Carter Octet to Appear in Santa Monica; Leviev, Collette Will Team for Benefit

Los Angeles-based clarinetist-composer John Carter makes an all-too-rare local appearance when he fronts his octet at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Santa Monica Saturday at 8 p.m. The performance, which is made possible in part by grants from Meet the Composer Inc., the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others, will be preceded by a master class and workshop at 4 p.m.

Carter, whose writing is full of thick sound clouds that swirl over warm, expansive harmonies, will lead an all-star ensemble that includes trumpeters Bobby Bradford and John Fumo, trombonist Thurman Green, woodwind players Charles Owens and Vinny Golia, bassist Roberto Miranda and drummer William Jeffrey.

The octet will play music from “Castles of Ghana,” one of the five suites that compose the larger Carter opus, “Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music.” With the recent release of “Shadows on a Wall” (Gramavision), the cycle’s fifth suite, the entire work has now been recorded on either the Black Saint or Gramavision labels.

Carter describes his style, which leans toward spontaneous improvisation, as “Contemporary American.” “That fits as well as anything else,” he said. “There was a time when this (music) was called new music or avant garde , but that was 25 years ago, and new finally gets old after a while,” he said, laughing heartily.

Carter--who is also a member of Clarinet Summit, with Jimmy Hamilton, Alvin Battiste and David Murray--appears in Europe more than he plays at home. “The main reason we don’t play here more often is that we have difficulty finding people who’ll hire us,” he said, chuckling at the situation. Still, he sees the jazz scene in Los Angeles as improving. “There’s more interest now, and musicians are happy for that.”

The man who for many years made his living teaching in the Los Angeles public school system and who was one of the founders of the Wind College in West Los Angeles, said his current musical life is “coming along pretty well good.” “I’m doing a lot of writing but I could always be doing more playing,” he said. “The octet would like to perform all the suites at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or the Mark Taper Forum. We’d love to do that.”

Multigenre keyboardist Milcho Leviev, versatile reedman Buddy Collette and the West Coast Saxophone Quartet will provide musical ambience at a benefit at the Ruth Bachofner Gallery in Santa Monica, at 4 p.m. Sunday. Proceeds will go to the United Cerebral Palsy/Spastic Children’s Foundation of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Requested donation is $35. Information: (213) 553-5711.

**** Chet Baker seems to have become even more popular in death than he was in life--at least if you judge by the number of albums that have been released posthumously. While many of these packages reveal Baker in sloppy musical dress, giving the indication that the trumpeter-singer’s muse had flown, “My Favourite Songs--The Last Great Concert” (ENJA) proves such was not the case. Recorded in West Germany just two weeks before he died in May, 1988, the seven-tune album finds Baker at his mellow best, working alternately with a big band, a string orchestra and a small combo, backdrops that show off his gift for melodicism beautifully. Highlights include the brief, tuneful phrases Baker plays on “All Blues,” “Well, You Needn’t” and “In Your Own Sweet Way,” and his typically sandpaper-voiced, brings-you-close-to-tears style on “My Funny Valentine” and “I Fall in Love Too Easily.”

Records are rated from one to five stars. ***** means a swinging must-have for the jazz lover, * means save your pennies, Benny.