Versatile trumpeter Brennan Carter studied jazz and music education at the University of Washington. Since then, he has gone on to make his mark as a highly active musician and composer in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Carter has toured internationally with six-piece soul band The Dip, which he co-founded with a group of UW music graduates, and with other notable artists like ODESZA, SYML, Allen Stone, Calexico, K.Flay, and Jamie Cullum.
Locally, Carter plays regularly as a member of Wayne Horvitz’s Royal Room Music Collective Ensemble. He's also a music educator and the co-host of a monthly jazz night at North Seattle's Ravenna Brewing Company, which takes place every second Wednesday of the month.
Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How would you describe the music you make and the type of musician that you are?
As a trumpet player, I get called for a lot of styles, so my main focus lately has been to be a well-rounded and grounded musician. Although I studied and continue to study the different forms of jazz and improvised music, I don’t see myself as exclusively a jazz musician, and I probably wouldn’t introduce myself as such.
What projects or bands are you focused on right now, and how did they come about?
The project that takes up the most time and energy is a band called The Dip, which in its current iteration is a six-piece group that has a vintage-leaning rhythm and blues sound, three horns, and a great vocalist. Over the last 10-plus years, we have toured extensively around the states, with a handful of tours in Europe and Japan as well. We’ve made four studio albums and have numerous other releases as well. The Dip formed when many of us were at the UW School of Music, where we were studying jazz and performance.
I recently recorded a follow-up album called Many Moons for a co-led project with trombonist Scott Flynn. The first album featured Seattle musicians Evan Woodle (dr), Mark Hunter (bs), and Daniel Salka (pn), and featured compositions by Scott and myself, with a heavy integration of free improvisation. The follow-up, which will this time include Evan Captain on piano, is a completely improvised album. We are thrilled with the result, and it should be released in the coming months.
What role does the culture and environment of the Pacific Northwest play in your music and compositions?
I think Seattle and the PNW provide a constant source of inspiration for me as a musician and composer. Both socially and through the geography and climate of the area. Seattle has been, for most of my life, a worldly and conscious city, and so growing up, I was always encouraged and modeled to look outward. That curiosity of the outside world fed my creativity and provided much-needed perspective that is important in the process of making art.
Furthermore, when looking back inward to the city, you see creativity abound. I saw and experienced that firsthand with the formation and continuation, until recently, of The Racer Sessions, which grew out of the scene at the UW jazz department. And then when the city isn’t enough inspiration for me, Washington is one of the best places in the world to go “touch grass,” as the kids say.
Who is your biggest role model in the Seattle jazz scene, if you have one? Why?
Wow, I have had so many role models over the years, it is hard to pick one. And I won't!
In my formative years, [Seattle trumpeter and educator] Jim Sisko was my first and biggest mentor. He opened the whole world of jazz — and music in general — to me through our trumpet lessons. He really pushed me and encouraged me to do better, as well as trusted me to sit in for him. He recommended me for local big band gigs when I was in high school, where I learned a ton sitting next to all the local pros.
In college, [UW jazz studies department chair] Cuong Vu became my next major mentor. He opened up a whole new world of thinking about music to me. I studied improvised music with a whole new lens and an avant-garde lean from one of the leading improvisers on trumpet of his generation. It was truly an unreal experience, and I have immense gratitude for the way in which he took me under his wing and gave my love of music a shot in the arm.
I’ve also been a regular member of Wayne Horvitz's Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble for the last five years or so, and have found immeasurable joy and inspiration playing for and working with Wayne. He is such a pillar of the community and has mentored so many young musicians over the years. After wearing myself thin on the road for 10 years, sliding into a more regular schedule at home — and playing improvised music and outstanding compositions and arrangements by Wayne — has been a revelation and a welcome source of motivation.
Do you remember when you chose to pursue jazz music? What inspired that decision?
I remember my junior high band director — and another one of my all-time biggest and earliest influences —Shawn McGinn, gave me a Freddie Hubbard CD, and I never really looked back.
What’s your favorite local jazz venue and why?
Having played so much recently at Royal Room, in what I call "the de facto house band” led by Wayne Horvitz, I have to give them a shout out. It is such a hard business running a small club with local talent, with razor-thin margins. So anybody doing that in service of the arts deserves sainthood in my book.
I’m heartened to see new spots emerging to revitalize the scene, such as Seattle Jazz Fellowship. They have managed to tap into a crowd base that is not only other musicians, which is exactly what the music needs to survive and thrive. Kudos!
