Pete Canter - jazz saxophonist, teacher & composer

home     projects   music   gigs    recordings     radio show    teaching    workshops     photos   reviews    composing    functions     contact     links

Hello, welcome to my website. I am a professional jazz saxophone player, teacher and composer based in the UK. My jazz repertoire draws on bebop, hardbop, latin jazz, and my own contemporary compositions. My prime focus is to write and play new music be it jazz or jazz crossover. I work in all types of venue from pubs and wine bars to art-centres and concert halls and also play a wide range of events from weddings and private parties to jazz club concerts and major jazz festivals. I play mainly tenor sax but also alto and soprano according to the job in hand. I am interested in contemporary classical music and minimalism and incorporate elements from these and other areas of music into my composing projects. I teach saxophone privately and run jazz improvisation workshops. For the last couple of years I have been playing drums and congas and I am working with several bands as a drummer. I present 200% Proof, a jazz show on Exeter community radio station Phonic FM. Along with my co-host on 200% Proof Mack Robinson, I am helping to launch ta new jazz night in Exeter, the Bridge Jazz Club

My current and recent projects include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sketches - a composition originally commissioned for the Exeter Vibraphonic Festival. This is a continuous jazz suite scored for jazz quartet plus strings and "soft" horns i.e. flugelhorns and French horn. The music interweaves contemporary jazz themes, modal grooves and minimalist soundscapes. Originally performed by a 10-piece band, Pete Canter's October Ensemble was subsequently expanded to a quindectet. See composing.

The Pete Canter Quartet is known for its high-intensity straight-ahead hardbop and latin jazz material and is a regular at jazz venues and festivals across the Southwest and further afield. It has several incarnations including my Exeter based band with Ian Wright (pno), Andy Tunbridge (bss) and Gary Evans (dms), and a line up with Bristol-based pianist Jim Blomfield, which works around the Bristol, Bath and Cheltenham area.

The Pete Canter Trio works regularly in smaller venues and usually comprises either Ian Wright (piano) & Andy Tunbridge (bass) or Jim Blomfield (piano) & Kevin Sanders (bass).

Pete Canter & Ian Wright is a popular sax-piano duo playing around restaurants, wine bars and other small venues. We have a large jazz repertoire ranging from mainstream standards to contemporary latin and original tunes.

Lazybird is a function band with Claire Hoinville (vcls), Ian Wright (pno), Andy Tunbridge (bss) and Gary Evans (congas/drums) which plays laid back jazz, latin and soul music.

Jinrikisha is a quintet with Hereford based trumpet/flugelhorn player Ben Thomas, Jim Blomfield (piano), Erika Lyons (double-bass) & Gary Evans (drums). The band plays blue note classics and originals written by members of the band. Jinrikisha performed in the 2010 Teignmouth Jazz Festival.

Pete Canter's October Quintet was formed in 2007 to play my contemporary jazz compositions. The musicians are myself on tenor saxophone, Tim Sayer (tpt/flgl), Ian Wright (pno), Kevin Sanders (bss) and Dave Sheen (dms). Outside In, a performance of original tunes written for the OQ was a grant winner in the 2008 Exeter Autumn Festival.

Remo is a jazz quartet/quintet in which I play drums.

In 2005/6 I received a grant from Artsmatrix to study composition with internationally renowned saxophonist/composer Iain Ballamy and Iain has performed with my quartet on several occasions: at the Queens Theatre Barnstaple as part of the 2007 North Devon Festival and at the 2007 Teignmouth Jazz Festival.

In 2007 I produced a CD "So Far" which is a compilation of recordings made over the past few years with several different bands. "Ununbium", a new album of my original tunes recorded with Jim Blomfield, Wayne Elliot and Gary Evans has recently been released. Both albums are available on gigs, direct from me or from www.jazzcds.co.uk, see recordings.

Over the last few years I have played at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Teignmouth Jazz Festival, Bude Jazz Festival, Hayne Barton Jazz Festival, Exeter Vibraphonic Festival, Exeter Summer Festival, Exeter Autumn Festival, Taunton Jazz Festival, North Devon Festival and Pontypool Jazz Festival. My bands have supported Polar Bear and Kyle Eastwood and I have played with Iain Ballamy, Christian Brewer, Harry Beckett, Ted Beament, and Jim Fryer. I was recently featured in one of the PRS-MCPS monthly podcasts of  new composers.

 

I play a 1963 Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone with an Otto-link 7* ebonite mouthpiece and a 2.5 Rico Royal reed; a 1981 Selmer mark VII alto with a 7* Otto-link ebonite mouthpiece and a 2.5 Rico Royal reed; Selmer Super Action 80 serie II soprano with a Meyer 7M mouthpiece and a Rico Royal 2.5 reed.

 

If yu would like to support my composing or other music projects, please feel free to make a donation via PayPal. Just click on the button below.