Excerpts from 4011 sleeve notes:
John Carter (1928 - 1991) and Bobby Bradford (b. 1934) both grew up in the Dallas / Fort Worth area (after Bradford moved there as a young teenager), both played in Woodman's Hall there, and both knew Ornette Coleman and Charles Moffett there. However they did not know each other until the mid-1960s when Coleman, realising that they both lived in the Los Angeles area, suggested to Carter that he look up Bradford.
Fairly early on in his career, Carter decided that he was unlikely to make a living playing the music he wanted to, so he became a teacher/lecturer - something he continued to do for the rest of his life. Fortunately, he never gave up making music, even though his other activities took up much of his time. In the 1960s, he could be heard on flute and various saxophones as well as clarinet, but by the end of the next decade, he specialised exclusively on the clarinet to become one of supreme exponents of that somewhat neglected instrument.
Bradford's early career is largely a catalogue of near misses with fame. He played in Ornette Coleman's group in Los Angeles before any recordings were made. When he was drafted into the air force in 1954, and when Edward Blackwell decided to return to New Orleans, their places were taken by Don Cherry and Billy Higgins. Bradford was invited to take part in Coleman's seminal 1960 FREE JAZZ recording session, but he was too busy studying at the time, so Freddie Hubbard had to take his place.
When Bradford did join Coleman's group in New York in 1961, it coincided with a period when Coleman refused to work unless he was well paid - which meant that that the group rarely played gigs and did not record. Also, at that time, Bradford was asked to make a record for Candid, but that label went bust before anything could happen. The end result of all this, was that Bradford, like Carter, became a teacher/lecturer, which he still is. More importantly for us, he became one of the most melodic improvisers in Free Jazz.
Having eventually met each other, Carter and Bradford formed a musical partnership which lasted until the former's untimely demise. They have appeared together (and separately) on record several times. However, this is the first time a recording of them as an unaccompanied duo has been published.
The concert enclosed herein was part of a rare mini-tour of the North East USA. All of the performances are presented unedited and in the order performed. Unfortunately, there is not room for the whole concert, so the last two pieces are on TANDEM 2.
MARTIN DAVIDSON (1996)
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