Clifford Carter
Keyboardist
and composer Clifford Carter
has blazed his mark in the worlds of jazz, pop, rock n' roll, gospel
and
more. One of the music industry's most sought-after talents,
Carter
has performed and recorded with legendary artists ranging from Paul
Simon,
James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, Carly Simon
and
Patti Scialfa to Chris Botti, Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Narada
Michael
Walden and Herbie Mann. His playing can be heard on film
scores,
television shows and commercials. He has been featured in a
wide
range of musical contexts from symphony orchestras to David Letterman's
band. His songs have been recorded by Michael Franks, Phyllis
Hyman,
Vanessa Williams and The Four Tops, among others, and for his own solo
CD. He owns Secret Road Studios, a versatile production
environment,
where he plays, writes, arranges and produces.
Music
played a starring role in Carter's
life from the very beginning. Born and raised in New York, he
began
taking piano lessons at six and formed his first band at
eleven.
He initially performed in public as a singer until he got his first
electronic
keyboard when he was 13. After playing in numerous bands and
writing
instrumental and vocal music in his high school years, Carter attended
the University of Miami's School of Music. During his college
years,
his talent attracted the attention of the Miami music scene.
His
full-time professional career began at that time as he worked playing
Miami
clubs with local and national artists, among them Bobby Vinton, the
Coasters
and Motown's legendary Four Tops.
An
offer to tour with The Four Tops
took him on the road for the first time. He spent a year with
the
Tops and recorded three albums with them. He next joined
R&B
artist Phyllis Hyman's band and returned to New York City in the
mid-1970s.
Quickly discovered by the New York session player elite, Carter became
an invaluable keyboardist playing on numerous record dates,
film/television
scores and commercial sessions. Some of the artists whose
recordings
he played on during that period include Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto,
Joan
Armatrading, Yusef Lateef, Don Cherry, Hank Crawford, and Idris
Muhammed.
Already a favorite freelance keyboardist of many jazz and pop artists,
Carter was hired by Herbie Mann to tour with him, culminating in a
performance
at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival.
With
friends Steve Jordan, Hiram Bullock
and Will Lee, Carter formed the 24th Street Band in 1978. He
was
one of the principal songwriters in the band, which made three records,
played regularly in New York City clubs and embarked on a successful
series
of tours in Japan.
After
the band broke up, Carter continued
working with many different artists throughout the 1980s.
Some of
the highlights included touring, recording and writing with
singer/songwriter
Michael Franks and touring with British art-rocker Bryan Ferry.
In
1982, Carter joined drummer Danny
Gottlieb, bassist Mark Egan and saxophonist Bill Evans in a new
jazz-fusion
quartet, Elements. They recorded five critically-acclaimed
albums,
performed and toured. Carter also worked with Evans (a former
Miles
Davis sideman) playing on several of Evans' solo recordings, often
contributing
as producer and writer, including The Alternative Man, Push,
Big Fun,
and the 2005 Grammy-nominated Soulgrass.
In
1990, Carter began a long association
with singer/songwriter James Taylor as a member of his touring and
recording
band. Carter's long-time friend and colleague Don Grolnick
was keyboardist
and musical director for the band at the time, and after playing a
supportive
role to Grolnick as the second keyboardist, Carter became the sole
keyboardist
when Grolnick tragically passed away in 1996. He
remained in
the band through 2001, playing acoustic piano and electronic keyboards.
He worked on eight Taylor releases, including the 1997
Grammy-award-winning
Pop Album of the Year, Hourglass.
Carter
recorded Walkin' Into the
Sun, his only solo recording to date, which was released in
1993 and
described as "one of the most engaging surprises of the year" by Jazziz
Magazine and "a showcase for the keyboardist's excellent
musicianship"
by Jazz Times. The CD, a jazz/pop hybrid,
features Carter's
vocal and instrumental songs with a top supporting cast of musicians
including
Steve Rodby, Will Lee, Mark Egan, Bob Sheppard, Luis Conte and
producer-guitarist
Tim Weston.
Aside
from Carter's busy schedule with
James Taylor, other highlights of his work throughout the 1990s
included
recording with singer/songwriter Martin Sexton, touring and recording
with
Rosanne Cash, and recording with long-time friend and E Street Band
member
Patti Scialfa.
A
favorite of Late Night with David
Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer, he often sits in with the
band to
accompany the show's guest artists, and he's subbed for Shaffer as
well.
He has accompanied a variety of artists on television programs ranging
from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, The
Oprah
Winfrey Show, The Today Show, Regis and Kathy Lee, Late Night with
Conan
O'Brien, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The View
to Rosie O'Donnell's
1999 Christmas special and VH1's Storytellers and
Live By
Request. Among these artists are Al Green, Jewel,
Christina Aguilera,
the Black Crowes, Smokey Robinson, the B-52's, Rufus Wainwright, the
Temptations,
Little Richard, BB King, Lyle Lovett, Cher, LeAnn Rimes, Vanessa
Williams,
Michael McDonald and many others.
Carter
has played at star-studded music
events such as the 1985 reopening of the Apollo Theater ("Motown at the
Apollo"), tributes to artists including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and
Chuck
Berry at the Kennedy Center Honors, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
Sting's
Rainforest Benefit in New York City, and Oprah Winfrey's "A Bridge To
Now"
celebration honoring 25 legendary African-American women.
His
keyboard work has contributed to
numerous film scores including You've Got Mail, A Chorus
Line, The Object
of My Affection, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and the recent
remake
of Shaft.
Every
year since 1993, Carter has been
a featured pianist in the performance of "Too Hot To Handel," an
innovative
gospel/jazz adaptation of Handel's Messiah with several
orchestras.
He has performed this work with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra
conducted
by Marin Alsop for the last eight years, and a live recording of the
2004
performance was released in 2005.
Most
recently, Carter has toured Europe
with Bill Evans, appeared with the Ralph MacDonald Band at the Pan
Royal
Festival in Trinidad, performed a three-week engagement at the Oak Room
at the Algonquin with Broadway star Melissa Errico, recorded with
Nashville
singer/songwriter Suzy Bogus, recorded and arranged for Kiss drummer
Peter
Criss, and toured the Czech Republic and Slovac Republic with Czech
singer-songwriter
Richard Muller.
He
also appeared on Patti Scialfa's
critically acclaimed 23rd Street Lullaby, released
in 2004 and toured
with her that same year. In 2005, he made numerous television
appearances
with Dolly Parton, performed in concert with Betty Buckley and trumpet
player Chris Botti, and toured Australia with Bette Midler.
He was
also the musical director for Decca recording artist Russell Watson's
concert
at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square in October of 2005.
In
2006, he has recorded
with virtuoso violin player Mark O'Connor and also Kate Taylor in a
release to benefit Katrina victims. Clifford also toured with
Art
Garfunkel in Europe and the United States during the summer.
