The Pete Cater Big Band

The Pete Cater Big Band: Playing with Fire

by Jack Bowers
July 1, 1998

Drummer Pete Cater's big-band debut couldn't have been more appropriately named. Do Cater and his London-area comrades play with fire? “Youbetchalife" they do. The band comes out screamin' on Matt Wilson's galvanic opener (featuring Matt O'Regan's blazing piano) and never falters right on through the final bars of Monty Alexander's “Regulator." Yes, there are moments of beauty and repose along the way (Johnny Mandel's “A Time for Love," Leonard Bernstein's lovely and too-seldom-heard “Some Other Time") but even at a ...