In Carterian Fashion

James Carter

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 19, 1998)
• Original Release Date: May 19, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B0000062RR
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #190,404 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1998
Early in 1998, saxophonist James Carter signed a modeling contract, perhaps explaining the title of this LP. His jazz chops, we are happy to report, have not suffered. On Fashion, Carter and his sax are all business. He is able to cool burn on slower numbers, recalling Ben Webster's smoldering ballads, then turn on a dime to deliver blistering runs of honk and skronk that seem intent on peeling the paint from the walls. Carter's horn playing is all about power and forceful delivery, but he is also capable of amazing control. And on Fashion, he dukes it out with hotshot keyboardist Cyrus Chestnut, here driving a Hammond B3 organ like he was piloting a Zamboni. Great stuff! --S. Duda

Amazon.com
Detroit-born saxophonist James Carter has proven on his three previous CDs that he's a multifaceted, jazz dynamo. His tenor sax playing can ache with the romantic silkiness of Ben Webster and then soar with the multiple ranges of David Murray. In Carterian Fashion ups the ante on listeners, with Carter and celebrated jazzman Cyrus Chesnutt getting downright soulful in the latter's first outing on Hammond B-3 organ. There would be no "Carterian Fashion," however, if there wasn't a wide and telling divergence among Carter's performances. He goes ballistic on a couple of freewheeling tunes, showing again how the avant-garde and mainstream in jazz are, in reality, kissing cousins when skillfully dashed together. And once again, fellow Detroit-native and pianist Craig Taborn hammers the keys with both subtlety and absolute directness. --Andrew Bartlett

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Jazz Is SUPPOSED To Sound...., August 9, 2001

By	Meathook Williams "stepfather of the blues" (Warwick, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

If you're a big fan of Kenny G., you might just as well stop reading this review right now. This disc is real jazz, thoughtfully created and carried out with inspired improvisation. "In Carterian Fashion" is an album of 10 awesome tracks and no gimicks. Even more so than, Joshua Redmond ( I'm a big fan of his too), Carter is the torchbearer carrying true jazz into the new millenium. A "young lion", as it were. To me, the true test for jazz players is being able to shine in a small combo setting and it seems that today, there's way too much production and electrified funk. Put a handful of players into a room and see what happens. In this case it's a resounding success. Jazz still lives and all is right within the musical world. This is Carter's fifth album as a leader, and he's not quite thirty. He's had a full apprenticeship with such luminaries as Lester Bowie and Julius Hemphill of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, one of the most far reaching aggregates in jazz history. Though he's often compared with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, he reminds me more of Eric Dolphy. Though he principally plays tenor sax, he plays all of them and even a delightful growling bass clarinet on "Odyssey". He makes his instruments howl and moan during some solos, yet keeps it all plain and somber on others. He's joined here by a stellar ensemble Craig Taborn, Henry Butler, and Cyrus Chestnut on Hammond and a perfectly suited rhythm section comprised of bassist Jaribu Shahid and, alternately, Tani Tabbal or Leonard King behind the traps. His brother, P-Funker Kevin Carter makes a welcome appearance on guitar (the only electrified material, still rather unembellished), and Dwight Adams shines on trumpet. The rest of the crew dazzles too, and this, to my ears is how small combo jazz is meant to sound. The tunes a re all captivating and the production minimal. Why aren't more players using this time tested formula? Nothing here could possibly be improved upon. It's all just superb music making. If you like classic jazz with cascading solos over solid, straight ahead ensemble playing, this is a release sure to please.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great albums like this one reignite an age-old jazz debate, January 14, 2000

By A Customer

I never thought I'd hear an organ-combo "groove" album from any of the new crop of great players, but Carter has pulled it off. Judging by the range of comments this disc has elicited here, there's still a raging debate whether modern jazz should be "head" music or "body" music. Guys like Carter prove that when it's at its best, it's both. Let those who need sophisticated chord structures go back and pore over their Kenton charts, while the rest of us will be here rocking out to a great disc.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Acomplished tenor, April 3, 2001

By	N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Another fine album from Carter, this time paying homage to the classic organ combos of the 1960s, though it is unmistakeably a 1990s album not a retro exercise. The compositions run from a couple traditional tunes ("Down to the River" & "Trouble in the World") to such overtly modern fare as Carter's own "Skull Grabbin'" & "In Carterian Fashion" or the guitarist Spencer Barefield's "Escape from Bizarro World". As suits the occasion, Carter mostly sticks to tenor, though there's one bass clarinet track, & one track where has overdubs himself on soprano, tenor & baritone. The organ duties are split between Craig Taborn, his usual keyboardist, & Henry Butler & Cyrus Chestnut (the latter only gets two tracks).

"Skull Grabbin'" is a (perhaps too) clever uptempo exercise that sounds like it's indebted to "Tune Up" &, especially, Coltrane's rewriting of it on _Giant Steps_--there's a "Countdown"-style tenor-drums battle in the centre of it, & Carter shows no lack of ideas or facility but perhaps could have scaled them back a touch. On the other hand "Lianmo" is quite beautiful, right from its evocative start with a throbbing choir of saxophones & trumpet. There's a couple nicely-turned tributes to Don Byas ("Don's Idea") & Lockjaw Davis ("Lockjaw's Lament"), & an unabashed modern funk number in the title track. Carter's playing has his usual exaggerated swagger, which is mostly winning (though his fondness for distortion & freak high notes sometimes gets the better of him).

Basically a winner: a fun, intelligent album that doesn't have the gravitas of an album like _The Real Quietstorm_ (shamefully already deleted by Atlantic) but nonetheless is an enjoyable listen.