James Carter Bakers Keyboard Lounge

[JohnS]

Just seen this 2 cd set listed as a March/April release in the UK (label unkown). It's been a long time coming.

[sal]

I'm really looking forward to this one. It might be James Carter's first great album....in my opinon of course!

[Free For All]

Just seen this 2 cd set listed as a March/April release in the UK (label unkown).  It's been a long time coming.

I noticed that CDUniverse lists this as one CD, not a two-fer. Hmmm...I hope you're right JohnS, cause with all that talent aboard it would be easy and IMHO desirable to fill two discs. We shall see............

[JSngry]

I'm hearing that the cuts w/Aretha aren't making the final cut due to divafications, but I can't confirm this.

Edited March 23, 2004 by JSngry

[JohnS]

DIVAFICATIONS"

I love that.

[ghost of miles]

Hope it's finally coming... I haven't heard the Holiday tribute, but the reviews I've seen have been pretty middling.

[JSngry]

The Holiday thing has been getting airplay on KNTU, and what I've heard of it could best be classified as "exhibitionistic", which is always a "danger" w/Carter, bless his heart, but here it just seems over the top.

[kh1958]

I'm really looking forward to this one. It might be James Carter's first great album....in my opinon of course!

I actually thought that Laying in the Cut and Chasing the Gypsy were pretty close to being his first great recordings as a leader.

As a sideman, Ronald Shannon Jackson's What Spirit Say, is a great album.

[Dr. Rat]

It's out as a single CD, 8 tunes on WB, no Arethas.

--eric

[Dr. Rat]

Here's Mark Stryker's take. I haven't had it for long, but i'm largely in agreement, though I am not as enthused with Carter's soprano work on Tricotism which just seems empty self-indulgence to me.

The Byas piece is quite nice

Live from Detroit: Long-awaited recording from sax man James Carter is solid but not all it could have been

BY MARK STRYKER

FREE PRESS MUSIC CRITIC

April 4, 2004

Well, it's not what it was supposed to be -- it's one CD rather than two and there's no Queen of Soul. But 2 1/2 years after James Carter's "Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge" was scheduled to arrive in stores, the document to be released Tuesday will have to do. The good news is that it's still a swinging party.

Here's the back story: Carter, the Detroit-born saxophone virtuoso, returned home in June 2001 with a crew from Atlantic Records and legendary producer Ahmet Ertegun to tape three nights at the city's historic jazz club at Livernois and 8 Mile. Carter was united with a gaggle of top hometown players and a slew of guests, including fellow tenor saxophonists David Murray, Johnny Griffin and Franz Jackson. Also in the house was Aretha Franklin, who showed off her affinity for jazz and Dinah Washington roots.

A two-CD set was planned for fall release until fate turned against the project. WEA Records killed the jazz division of Atlantic Records, Carter's longtime company, and he was shuffled to Warner Bros., another WEA-owned label. Carter balked, signing a new deal with Columbia, and "Live at Baker's" landed in purgatory, awaiting touch-up sessions with Franklin and other issues -- enough of which have been sorted out to make possible this release on Warner Bros. (Franklin's tracks remain unissued.)

The atmosphere at Baker's was electric, but a blowing session this loose can sound like a mess when you freeze-dry it on tape. Yes, the ensembles are ragged, some solos lack focus, an edit is audible after the melody on "Soul Street," and "Foot Pattin' " ends at a much faster tempo than it began. Still, the spirit never flags, and there's some dynamite playing.

Carter shines on Oscar Pettiford's "Tricotism," where his exuberant soprano sails over a second-line beat laid down by drummer Leonard King, rock-solid bassist Ralphe Armstrong and sly pianist Kenn Cox. Carter plays like a volcano erupting, but on Don Byas' bouncy "Free and Easy," he scores with a relaxing ride full of melodic grace, furry warmth and a savvy repeated riff that carries him through 40 bars in the middle of his solo. I wish he'd play this way more often.

Other highlights: Detroit alto saxophonist Larry Smith's bittersweet bebop nearly runs away with the record on the slow blues "Low Flame" and Gary McFarland's ballad "Sack Full of Dreams." Organist Gerard Gibbs lays down some serious grooves. Cox's piano solos are invariably models of concentrated integrity. Carter and Murray, whose roots are in the avant-garde, do some inside-outside sparring on "Freedom Jazz Dance," and all four tenors do battle on "'Foot Pattin.' "

Squeezing the extended performances into a single CD has caused a few disappointments. Most notably, Johnny Griffin's scampering bebop is heard only on the final blues, while 88-year-old Chicagoan Franz Jackson gets too much space, including an idiosyncratic vocal on "I Can't Get Started" that played better in person than it does on CD.

Carter has always gone out of his way to give props to the city and jazz elders that nurtured him, and at its best, "Live at Baker's" plays as a valentine to Detroit's jazz legacy. It may not be the record Carter had in mind, but it's good for him, good for jazz and good for Detroit.

Copyright © 2004 Detroit Free Press Inc. http://www.freep.com

[mikeweil]

I'm afraid that reviewer expects the perfection of a studio date from a live recording, which can't be what this one is all about. This is plain fun, like in the olde days of tenor battles and greasy organ/tenor dates, the spirit is great, I almost smell the smoke in the lounge ... Carter doesn't occupy more solo space than the others, there's a spirit of camaraderie over that record. It's a pity they couldn't include the Aretha tracks or more of the other instrumentals. How abouit a Vol.2?

Bought this yesterday and enjoy it thoroughly!

[Joe M]

I'm not a big James Carter fan, but this record has some nice points. You're right about really getting the feel for the club - I've never been there, but after listening to this record, I have a very vivid picture of the place! Good on location sound too - this is what a small club recording should sound like if you ask me. Too bad about what got left off. Not enough Johnny Griffin also. Also, too bad Warner Brothers isn't promoting it!

