john carter

John Carter, jazz composer and clarinetist, was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1929. 

He taught music in the Fort Worth public schools from 1949 to 1961, when he secured a position as a traveling elementary school music teacher in Los Angeles. There he and Bobby Bradford, also from Texas, collaborated to form the New Art Jazz Ensemble. Some of their music was released as "West Coast Hot" in 1969. In Los Angeles, Carter opened a jazz establishment, Rudolph's, where progressive musicians met. He was critics' choice for best jazz clarinetist for most of the 1980s.

Between 1985 and 1990 Carter composed and recorded "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music," in five albums focused on African-Americansqv- Dauwhe (1985), Castles of Ghana (1985), Dance of the Love Ghosts (1986), Fields (1988), and Shadows on a Wall (1989). The complete set was acclaimed by jazz critics as containing some of the best releases of the 1980s. Don Preston contributed to a number of the albums. Preston can also be heared on an album by the Bradford - Carter Quintet, released in 1989.

In February 1990 Carter had a nonmalignant tumor that resulted in the removal of his left lung. He made an appearance in Los Angeles in September of that year, in which he stated that he expected a full recovery. But he developed lung cancer and died on March 31, 1991.