California Fever: Bruce Carter

August 12, 2006

Bruce Carter

About 4:00 today, we got a call from a good friend, another musician. He said he'd tried J's cell and hadn't been able to get through. (Jeffrey had left for a gig in the City about 10 minutes before the call.) He wanted to let us know that Bruce Carter died today. He said he'd try Jeffrey again (he was calling from a gig himself). I waited about 10 minutes to give them a chance to talk, and then called J again. But he said my call was the first one he'd had...so I had to deliver the sad news.

I didn't personally know Bruce and only saw him play a few times. He was on tour a lot during my Portland years; he didn't play a lot of local gigs during that time. He was a huge talent in a city that produces a lot of great musicians. His Portland peers held him in great esteem. I know his name probably won't mean anything to you...but some of you may have seen him perform with someone who's sold a ton of records. He played in this band for many years:

I hated to give Jeffrey such sad news on his way to a gig, but I knew he'd want to know. He immediately called his cousin, Linda Hornbuckle, a singer who fronts her own band in Portland. In an ironic twist, Bruce was scheduled to play Jimmy Mak's, Portland's premier jazz club, next Saturday with Linda. As J.D., the fabulous bartender at Jimmy Mak's, wrote on the club's site (scroll down to August 19), "There is also a chance that legendary Portland drummer Bruce Carter will occupy the drum chair. Bruce was a founding member of the great funk band Pleasure and his grooves are some of the most ridiculous this writer has ever heard." Everybody loved Bruce's playing.

Jeffrey followed Bruce into the drum chair in more than one band, including Cool'R, a funk band J played in for several years. And in what Jeffrey considered a great honor, he was asked to perform with Pleasure when they reunited for one performance at the 1995 Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. (Bruce couldn't make it--he was on tour at the time.)

Bruce was a large man...and he left large shoes to fill. A music critic for the Oregonian dubbed him "The Round Mound of Get Down." That pretty much summed it up. The man could play. It's a sad day for Portland musicians. The Oregonian story is here.

August 12, 2006 | Permalink