Interview with James Carter, saxophonist

1. 11 | oregon symphony
{ }Q & A
Mingling
James Carter unlocks
music’s possibilities by
fusing different genres.
Melodies
Photo by Vincent Soyez
James Carter performs with the
Oregon Symphony May 9–11, 2015.
InSymphony: How did you get started
with music, and when did you know you
wanted to be a musician?
James Carter: I come from a musical
family, actually. I’m the youngest of five—
two brothers and two sisters—all musically
inclined. In my household, it was a very
fertile environment for the arts. In addition
to my siblings, my mom played piano and
violin in her formative years; dad played
a mean radio. I had a host of cousins that
played. Friends have also shared similar
musical interests and inclinations. So, very,
very fertile household as far as music was
concerned, and I flirted around with some
other instruments. I always jokingly [say]
that I am a frustrated guitarist who ended
up on saxophone.
InSymphony: How do you feel the city
you grew up in, and the schools you went
to affected your ideas about music?
JC: In Detroit,the city itself is very musical
and artistic to the nth degree. Back in the
day, of course, we had individuals who
were part of the great migration from
the south coming up north to find jobs—
[with] Ford and various other automakers.
As a result, they brought that soul with
them, and if they weren’t able to make it
on the assembly line, they made it into the
clubs. So, for me personally, I really think
the pivotal point was running into my
musical father, Mr. Donald Washington.
He came at a crucial time when I was
really thinking about quitting. The reason
being that there wasn’t a program or
teachers at liberty that were teaching pre-
adolescents about jazz to keep enthusiasm
up. He was one of the rare individuals that
did. The classes that I was attending at
the time were regular instrumental music
classes that had the first divisional band,
the books. You learned a new note every
other lesson—“Mary Had a Little Lamb”
and “Hot Cross Buns”. Today we learn
the quarter rest and that stuff—one rest,
two rest—that type of environment. So,
meanwhile, back at home, I’m listening to
radio and to records and whatever I can—
very enthusiastic. I’m digging this jazz.
That was courtesy of my mom because
when she was doing chores around the
house, she would always have music on,
By Samantha Edington
B
lues, rock, funk, jazz, soul, Latin.
Saxophonist James Carter’s
successful work on multiple
recordings, skilled improvisation and
performances with his Organ Trio
can attest to his mastery of these
musical dialects. The seed of his
proficiency in musical language was
nurtured in what Carter calls “a fertile
environment for the arts,” surrounded
by music aficionados in his family
and friends as he grew up in Detroit.
Also encouraged by his mentor and
teacher Donald Washington, Carter
began his serious pursuit of music as
a teen with scholarships to the highly
regarded Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp
and Interlochen Center for the Arts
summer program.
Years down the road, the major
element that defines his music making
is experimentation across musical
genres, or “cross-pollination.” In
knowing many different musical
styles intimately, Carter is ready
to call upon and fuse them into
something different and complex,
unleashing new possibilities. And
though many pieces become familiar
with repeated performances, Carter is
always ready to peel back the layers
and discover different nuances: “You
can go to that well so many times
and still be nourished.”

