Details
Track Listing
1. Round Midnight
2. You Never Told Me That You Care
3. Intimacy of My Woman's Beautiful Eyes, The
4. 1944 Stomp
5. Stevedore's Serenade, The
6. Born to Be Blue
7. Deep Throat Blues
8. Ballad For a Doll, A
9. Eventide
Album Notes
Personnel: James Carter (soprano, alto, tenor & baritone saxophones, bass flute, bass clarinet); Craig Taborn (piano); Dave Holland, Jaribu Shahid (bass); Leon Parker (drums, cymbal); Tani Tabbal (drums).
Recorded at the Power Station, New York, New York on October 6 & 7 and November 20, 1994. Includes liner notes by Howard Mandel.
THE REAL QUIETSTORM finds Carter in the company of pianist Craig Taborn, his regular rhythm section and rhythm innovators Dave Holland and Leon Parker. While not a ballad set strictly speaking, THE REAL QUIETSTORM is beautifully paced and programmed, and builds intensity in an understated, lyrical manner.
This set shows Carter to be a mature stylist beyond his years--a master of all the reed instruments. He opens "Round Midnight" on baritone over Craig Taborn's luxuriant chords, lithe and agile, reveling in the big horn's immense tonal possibilities. "You Never Told Me That You Care" is a tenor feature, and his tone takes on an expressive quavering intensity in the upper register and a dark ardor in the lower reaches. And when Holland and Parker step the song up to a light stroll, Carter's lines develop with relentless, storytelling intensity while his timbre becomes torchy in the manner of Jimmy Forrest and the macho tenor men of yesteryear.
Picking up the soprano, he and his regular quartet move brightly between swing and bop rhythms in a Dizzy Gillespie-like vein with "1944 Stomp," and his joyous solo is pure Sidney Bechet. Ellington's "The Stevedore's Serenade," with its stop time teases and shifts in tempo, is a virtuoso harmonic banquet a la Don Byas and Paul Gonsalves. An expressive "Born To Be Blue" is a soprano feature, but his feel for the horn is so reedy on this selection that it sounds like a sopranino. "Deep Throat Blues" showcases the speech-like cadences of his bass clarinet, the tender "Ballad For A Doll" features dreamy bass flute and "Eventide" concludes with a bass-baritone duet.
Industry Reviews
Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums of `95 - ...Mr. Carter subliminates his racuous energy into a very personal vision of romance on this album of jazz ballads...
New York Times (01/06/1996)
Ranked #29 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Village Voice (02/20/1996)
4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - ...THE REAL QUIETSTORM emphasizes ballads, both familiar and obscure....ideally suited for the yearning, moonstruck tone Carter achieves on a remarkable range of woodwinds...
Down Beat (04/01/1995)
Ranked #5 in the Village Voice's Best Jazz Discs of '95 - ...His saxophone keeps saying, 'Make room,' and his ideas justify the conceit of his huge sound...
Village Voice (01/16/1996)
...One of the most striking elements of James Carter's playing is the sheer audacity with which he embraces his various horns and attacks the music with near uncommon vigor. Despite the relatively quiet program, that's still the case. And despite the ample balladry, this number is not without fireworks...
JazzTimes (06/01/1995)
...dispels the notion that jazz has lost its sense of romance or lost its appeal to serious romantics....Carter's voyeuristic horn spews witty, vulnerable, and bitter commentary on the peccadilloes of those blessed and cursed to have found love...
Vibe (08/01/1995)
...Though he has an encyclopedic jazz history under his fingers, what is most striking is his editing--he favors pre-bebop melodies over demonic arpeggiation, and his every phrase is marked by the patience and assurance associated with elder statesmen...
Musician (05/01/1995)
4 Stars - Excellent - ...he tugs and pulls at a composition like a lion eating its prey...his talent brims equally out of soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones...
Q (04/01/1996)
...QUIETSTORM is less boldly flamboyant [than JURASSIC CLASSICS], but more romantic... - Rating: B
Entertainment Weekly (03/24/1995)
...One of the most striking elements of James Carter's playing is the sheer audacity with which he embraces his various horns and attacks the music with near uncommon vigor. Despite the relatively quiet program, that's still the case. And despite the ample balladry, this number is not without fireworks...
JazzTimes (06/01/1995)
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