[Dmitry]

I selectively listend to it for about 20 minutes in a record store about a month ago.

Nicely recorded blowing session. I can see that it will apppeal to some, but nothing wowlicious, imo.

[mikeweil]

Not enough Johnny Griffin also. Also, too bad Warner Brothers isn't promoting it!

... cause Carter now is under contract with Columbia! That fact most likely was the reason for the delay.

You're right about the sound, and that there's not enough Griffin on it!

[JohnS]

Entertaining but not essential.

[JSngry]

Got it, and am loving it, but more for the guests. Franz "I Got Drunk!" Jackson is a treasure.

And who the hell is Larry Smith? Cat breaks my heart on "Sack Full Of Dreams"! That tune has always been associated w/Jug in my book, and will always be, but this Larry Smith dude really, REALLY feels it.

So who is he?

[gnhrtg]

JSngry - Larry Smith also plays on "Parker's Mood" on Carter's "Conversin' With the Elders" and that's about as much as I know of him. In the notes to that disc, Carter has a couple of lines about him being some sort of a local hero and veteran of the scene, I think.

[sheldonm]

I've never been there, but after listening to this record, I have a very vivid picture of the place! Good on location sound too - this is what a small club recording should sound like if you ask me.

You're right about "small", man this place is tiny. I was just there a few weeks ago to photograph the 70th Anniversary shows with Donald Byrd, Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes and Charles McPherson (and many others). The club will hold maybe 100 people, maybe a little more if the fire marshall isn't looking too close . It's a long narrow room, very dark and a little smoky at times but exactly what you would think an old jazz club would be like. I haven't heard but one or two cuts from the recording but plan to pick it up soon! If anyone gets a chance to stop by the club, make the trip. The owners are great, the food is very good...a lot of history!!!

Mark

[mikeweil]

And who the hell is Larry Smith?

The first time I heard alto saxophonist Larry Smith was at Bert?s Marketplace. He had a tough rhythm section that included pianist Teddy Harris, bassist Rodney Hicks and drummer Larry Cleaver. The night before I had watched, for the first time, Round Midnight, a film about an embattled American jazz musician in Europe. When I saw Larry on the bandstand he reminded me of Dale Turner, the character that saxophonist Dexter Gordon portrayed in the film. Like Dale Turner, Larry has stockyard shoulders, a raspy voice, and had done plenty of hard living. His music had a humanistic quality as if each note told a story. The blues he played was all gin and tonic. As he played, I wondered if a hard life was the core of good jazz?

I mustered the nerve to go over and talk to Larry. He was sitting at the table laughing with Rodney Hicks, who was eating fried chicken wings. I told Larry that I was a jazz journalist, and I was floored by his music. I asked if he would let me interview him for an article? He said that he charged $100 for an interview, and that I had to guarantee him that it would be a cover story. I left Bert?s that night thinking that if Larry had been around during the filming of Round Midnight he would have been a perfect understudy for Dexter Gordon.

(Source)

[JSngry]

Thanks for that, Mike. That fits perfectly w/what I hear of Smith on this album.

[Bright Moments]

i snagged this puppy in bmg's $4.99 sale and i'm loving it! B-)

[sal]

I like it alot as well.

[Mark Stryker]

Stumbled across this old thread and thought I'd add to the conversation about Larry Smith, one of our everyday heroes in Detroit, the kind of bebopper that nobody -- and I mean, nobody -- wants to run into at a jam session. Swingers, ballads, blues -- old-school out of Sonny Stitt (and Bird, of course), but so authentic and so deep that when he's on his game everything comes out as Truth. An important early influence on Kenny Garrett and James Carter when they were growing up here -- he got a week on his own at the Village Vanguard in 1997, after working there with Carter. He's pushing 70 now and has dealt with some serious health problems (two strokes), the first in 2003, that forced him to stop playing for years, though he's fought back and the last I saw him, about a year ago I think, he had some great moments (and others where he was still struggling to get it all back together, yet even then you could tell he was close). He was born near Pittsburgh and settled more or less in Detroit around 1966. In 1997 I interviewed him along with a several other local alto players for a a feature. Here are some of the things he said:

"The alto is bright and beautiful, and has a voice-like quality compared to the tenor, which is more like down here (gestures with his hands toward his chest). The tenor is an instrument that a lot of musicians b.s. on. They can do a thing called "booting" -- playing one note over and over again. That's why some guys stuck to the tenor, because they could play less and get more from the crowd."

"I had an uncle who played Bird's records. He played all kinds of records by different saxophonists, but I always gravitated to Charlie Parker. Even as a little boy, before I could talk, I knew how to pick out Charlie Parker's records. ... You hear a lot of guys just playing a lot of notes, scales. Bird was communicating to his audience, talking to them, telling a story."

"The mistakes take you to some beautiful places."

"I met Sonny (Stitt) when I was 15. He came to Pittsburgh, to Crawford's Grill No. 2. They'd let me in because it was a restaurant on one side of the bandstand and the bar was on the other side. So he looks down from the bandstand and says, 'Go get your horn.' And I said, 'What?! I just came to hear you.' (Gruffly) I said go get your horn.' So the first tune we played was a blues in B-flat. The second tune was "Cherokee." He had Don Patterson or organ, Paul Wheaton on guitar and Billy James on drums. That was one of the great experiences of my life -- the first time I ever felt like I had played something. It was like Sonny breathed music into me."

"No man can play another man's soul."

Edited March 12, 2011 by Mark Stryker

[king ubu]

Fascinating!

(Small note: Stitt's guitar player was called Paul Weeden.)

This is one of only two Carter discs I have so far, and I never warmed to it... will dig it out, it's been some years since I've played it.