546 - Bryan Carter: From Drumming with Jazz Greats to Composing and Arranging for Broadway

Bryan Carter is a Grammy and Tony Award-winning drummer, vocalist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and bandleader. After completing his training at The Juilliard School, Carter played with legendary artists including McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, and Kurt Elling. In addition to working in the worlds of film, television, and Broadway, Bryan founded "Jazz at Pride," a non-profit organization dedicated to curating performances and educational engagements featuring world-class artists from the LGBTQIA+ community. Bryan most recently served as co-orchestrator for Broadway's “Some Like It Hot,” for which he and his co-orchestrator Charlie Rosen made history as the first orchestrators to sweep all three major awards in a single season: the 76th Annual Tony Awards for Best Orchestrations, the Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Orchestrations. Rosen and Carter continued their streak of success at the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards, winning the title of Best Musical Theater Album as producers on the recording. In the fall of 2024, Bryan premiered “Rustin in Renaissance,” a seven-movement oratorio on the life of civil-rights pioneer Bayard Rustin. The premiere was held at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room and coincided with the 20th anniversary of “The House of Swing.” In this episode, Bryan talks about: Playing multiple instruments and musical roles since early childhood His orchestration role on “Some Like It Hot” that garnered him a Tony and a Grammy His experience at Julliard, and feeling like the curriculum put him in too small a box Looking around for “who was hiring” in New York and what that looks like on that scene The New York tradition of older established artists seeking out younger musicians and giving them a platform Writing and playing for George Clooney’s Broadway production of “Good Night and Good Luck” How using piano for composition has made him think of drumming from an arrangement standpoint Welcoming how different performers offer different interpretations of what he writes ⁠⁠⁠Here's our Patreon⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Here's our Youtube⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Here's our Homepage