Daniel Carter

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter is not as well-known as his avant-jazz contemporaries, but he's equally prolific. Since 1970, he has sought out musicians who encourage free expression. He has appeared on hundreds of recordings with an astonishing variety of players, but refuses sole headline credit. He is adept on tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, clarinet, flute, and trumpet. His airy tone and understated timbre have drawn him comparisons to Lee Konitz. His ongoing collaborative relationship with bassist William Parker began with 1980's Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace. They co-founded Other Dimensions in Music, who issued five albums between 1989 and 2011. Carter co-founded the experimental quartet Test, whose Ahead! appeared in 1998. He issued 2018's acclaimed Seraphic Light with Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp. In 2019, they recorded a day-long session with trumpeter Roy Campbell, Jr. and drummer Gerald Cleaver. It resulted in two releases: Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2, released in in 2020 and 2022.
Carter was born and raised in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. In the late 1950s he sang in doo wop and R&B groups and took clarinet lessons. Even as a youngster his tastes were varied and undefinable; he listened to and enjoyed blues, jazz, R&B, classical, and international musics. He played in high school bands into the early '60s, and switched to saxophone and trumpet while playing in the 49th Army Band from 1967 to 1969. He moved to New York City in 1970 after his military service.
In New York, Carter worked alongside soul groups and played with free jazzers. In 1972, he made his first recorded appearance with Gunter Hampel on the album Angel. His bandmates included drummer Muruga Booker, trumpeter Enrico Rava, and vocalist Jeanne Lee. In 1975, he and Lee -- with tubist Howard Johnson and bassist Eddie Gomez -- all appeared on master drummer/percussionist (Rakalam) Bob Moses' leader debut, Bittersuite in the Ozone, that also featured drummer Billy Hart. Unfortunately, Carter had already established a defining reputation as a vanguard musician, making it difficult to find gigs. He began busking on the street around 1978.
He met bassist William Parker in 1979. Parker was already well-established on the jazz scene, having worked with Cecil Taylor, Frank Lowe, Jemeel Moondoc, and Billy Bang. In 1980, he enlisted Carter for his leader debut, Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace. Some of the session's other players included Toshinori Kondo and Denis Charles. Parker and Carter became close friends and worked together live whenever the bassist was in town. In 1981, the pair, along with drummer Rashid Bakr and trumpeter Roy Campbell, Jr. founded Other Dimensions in Music, a free quartet. They played live often and rehearsed for pleasure. In 1989 they recorded a self-titled album for Silkheart. Between the beginning and end of the decade, Carter spent most of his time busking and playing live with punk, post-punk, and hardcore groups in clubs. His reputation spread across the New York scene and with it came new opportunities to record. He continued to play with Other Dimensions in Music and began working with saxophonist Sabir Mateen in 1996.
In 1997, Carter played on no less than six albums. Among them were Resonance, a quintet date with Mateen and trumpeter Raphe Malik, and Breathing Together by One World Ensemble, a group that included Susie Ibarra, Mateen, and Wilber Morris. With Carter, Mateen, bassist Matthew Heyner, and drummer Tom Bruno, Carter founded the long-lived improvising quartet Test. Well-known for spontaneous live performances, they continued to perform on subway platforms well into the 21st century. 1998 proved equally prolific. Carter played on no less than seven albums including pianist Matthew Shipp's Strata for Hat Hut, Other Dimensions in Music's Now!, Test's debut Ahead!,‎ and an eponymous offering from vanguard rockers Shining Path. Also, Mateen, Carter, and drummer David Nuss -- as Tenor Rising Drums Expanding -- issued Third World War.
Test's eponymous offering appeared in 1999, as did a split single between Other Dimensions in Music and Yo La Tengo. Immediately after the century turned, Carter worked on Parker's Painters Spring and issued Live with Test. He played trumpet on ex-Gastr del Sol guitarist David Grubbs' The Spectrum Between for Drag City. The sessions also included saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, guitarist Noël Akchoté, and drummer John McEntire. The year proved especially notable for another reason: Carter was billed as a featured soloist on the cover of Saturnalia Trio's Meditations on Unity.
2001 saw the issue of the acclaimed album Common Soldier by the Andrew Barker-Daniel Carter Duo. Roaratorio issued The Music Ensemble by a quintet that included Bang, Parker, trumpeter Malik Baraka, and drummer Roger Baird. That year Carter also played on Spring Heel Jack's The Blue Series Continuum: Masses and Yo La Tengo's Nuclear War, an EP-length cover of Sun Ra's classic composition. The saxophonist issued a trio recording entitled Language and played on Shipp's Nu Bop.
Carter's activity was constant. He played on hip-hop records by El-P and Soul-Junk. He independently issued Transformation and made his AUM Fidelity debut with Luminescence in a duo with bassist Reuben Radding. Their partnership endured for the 2004 trio recording Not Out for Anywhere, with drummer Greg Keplinger. The saxophonist issued Concrete Science in a trio with trombonist Steve Swell and drummer Federico Ughi. His collaborative association with the drummer continues. Carter also recorded Mysterium in a trio with guitarist Morgan Craft and drummer/clarinetist Eric Eigner. The following year, Carter joined the ad hoc Castanets as the saxophonist and vocalist on First Light's Freeze, issued by Asthmatic Kitty.
