From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Wallace Carter (24 September 1928–31 March 1991) was an American jazz clarinet, saxophone, and flute player.

John Carter was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he played with Ornette Coleman and Charles Moffett in the 1940s. From 1961, Carter was based on the West Coast. There he met Bobby Bradford in 1965, with whom he subsequently worked on a number of projects. He also played with Hampton Hawes and Harold Land. In the 1970s he became well known on the basis of his extraordinary solo concerts. At New Jazz Festival Moers 1979 he and the German clarinet player Theo Jörgensmann performanced on three days. Afterwards John Carter received complimentary reviews and wide recognition from around the world. He and Jörgensmann met again in 1984. The program of the Berlin Jazzfest was built around the clarinet. After Carter's solo performance, they also played together.

Between 1982 and 1990 Carter composed and recorded "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music," in five albums focused on African-Americans and their history. The complete set was acclaimed by jazz critics as containing some of the best releases of the 1980s.

A clarinet quartet with Perry Robinson, Jörgensmann and Eckard Koltermann was planned for 1991, but John Carter did not recover from nonmalignant tumor.

• John Carter & Bobby Bradford's New Art Flight for Four (1969)

• John Carter Quintet Secrets (1972)

• John Carter Echoes from Rudolph's (1977)

• Vinny Golia Spirits in Fellowship (1977)

• John Carter Suite of Early American Folk Pieces (1980)

• Clarinet Summit You better fly away (1979, with Perry Robinson, Gianluigi Trovesi, Bernd Konrad, Theo Jörgensmann, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Didier Lockwood, Stan Tracey, Eje Thelin, Kai Kanthak, Jean-François Jenny-Clark, Günter Sommer, Aldo Romano)

• John Carter / Bobby Bradford Tandem 1 (1982)

• John Carter / Bobby Bradford Quintet Comin on (1988)

• Horace Tapscott The dark Tree Vol. 1 (1989)

• John Carter / Bobby Bradford Tandem 2 (1996)

• The John Carter Octet: Dauwhe (1982)
• John Carter: Castles of Ghana (1991)
• John Carter: Dance of the Love Ghosts (1987)
• John Carter: Fields (1988)
• John Carter: Shadows On A Wall (1989)

• Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, & Jean-Louis Comolli. Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994
• Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. Jazz: The Rough Guide. ISBN 1-85828-528-3
• Richard Cook & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
• Dita von Szadkowski. Grenzüberschreitungen Jazz und sein musikalisches Umfeld der 80er Jahre. ISBN 3-596-22977-4

• allmusic guide