[4] In addition to a solo career of more than 60 years, Carter is well-known for playing on numerous iconic Blue Note albums in the 1960s, as well as being the anchor of trumpeter Miles Davis's "Second Great Quintet" from 1963-1968.

[1] While at Eastman, Carter began the shift from classical to jazz when he, Pee Wee Ellis and other friends put together a house band to play at the Pythodd Room, a club on Clarissa Street in segregated Rochester, where he met players on the Chitlin Circuit who encouraged him to go to New York City.

[7] [8] [9] Carter's first jobs as a jazz musician were playing bass with Chico Hamilton in 1959, followed by freelance work with Jaki Byard, Cannonball Adderley, Randy Weston, Bobby Timmons, and Thelonious Monk.

[10] In early October 1960, Carter recorded How Time Passes with Don Ellis, and on June 20, 1961, he recorded Where?, his first album as a leader, featuring Dolphy on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet; Mal Waldron on piano; Charlie Persip on drums; and Duvivier playing basslines on tracks where Carter played cello.

Carter was a member of the second Miles Davis Quintet in the mid 1960s, which also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and drummer Tony Williams.

[11] He was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the era, playing with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Horace Silver, and others.

He also played on soul-pop star Roberta Flack's album First Take and Gil Scott Heron's Pieces of a Man, including the iconic bass-line on "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".

Notable musical partnerships in the 1970s and 1980s included Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Hank Jones, Gabor Szabo and Cedar Walton.

[13] In 1986, Carter played double bass on "Big Man on Mulberry Street" on Billy Joel's album The Bridge.

[24] The film's end credits feature Carter and fellow bassist Christian McBride duetting on "Solitude"[25] at the club, owned by a black gangster called Seldom Seen, who was played by a "show-stealing" Harry Belafonte.

[36] In May 2022, Carter celebrated his birthday by releasing a Tiny Desk Concert recorded at the Blue Note Jazz Club featuring Russell Malone and Donald Vega.