Though Carter had been playing in Europe for a few years with Parker, Shipp, and Mateen, he also stayed close to the subterranean in the U.S. during the new century's first decade. He issued numerous privately released CD-Rs with William Hooker, outsider multi-instrumentalist/writer/curator Jeffrey Shurdut, and he joined Hamid Drake's band for 2005's Bindu. The following year he played on notable albums by Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice (Gipsy Freedom), with Sonny Simmons, and recorded The Dream leading a trio with Parker and Ughi. He also played on For Quintet, the lone album from avant supergroup Mysterium. In 2007, Other Dimensions in Music issued the double-length Live at the Sunset from a Paris gig, and formed Ghost Moth with electronicist Robbie McDonald and guitarist/electronicist Todd Brooks. They played live whenever Carter was in town and issued three independently released albums including an eponymous live set, Sealand Fortress, and the cassette Asteroid Pelt.
He kicked off 2008 with the release of Nivesana, a duo album with Indian percussionist Ravi Padmanabha as well as two others with Japanese multi-instrumentalist Takuma Kanaiwa‎. He played on Shipp's Cosmic Suite and Ughi's People's Resonance. The following year he joined the sessions for Yoko Ono's reunited Plastic Ono Band on Between My Head and the Sky. More importantly, he co-led an all-star vanguard quintet with Ughi for the 577 release The Gowanus Recordings. Carter closed the century's first decade with the Not Two release The Perfect Blue, leading a quartet with Ughi, Tom Abbs, and Alberto Fiori. In 2011, Other Dimensions in Music released Kaiso Stories, its final album. In a compelling twist, the vocalist Fay Victor was their collaborator. After a tour, ‎Carter spent his time playing concerts on his own and with Parker and doing session work for the next couple of years.
He re-emerged leading 2013's Navajo Sunrise in a trio with Parker and Ughi. He also collaborated with Ted Daniels' Energy Module on Innerconnection for No Business. The following year he issued Hello to Anyone I Know, leading a quartet that also included Japan's Satoshi Takeishi on drums. In 2015 he joined trumpeter Kirk Knuffke's studio band sextet for Arms & Hands and the duo album Extra Room with Ughi. Carter also issued the digital-only album Emanate with Parker and saxophonist Gary Hassay. Though he traveled almost constantly throughout 2016, he did manage to guest on Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band's The Rarity of Experience, and to release Test's double set, Always Coming from the Love Side. The following year, Carter, leading a quartet with Ughi, Parker, and soprano saxophonist Watson Jennison, released three live offerings from three cities --Eerie, PA Rochester, NY and Toronto, Ontario -- for 577. Further, he played in Shipp's group for Not Bound for the same label.
The saxophonist kicked off with a series of recordings leading a quartet with Ughi, clarinetist Patrick Holmes, pianist Matthew Putman, and bassist Hilliard Greene: Telepathic Alliances ‎(2017), followed by Telepatia Liquid (2018) and Electric Telepathy, Vol. 1 (2019). Also in 2018, Carter, Parker, and Shipp released the globally acclaimed Seraphic Light on AUM Fidelity, as well as Polyhedron, an improvised duo set drummer with Andrew Barker on Astral Spirits; he also offered the trio set Live Constructions with Greene and pianist David Haney. Carter's name appeared on a dozen albums in 2019. Among them were The Departing of a Dream, Vol. 7 ‎in duo with guitarist Loren Connors, the quartet offerings New York United and Radical Invisibility ‎with Ughi, Greek guitarist Stelios Mihas, and bassist Irma Nejando (real name: Esperanza Spalding) on 577. That October, Carter, Parker, Shipp, and drummer Gerald Cleaver spent a day in the recording studio for what would become two separate releases over the next three years.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020, Carter had plenty of material in the can. Dark Matrix, a duo offering with Shipp recorded the previous year, appeared in 2020, as did Test and Roy Campbell and Barragemirage Megamultifurcation by B.C.F.W., with Barker on synth, drummer Fritz Welch and guitarist Pat Foley. In June, Welcome Adventure, Vol. 1 -- the initial date from the previous year's improv session with Parker, Shipp, and Cleaver -- appeared and received international accolades. After the lockdown eased up, Carter got busier than ever. In 2021 he played on and/or released more than a dozen albums. He appeared on Parker's ten-disc box set of unreleased material titled Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World and the trio date Painters Winter -- a sequel to 2000's Painters Spring. He released the digital offering Forever Is an Infinite Always with Brad Farberman and Kid Millions. Open Question, Vol. 1 ‎ for 577, a digital quintet offering from the saxophonist and collaborators, marked the first of three releases from the septet Playfield. In May 2022, Welcome Adventure, Vol. 2 was released. ~ Thom Jurek