Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday January 30th, 2013 with Bernard Stepien
James Carter – Jurassic Classics

Over the last 20 years, Detroit saxophonist James Carter, often described as having come out of nowhere, has inundated the Jazz scene with the upmost virtuosity since Art Tatum. Virtuosity is often described according to classical music standards with violinist Paganini and his playing 16th up tempo as a role model. Certainly, James Carter plays lots of 16th too and would thus be considered a virtuoso, but his virtuosity lies also and more in all kinds of levels and domains. One of them is in playing sixteenths with each note having a different dynamic or texture. Trying to pigeon whole Carter would be a stunt right from start. He is neither a straight ahead nor an avant-garde musician per se but he jumps from one genre to the other like a tennis player who would play on both sides of the court at once and preferably within the same phrase. Tonight we will count the points on his 1994 CD Jurassic Classics, a sort of debut-years album where the title is a virtuosity of sarcasm. Younger generations usually think that any piece of music that is over two weeks old as antique but at the same time have a fascination for dinosaurs.