Blending Genres: James Carter Collaborates with the Eastman School of Music

[...]this was the second time classical music came knocking with an opportunity. "The concerto is a very well-structured edifice," James illuminates, further explaining, "there's a distinctive, delicate blend of improv and written music that has such a natural flow that one cannot discern where the improvisation and the written music diverge - the structure is on lock-down!" The element of improvisation in the Concerto, like much of jazz, allows for free-form creativity, and also means the piece is never the same twice. While not his first time in a collegiate setting, having spent a week-long residence at Cornell University in 2005, his performance with the Eastman School of Music and the Eastman Wind Ensemble was the first time he performed the piece in a wind arrangement.