Bruce Carter, the truly underrated drummer with Kenny G and the 70's funk band Pleasure, passed away this past Saturday at home in Portland, Oregon. I had the honor of working for him in the late 80's and grew to love his playing, his humility and him as a person. He was a loving husband to Esther and and great dad to Bruce Jr. He had been having health problems over the past few years including another heart attack. He was a big man with a big heart and a groove as wide as both directions of a California freeway. I will miss him, his smile and the bounce of his beats.
Bruce Carter 1956-2006
(before it goes behind the pay wall, here's the Oregonian obit...)
Drummer Bruce Carter dies at 49
"So solid" - He and other Portlanders formed
Pleasure, a hit rhythm and blues act in the 1970s
Sunday, August 13,
2006MARTY HUGHLEY
Bruce Carter, the drummer who helped make a group of
Portland high school friends into a nationally successful
1970s rhythm and blues act named Pleasure, died Saturday
morning. He was 49.
In later years, Carter toured with smooth-jazz superstar
Kenny G.
The cause of death was not immediately determined, though
Mark Young, the husband and manager of singer Linda
Hornbuckle, said Carter collapsed of an apparent heart
attack at his home and died shortly afterward at a Portland
hospital. Carter recently had been playing with
Hornbuckle's band. Carter is survived by his wife, Esther, and son, Bruce Jr.
No information on memorial services was available Saturday.
Bruce Edward Carter was born Dec. 28, 1956, and as a
teenager formed a Portland R&B band called the Franchise
with friends Marlon McClain on guitar and Nathaniel Phillips
on bass. In 1972, the band merged with a rival band, the
Soul Masters, to form Pleasure.
By 1974 -- when Carter, the youngest member, was just 17 --
the noted jazz trombonist Wayne Henderson of the Crusaders
had helped Pleasure land a contract with Fantasy Records and
became the group's producer.
The band recorded several albums, toured nationally and
scored a Top 10 hit on the Billboard R&B chart with the
1979 song "Glide." After that band dissolved in
1981, Carter joined Phillips' new band, Cool'R,
which many musicians considered the most awe-inspiring group
on the Portland club scene in that era.
Carter excelled at both the kind of emphatic rhythm that
keeps a dance floor packed and the suppleness, precision and
attention to sonic detail that reward close listening.
Valerie Day of the hit-making band Nu Shooz recalled the
effect when Carter occasionally sat in with her band at
clubs such as the Last Hurrah. "It changed everything,
it was just so solid," she said. "The man just
really commanded that instrument, and the whole band because
of it."
1:51:07 PM 
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