Carter was born in
Detroit, Michigan, and learned to play under the tutelage of
Donald Washington, becoming a member of his youth jazz ensemble Bird-Trane-Sco-NOW!! As a young man, Carter attended
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, becoming the youngest faculty member at the camp. He first toured Scandinavia with the International Jazz Band in 1985 at the age of 16. On May 31, 1988, at the
Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Carter was a last-minute addition for guest artist
Lester Bowie, which turned into an invitation to play with his new quintet (forerunner of his New York Organ Ensemble) in
New York City that following November at the now defunct Carlos 1 jazz club. This was pivotal in Carter's career, putting him in musical contact with the world, and he moved to New York two years later. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the late 1980s, focusing on saxophones, flute and clarinets. In 1996, he took part in
Robert Altman's film
Kansas City, where he played
Ben Webster alongside several other contemporary jazz musicians playing the roles of players from the 1930s, including
Joshua Redman as
Lester Young,
Craig Handy as
Coleman Hawkins and
Geri Allen as
Mary Lou Williams. "Seldom Seen" 's fictional "Hey Hey Club" set the stage for several jam sessions caught on film in real time and included on a soundtrack produced by
Hal Willner and trumpeter
Steven Bernstein. Carter embraces all elements of jazz history, from
dixieland to
fusion to
free jazz, and was one of the few prominent players of his generation to do so, participating in a number of projects in all these styles, and incorporating these different influences in the compositions and soloing on his own albums. On his album ''
Chasin' the Gypsy'' (2000), he recorded with his cousin
Regina Carter. Carter has won
DownBeat magazine's Critics and Readers Choice award for baritone saxophone several years in a row. He has performed, toured and played on albums with Lester Bowie,
Julius Hemphill,
Frank Lowe & the Saxemble,
Kathleen Battle, the
World Saxophone Quartet,
Cyrus Chestnut,
Wynton Marsalis,
Dee Dee Bridgewater and the
Mingus Big Band. Carter is an authority on vintage saxophones, and he owns an extensive collection of such instruments, including one formerly played by
Don Byas.{{cite web ==Discography==