John Carter Quintet – Variations (CD2084)

An all-star quintet of the West Coast avant-garde. Clarinettist John Carter leads an unusual line-up here: Bobby Bradford on trumpet, James Newton on flute, Bob Stewart on tuba and Phillip Wilson on drums, with no piano and no bass. The tuba takes over the bass lines. The album was recorded on August 15, 1979 at Studio 57 in Düsseldorf, and originally came out on LP as Variations on Selected Themes for Jazz Quintet.

The music connects jazz history with the freedom of the avant-garde. The almost 14-minute opener “B.L.’s Delight” gives every soloist room, and “Echoes from Harlem” and “Woodman’s Hall Blues” reach back to the roots of jazz and blues. “Petals” and “And She Speaks” show Carter’s lyrical side. Carter’s clarinet, Newton’s flute and Bradford’s trumpet weave around each other while Stewart’s tuba and Wilson’s drums swing, sometimes like a New Orleans band reinvented for the 1970s. The result is chamber-like, warm and adventurous.

This is a must for fans of Ornette Coleman, of the clarinet in jazz and of the creative West Coast scene. Released on Moers Music. When you buy here, you’re buying directly from the label, and we only sell originals.

The Side Story

1979 was John Carter’s big year in Germany. At the Moers Festival that year he played on three days with German clarinettist Theo Jörgensmann, and afterwards he received rave reviews and international recognition. This studio album was recorded a few weeks later, just down the road in Düsseldorf.

Carter and Bobby Bradford were longtime partners. Both came from Texas and made their names on the Los Angeles scene. Bradford had played trumpet in Ornette Coleman’s quartet in the early 1960s, where Freddie Hubbard later replaced him. From 1982 to 1990, Carter recorded his masterpiece, Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, a five-album cycle about African-American history that critics praise as some of the best music of the 1980s. Carter died in 1991, and the same year he was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame.

Tuba player Bob Stewart also appears on Rhys Chatham’s Factor X (CD2008), also on Moers Music.

Tracklist

1. B.L.’s Delight – 13:55

2. Echoes from Harlem – 7:25

3. Woodman’s Hall Blues – 7:28

4. Petals – 7:21

5. And She Speaks – 5:46

Total running time: approx. 42 minutes

Personnel

• John Carter – clarinet

• Bobby Bradford – trumpet

• James Newton – flute

• Bob Stewart – tuba

• Phillip Wilson – drums

Details

• Format: CD

• Label: Moers Music

• Catalog no.: CD2084 (originally released on LP as Moers 01056, Variations on Selected Themes for Jazz Quintet)

• Recorded: August 15, 1979, Studio 57, Düsseldorf, Germany

• Price: €14.00