2. 13 | oregon symphony
{}Q & A
and that would be the most peaceful time
ever to see mom, so I wanted to be a part
of that as opposed to getting on her nerves
[laughs]. That music always seemed to do
that and it’s one thing that [introduced
me to] Billie Holliday, Carmen McRae,
Ella Fitzgerald. I’d say about seven or
eight times out of ten, there was a sound I
heard—that sound was the saxophone—
that’s what sparked my interest.
So, Mr. Washington comes along, and
he hears what I can do and he uses that to
build upon, and I just take off from there.
He would give lessons to me at the time.
They would include classical scales and
whatnot, and the last half of it we dealt
with the jazz.
Before this, I was really into
science, particularly chemistry and
biology—and computers, to a lesser
extent. But, music came in and just put
all that aside.
InSymphony: You are a proponent of
“cross-pollinating” music. Why is it
important to experiment with musical
styles?
JC: Not only have knowledge of them
but be intimately with them to the point
where you might be able to call upon that
language later and it’s knowledge. It’s
like dealing with another dialect of your
mother tongue, so to speak, to deal with
different genres of music—if one has the
aptitude to do so.
InSymphony: Who would you say, or
what, are some of your major musical
influences?
JC: We could be on the phone all
day with that one, but…definitely my
teacher, Mr. Washington, who put in my
ear that music and life don’t separate
and there’s a certain joy in being able
to play more than one instrument. Just
like we’re talking about cross-pollinating
different musical styles and genres, he
plays the whole woodwind family. He
also encouraged me to check out flutes
and clarinets and double reeds because
they are part of the same family, and
the versatility aspect of being able to
play them in different contexts and
to get certain sounds and feels out of
them that you could once again cross-
pollinate and use just the multiplicities,
the possibilities, involved in that alone.
Encourage the search.
InSymphony: Did you learn to play other
instruments?
JC: Yes. When you think about how
academically it’s done, if you want to be a
woodwind artist, for example, they say you
learn clarinet first before they give you a
saxophone. But I went the route where I
learned to play baroque recorder first, and
that was the very cheap and inexpensive
way of weeding out who’s going to be able
to go on to an actual instrument. So, I went
from baroque recorder to alto saxophone,
and the rest of the saxophones, and flutes,
then clarinet and then double reed.
InSymphony: How did the James Carter
Trio come about?
JC: The trio was actually born June 2001.
It became the core group of the Live at
Baker’s CD I did back in that year. And
we’ve been together pretty much ever
since. This year, I am breaking in a new
drummer. And it’s just a very powerful
group when you think about the power
and the soul that an organ trio definitely
Portland Columbia
SymPhony orCheStra
Steven Byess
Music Director & Conductor
2014-2015
33rd Season
503.234.4077
columbiasymphony.org
Dynamic Duos
May 1 & May 2
BACH: Double Concerto for
Two Violins in D minor
String students of PCSO
RAVEL: Tombeau de Couperin
BRAHMS: Double Concerto,
Op. 102
Hamilton Cheifetz, celloCarol Sindell, violin
Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra is
the remarkable realization of a composer’s dream — to create a new
“super” instrument by combining the violin and cello in a solo voice
that transcends customary limits.

3. 14 | oregon symphony
{ }Q & A
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has with such minimal personnel. It’s
economic and it’s powerful. It packs a
soulful and cultural wallop all in one.
InSymphony: When you come to
Portland and do the Sax and the
Symphony, what are you looking
forward to?
JC: Well, [I’ve] been playing this piece
since 2002, and I look forward to the
fact that every time I play it, it is a
new piece. Playing it with different
symphony orchestras, there’s always
something that will stick out that I never
heard in the previous renditions of it.
Now that I’ve gotten familiar with the
piece, I [can] apply that energy on being
metrically correct over to something
else, such as filling out the soprano and
tenor—they kind of lend themselves
to the male and female roles now—
where I am able to give the music more
character and more structure, and also
to pay attention to certain melodic and
harmonic bits that are contained within
the orchestra itself. And that makes
the whole piece a lot more cohesive, as
opposed to here’s what the orchestra is
playing, and then when it is time for
me to solo it’s something that is totally
irrelevant. It’s really been about, okay, I
heard that now. For the first time, I can
hear what the tuba is doing here, when
I couldn’t five years ago.
Every time I hear something from
Duke Ellington or something [else], I’ll hear
it differently because of where my listening
is at,at the given time.And,you pretty much
have an epiphany as a result of that: music
that has continuous nutritional value to you.
You can go to that well so many times and
still be nourished, put something back in it.
InSymphony: What is in the works for
you for concerts, albums or shows?
JC: I’m going to do this project that entails
not only my quintet, but also a full big
band. And,I’m looking forward to bringing
the full big-band version to the states—if
I get a hold of the charts and spirit them
away—and get that happening back here,
where I’d be able to do it with the Harlem
Renaissance Orchestra, based here in New
York. In addition to that, I’m keeping
going with the Organ Trio. I’ve been doing
a project called Django Unchained, where
I’m taking the music of Django Reinhardt
and putting it in a more urban context
with the Organ Trio, where we incorporate
different grooves and meters and stuff,
give it a more urban swag, if you will.
I’m also looking forward to this
year. [It] marks the eightieth birthday
of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and over the
years I’ve been doing participations
with Steve Turre, who had been one of
Rahsaan’s later players before his death
in ’77. We’ve been doing a tribute band,
and we’re recording the Spirits Up Above
album in tribute to Rahsaan. This year,
we’re at least looking at doing a couple of
performances at Café Stritch in San Jose,
and that would be for a jazz fest, Labor
Day weekend. That’s just to mention a
couple, not to mention going back over to
Europe, too.
Duo ANI & NIA
SULKHANISHVILI
MAY 3, 2015
SUN 4 PM
NEWMARK THEATRE
Mozart, Dvorák, Lutoslawski,
Brahms, Mendelssohn, Corea
and Ravel
“...ABSOLUTE EQUAL FERVOR, THE SAME BREATH, RARELY HEARD IN
SUCH PERFECTION.” – Münchner Merkur
portlandpiano.org 503.228.1388