Kent Carter

Kent Carter was born in June 1939 in Hanover, New Hampshire, and was raised in Vermont. His father, the violinist, violist and conductor Alan Carter (1904 to 1975), founded the Vermont State Symphony Orchestra in 1934, the year he married Barbara Kent, daughter of the artist Rockwell Kent. Kent was one of six children; his father's 1975 New York Times obituary lists five sons, Peter, Timothy, Eric, Thayer and Kent, and a daughter, Joan Chevalier.

In a 1978 interview with Serge Loupien for Jazz Magazine, Carter said he grew up surrounded by musicians and learned piano and cello "as children often do, by listening to what came through the doors." He then became interested in country music and played fiddle, banjo and guitar. Around 1959 a local septet that played dances and college parties needed a bassist. He already played electric bass, so he took the place and soon acquired a real double bass. At first he could not read music, but he had a good ear, and he studied with the only local teacher who knew the style.

In 1960 Carter moved to Boston to improve as a musician and enrolled at the Berklee School of Music (now Berklee College of Music) with a partial scholarship. There he worked with Herb Pomeroy in the school's recording orchestra and met a large circle of musicians. He later said that for someone "arriving from the countryside" the experience was overwhelming. He also learned on the bandstand, especially during a long engagement in the house trio at Lennie's on the Turnpike in Peabody, Massachusetts. Much later he taught others, giving classes at the Beaux-Arts school in Angouleme from the early 1980s and leading workshops, including one at a school in Monopoli, Italy, at the invitation of pianist Gianni Lenoci.

Boston and New York (1960 to 1965): At Lennie's, Carter played in a rhythm section with Mike Nock and Alan Dawson behind Booker Ervin, Phil Woods, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Cleveland, Zoot Sims, Charlie Mariano and Lucky Thompson. He also worked with Hal Galper, Sam Rivers and Gene Perla, spent almost four years in pianist Lowell Davidson's trio and played in a trio with Keith Jarrett. In New York he took part in the 1964 October Revolution in Jazz and the Jazz Composers Guild, and played in the Jazz Composer's Orchestra with Carla Bley and Michael Mantler alongside Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, Steve Swallow, Milford Graves, Steve Lacy and Alan Silva.

Europe and Steve Lacy (1965 to the 1980s): Carter came to Europe in 1965 with Paul Bley and recorded the trio album Touching with Barry Altschul. He worked with Steve Lacy, with Don Cherry's group and Karl Berger, with Jacques Thollot and Jacques Pelzer, mainly in Germany, Italy and Scandinavia, and recorded with Giorgio Gaslini, Cherry and Gato Barbieri. After the Antibes festival with Michel Portal and Thollot he went to Paris, found Lacy looking for a bassist, and stayed. He was Lacy's bassist for almost twenty years from 1966, recording Disposability, Journey Without End, Mal Waldron with the Steve Lacy Quintet, Trickles, Troubles, Stamps and The Way, and he was a core member of the quintet with Irene Aebi, Steve Potts and Oliver Johnson. He also played with Robin Kenyatta, Mal Waldron, Noah Howard, Alan Silva's Celestrial Communication Orchestra, Francois Tusques, Jouk Minor, Bernard Vitet, Michael Smith, Trevor Watts, John Stevens and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Bobby Bradford, Enrico Rava, Derek Bailey and Takashi Kako (the TOK trio). In 1976 at Chateauvallon he stepped in for an ailing Dave Holland alongside Anthony Braxton. In 1982 he recorded Regeneration in Milan with Roswell Rudd, Lacy, Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink.

Composer and leader: Carter's own records include Beauvais Cathedral, Kent Carter Solo with Claude Bernard, Lost in June, The Willisau Suites, The Juillaguet Collection with Albrecht Maurer, Intersections, Summer Works 2009 and Oratorios and Songs. He wrote for strings, gongs, bells and cymbals and often built a string orchestra by overdubbing himself on bass, cello, violin and viola.

