Album Notes

Chad Carter
I Got Up

The ranks of male jazz singers have grown rather slim over the last two decades or so; but then perhaps that can be explained by the relative dominance of women vocalists, an interesting gender twist on jazz politics for sure. But we’re pleased to welcome a newcomer to those ranks. His name is Chad Carter, he’s based in the Washington, DC area, he’s developing his craft in exponential leaps and he’s poised to add his name to the lineage of male jazz singers from Pops Armstrong to McFerrin, Mahogany, Harris, and Elling.
A product of the DC public schools, Chad’s first efforts at expressing the music he had ingested from his parents’ big ears and a broad record collection that spanned a range from Sinatra to Sly Stone to Horace Silver and Pavarotti was on the viola in the DC Youth Orchestra program. At 8 he gravitated to the piano, though as he says he “…never really found the right fit” in his various teachers. By high school he had begun to inspire compliments for his voice, though its range apparently wasn’t to his liking. “I was too shy and at such a tender age my ego would not allow me to get over sounding like a girl when I sang. Hind sight is 20-20 and had someone told me that people that sound like Smokey Robinson get plenty of positive attention from girls, I would have been singing my heart out,” he chuckled.
After graduating with a degree in Communications from Howard University, “I stumbled on a jazz vocal workshop,” he continued. Once he conquered his initial nervousness at singing in public, Chad’s current path commenced. Still knee-deep in learning his craft, he’s been blessed by nurturing professionals in Washington’s deep community of musicians. Among his mentors have been such stalwarts as DC’s late singer and vocal educator Ronnie Wells, percussionist Ricky Loza, the capital region’s first-call bassist James King, and pianist Ernie Douglass, plus pianist and Broadway fixture (and Chad’s current accompanist) Frank Owens, and Philly sax titan Bootsie Barnes, whose warm and soulful axe graces this disc. “I’m training for a fight. I’m training to fight for control of my instrument to give the music the effort and respect it deserves,” he declares with refreshing humility. “It’s exciting to feel like I’m finally on the road to discovering what I may truly have to bring to this wonderful art of jazz music.”
A key mentor and influence has been the L.A.-based vocal legend Ernie Andrews. As a student at Ronnie Wells late, lamented East Coast Jazz Festival, Chad volunteered to ferry certain festival participants around the area to various rehearsals and appointments. One of his passengers, unbeknownst to the green Mr. Carter, was Ernie Andrews, an ECJF perennial. During the course of their drive young Chad eagerly volunteered to Andrews that he was just having some fun with his singing. “Mr. Andrews immediately shifted gears and became very serious, saying ‘…well, it’s nice that you are having fun with this, but I come from a family of singers and this is a hard business. If you are going to be in this then you need to practice, take it seriously, and work at your craft.’ One envisions Chad straightening up in his seat; “I decided then and there that I love this music too much not to continue. It has not been until the last couple of years that I’ve begun to push in terms of getting more things happening for me in the industry,” he says with obvious resolve.
You’re holding the latest chapter in that evolution. For I Got Up Chad Carter had the good sense to invest in a dyed-in-the-wool swinging rhythm section. He knew he couldn’t go wrong with bluesy Bob Butta on piano, and the crack rhythm team of bassist James King and drummer Nasar Abadey. Keeping the band lean and mean he next recruited Bill Cosby fave Bootsie Barnes on tenor sax. To give further wing to his budding artistry Chad selected an agreeable program of ten standards and one original. The title track, subtitled “Chad’s Blues” is his way of “expressing my zest and appreciation for life.” The majority of the program is then given over to the various shades of affairs of the heart, as Chad addresses “love, companionship, and passion; love of life; and that vulnerability that we feel when opening up to another and placing our heart and love in their trust.” Spoken and sung like a young man who has already loved, lost, and loved again.
We arrive at Carter’s real sweet spot by track 4, “I’m Glad There is You”, with Chad expressing the rarely heard verse; now there’s a real mark of a budding craftsman! He does likewise to open “The Nearness of You.” Clearly he’s a developing balladeer, a fact he confirms, informing us that “I’ve always tended to connect with ballads faster than up tempo tunes.” You can hear that in how he takes his time with ballads, their luxurious tempos allowing the lyrics to breathe, giving full interpretation to the songwriter’s intent. Not surprisingly the ballads on “I Got Up”, which also include a lovely “You Are Too Beautiful”, “The Nearness of You” –- about which he says “the lyrics really help you think of those intimate times when you are close to the one you love and how nothing else matters” – and Monk’s chestnut “’Round Midnight” receive the most extended readings.
Considering his debut disc Live at Vicino’s, and his subsequent appearances, its clear that Chad Carter is a promising artist-in-progress and you’re now privileged to be along for the ride. Equally clear is the fact that I Got Up displays palpable evolution along the often arduous but ultimately rewarding path he has chosen. Welcome to the ranks Chad Carter!
 Willard Jenkins
Willard Jenkins is a contributor to DownBeat, JazzTimes, and Jazzwise magazines, editor-publisher of his own webzine The Independent Ear (available at www.openskyjazz.com), concerts and festivals producer and broadcaster at Washington, DC’s Pacifica station WPFW.