Brian Carpenter is a multi-faceted artist, musician, composer, arranger, film director, radio producer and more. In short, he's a guy who follows his muse. In this case, that muse is jazz of the 1920s and I'm mighty thankful he took this detour. Hothouse Stomp is a loving tip of the cap to some of the unsung greats of Harlem and Chicago's South Side, bands and composers who helped set the stage for the Swing Era—McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra, "Fess" Williams' Royal Flush Orchestra and Hartzell "Tiny" Parham, to name a few. On Hothouse Stomp, Carpenter and his little big band don't just recreate musical museum pieces; they breathe fire and life into this amazing music. Parham's "Mojo Strut" bounces with abandon. Charlie Johnson's "Hot Bones And Rice" eases along with a gutbucket groove and piercing solos by clarinetist Dennis Litchman, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and Carpenter on trumpet. Fess Williams' "Slide Mr. Jelly Slide" is an uptempo power romp. Throughout the record, fans will be reminded of how great the tuba, banjo and drums sound in the rhythm section, what a fine jazz instrument the violin can be and what a cool effect the musical saw can deliver. The band will be playing at New York's Highline Ballroom on June 29. The only thing better than hearing this recording would be seeing the band live. —Frank Alkyer, Down Beat Editor's Pick, April 2011
Listen to a Brian Carpenter interview and tracks from the album on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Album Press Release/One-sheet
Brian Carpenter is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, filmmaker, radio producer, engineer, and actor. He is the founder of Beat Circus, a Boston-based genre-bending ensemble founded in 2002 which spins cabaret, gospel, progressive rock, and Appalachian string music into its own blend of dark, funereal Americana. In 2008, he released Dreamland on Cuneiform Records, the first part of a "Weird American Gothic" trilogy of albums co-produced by NY producer Martin Bisi. His second part of the trilogy, a Southern Gothic opus entitled Boy From Black Mountain, followed in 2009, co-produced with Sean Slade and Bryce Goggin. Boy From Black Mountain went on to win the Independent Music Award for Best Alt/Country Album that year.
Brian is also the founder, arranger, and trumpeter for the Ghost Train Orchestra, a ten-piece jazz orchestra based in New York City. Their debut album Hothouse Stomp: The Music of 1920s Chicago and Harlem was produced by Grammy award winner Danny Blume and released in 2011 on Accurate Records.
Brian Carpenter has been featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He has collaborated or recorded with Michael Gira, Swans, Larkin Grimm, Brian Dewan, Marc Ribot, and Roswell Rudd. He is also the director of two films currently in production, including a feature-length documentary on the life and legacy of Albert Ayler, on which he collaborated with many artists, including guitarist Marc Ribot, avant-garde filmmaker Michael Snow, trombonist Roswell Rudd, and comic strip writer Harvey Pekar.
Brian is also the creator and host of the "free-form experimental radio show" Free Association, which aired weekly on WFIT (1996-1998) and WZBC (2001-2005) and continues to air on WZBC occasionally for special programs he produces. His latest radio production is "The Sound of Horror", a 4-hour study on sound design in horror and science-fiction films now used in film sound classes around the world. Carpenter has begun authoring a book on the subject of sound design in horror films.
2011 will see Carpenter fronting and recording a new band called The Confessions. Other upcoming projects for 2011-12 include production on the second album by the Ghost Train Orchestra featuring new and exciting arrangements of early American cartoon composers of the 1930s, a film score for animator Lorelei Pepi's cartoon Happy & Gay, and an acting role as Dadaist founder Hugo Ball in acclaimed filmmaker Martha Swetzoff's Perfect, Kind-Hearted Wickedness.
He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts with his wife Caroline and their son Alexander.
