3, 1969) is an American jazz musician. He is the cousin of jazz violinist Regina Carter.

Carter was born in Detroit, Michigan, and learned to play under the tutelage of Donald Washington, becoming a member of his youth jazz ensemble Bird-Trane-Sco-NOW!! As a young man, Carter attended Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, becoming the youngest faculty member at the camp. He first toured Europe (Scandinavia) with the International Jazz Band in 1985 at the age of 16.

On May 31, 1988, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Carter was a last-minute addition for guest artist Lester Bowie, which turned into an invitation to play with his new quintet (forerunner of his New York Organ Ensemble) in New York City that following November at the now defunct Carlos 1 jazz club. This was pivotal in Carter's career, putting him in musical contact with the world, and he moved to New York two years later. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the late 1980s, playing saxophones, flute, and clarinets.

On his album Chasin' the Gypsy (2000), he recorded with his cousin Regina Carter, a jazz violinist.

Carter has won Down Beat magazine's Critics and Readers Choice award for baritone saxophone several years in a row. He has performed, toured and played on albums with Lester Bowie, Julius Hemphill, Frank Lowe & the Saxemble, Kathleen Battle, the World Saxophone Quartet, Cyrus Chestnut, Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Mingus Big Band.

Carter is an authority on vintage horns, and he owns an extensive collection of them, including one formerly played by Don Byas.

• 1991: Tough Young Tenors: Alone Together
• 1994: JC on the Set (DIW)
• 1995: Jurassic Classics (DIW)
• 1995: The Real Quiet Storm (Atlantic)
• 1995: Duets (Atlantic) with Cyrus Chestnut [promotional CD]
• 1996: Conversin' with the Elders (Atlantic)
• 1998: In Carterian Fashion (Atlantic)
• 2000: Chasin' the Gypsy (Atlantic)
• 2000: Layin' in the Cut (Atlantic)
• 2003: Gardenias for Lady Day (Columbia)
• 2004: Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge (Warner Bros.) - recorded 2001
• 2005: Out of Nowhere (Half Note)
• 2005: Gold Sounds (Brown Brothers)
• 2008: Present Tense (EmArcy)
• 2009: Heaven on Earth (Half Note)
• 2009: Skratyology (Stotbrock) with De Nazaten
• 2011: Caribbean Rhapsody (EmArcy)
• 2011: At the Crossroads (EmArcy)

As sideman

With Karrin Allyson

• Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (Concord Jazz, 2001)

With the Art Ensemble of Chicago

• Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition (AECO, 1993)

With Ginger Baker and the DGQ20

• Coward of the County (Atlantic, 1999)

With Kathleen Battle

• So Many Stars (Sony Classical, 1995)

With Hamiet Bluiett

• Libation for the Baritone Saxophone Nation (Justin Time, 1998)
• Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Group Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory, 1998)

with Lester Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble

• The Organizer (DIW, 1991)
• Funky T. Cool T. (DIW, 1992)

With Dee Dee Bridgewater

• Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater (EmArcy, 2010)

With Regina Carter

• Motor City Moments (Verve, 2000)

With Cyrus Chestnut

• Cyrus Chestnut (Atlantic, 1998)

With Jayne Cortez & The Firespitters'

• Cheerful & Optimistic (Bola Press, 1994)

With Benny Golson

• Tenor Legacy (Arkadia Jazz, 1998)

With Herbie Hancock

• Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998)

With the Julius Hemphill Sextet

• Fat Man and the Hard Blues (Black Saint, 1991)
• Five Chord Stud (Black Saint, 1994)

With D. D. Jackson

• Paired Down Volume One (Justin Time, 1997)
• Anthem (RCA Victor, 2000)

With Ronald Shannon Jackson

• What Spirit Say (DIW, 1994)
• Live in Warsaw (Knit Classics, 1994 [1999])

With Wynton Marsalis

• Blood on the Fields (Columbia, 1995)

With Christian McBride

• SciFi (Verve, 2000)

With Liz McComb

• Brassland (GVE/LMC, 2013)

With Marcus Miller

• M² (Telarc, 2001)

With Junco Onishi

• Baroque (Verve, 2010)

With Madeleine Peyroux

• Dreamland (Atlantic, 1996)

With Odean Pope

• Odeans List (In+Out, 2009)

With Steve Turre

• TNT (Trombone-N-Tenor) (Telarc, 2001)

With Roseanna Vitro and Kenny Werner

• The Delirium Blues Project: Serve or Suffer (Half Note, 2008)

With Rodney Whitaker

• Children of the Light (DIW, 1996)
• Hidden Kingdom (DIW, 1997)

With the World Saxophone Quartet

• Yes We Can (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010)