Later work: From Juillaguet he recorded with Bernd Koppen and Bill Elgart (The Suffering of the Working Class, 1996), with Gianni Lenoci (Free Fall, 2010, and Plaything, 2014) and with Maurer and Katrin Mickiewicz in a string trio. Charente Libre reported that his last album appeared in 2020.

Carter met the Danish dancer and choreographer Michala Marcus in 1970 at a performance in Paris. They became partners in life and in art, forming MAD (Music Arts Dance), later the company Danse Musique Image, and creating dance, music and image pieces for Romanesque churches and priories in the Charente. In the 1970s Carter had his own studio north of Paris, in the Oise. In 1991 they settled at La Riviere, an old farm in Juillaguet, and in 1993 founded Studio Juillaguet, combining a recording studio, dance studio, gites and an artists' residence. Their son is Max, and Charente Libre named four grandchildren: Basile, Anatole, Jeanne and Fergus.

Carter valued artistic freedom over comfort. In 1978 he told Jazz Magazine that he had not left the United States for political reasons but because France was where he had the best chance to do something personal and to have a certain freedom of choice. He named competence, sincerity (which did not exclude humour) and virtuosity as the qualities he prized, and he loved large ensembles for the depth of sound they offered. He said that by then he no longer felt drawn to the electric bass and wanted to return to acoustic music, "just the strings and the wood." Among his influences he cited Henry Grimes, Alan Silva, Gary Peacock, Scott LaFaro, Ron Carter, Cecil McBee, Charlie Haden and Reggie Workman, and composers Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Bartok, Varese, Messiaen, Carl Ruggles, Earle Brown and Gunther Schuller.

Carter was never a cover star, as Tracce di Jazz put it, but his bass ran through almost every restless chapter of free jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. For listeners he remains the foundation under Steve Lacy's groups of that era. For musicians in south west France his legacy is also physical: Studio Juillaguet, a rare rural centre for recording, dance and residencies that continues to programme concerts. On 8 October 2026 guitarist Pierre Perchaud's Fleur d'immortelle concert at the studio became a tribute to him.

No major awards or state honours for Kent Carter have been documented in the sources used for this page. His standing rests on his recordings and on the respect of the musicians who chose him.

As leader: Beauvais Cathedral (Emanem, 1976); Kent Carter Solo with Claude Bernard (Sun); Lost in June (Ictus, 1977); The Willisau Suites (Emanem, 1984); The Juillaguet Collection (Emanem, 1996); Intersections (Emanem, 2006); Summer Works 2009 (Emanem, 2010); Oratorios and Songs (Emanem, 2010).

Selected sideman work: Paul Bley, Touching (1965); Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Communication (1965) and The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (1968); Steve Lacy, Disposability (1966), Journey Without End (1971), Trickles (1976), Troubles (1977), Stamps and The Way (1979); Alan Silva, Seasons (1971); Mal Waldron with the Steve Lacy Quintet (1972); Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Quintessence; Noah Howard, Live in Europe Vol. 1 (1975); Children at Play, Patience (ECM, 1978); Roswell Rudd, Regeneration (Soul Note, 1982); Gianni Lenoci and Bill Elgart, Plaything (2014); Don Cherry, The Summer House Sessions (Blank Forms, 2021).

Interviews: Jazz Magazine no. 262 (February 1978, with Serge Loupien) and Bill's Blue Note (2017).

Kent Carter died late on Wednesday 30 September 2026 in Juillaguet, Charente, France, where he had lived since 1991. He was 87. No cause of death has been made public. Charente Libre reported the news on 1 October, followed by TSF Jazz, Jazz Magazine and Jazz Radio on 1 and 2 October, jazz.nl on 5 October and Tracce di Jazz on 8 October. He is survived by his wife Michala Marcus, his son Max and his grandchildren. Funeral and burial details have not been made public.