Michael Carter
Michael grew up inside the music. His grandfather, Harry Gould Carter — a bass baritone and Bay Area recording artist — was far from the first musician in the family, and Michael would not be the last. From him Michael absorbed not just the repertoire but the feel of it. The way a lyric sits. The space between phrases. As a teenager he began studying under Nate Pruitt — a vocalist shaped by Carmen McRae who went on to record with Quincy Jones — whose influence on his phrasing and interpretation would prove lasting.
What Michael built over the next two decades he built entirely on his own terms. In his early twenties he was already holding residencies in Morgan Hill and Gilroy — working rooms, building audiences, and developing a following that would grow steadily northward through San Jose and eventually into San Francisco. It was at a local jazz jam hosted by John Worley — a Yamaha Performing Artist who had shared the stage with Ella Fitzgerald — that the wider music community took notice. Worley pulled him in to play with the house band and introduced him to the room as Michael “The Crooner” Carter. Michael had a new website by morning. Vintage Noise came later.
Nearly twenty years on, Michael Carter remains exactly what he set out to be — the modern crooner, carrying a tune from generations past into every room he enters.