Jeremy Carter and band(s) on two stages this weekend

To make sure the lights stay on, professional musicians must take (most of) the work that’s offered to them. Playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and the odd restaurant gig, while they might not be as much fun as a freewheeling nightclub or theater show or jam session, can be fulfilling.

Anyway, it beats working the old nine-to-five. Just ask St. Petersburg saxophonist Jeremy Carter.

“You love a challenge from time to time, and it’s rewarding to have your eyes opened up to some new material,” he says. “Which is often the case whenever I get called as a sideman, and I get a folder with somebody else’s vision – their music.”

The Jeremy Carter Group – two different lineups of musicians, with just Carter as the common denominator – has two performances this weekend. Friday (Nov. 7) they’ll play the Palladium Theater Side Door Cabaret, and Saturday finds them inside the Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement.

Carter, a Nebraska native who moved to the bay area in 2001, is a core component of the poly-talented St. Pete/Tampa/Clearwater jazz community. He’s particularly fond of “theming” his concerts, rather than concentrating on a specific style or single artist.

CHECK IT OUT: Arts Alive! podcast: Musician Jeremy Carter

Case in point is Friday’s Side Door show, which he’s titled My Favorite Things.

What comes to mind, for many, will be sax icon John Coltrane’s cool, sinewy (and very famous) rendition of that classic show tune.

“That song is part of the program, but the title’s more of an over-arching thing,” Carter explains. “With all of the music included being some of my favorite things.” The not-all-jazz program includes tunes by Steely Dan, Donny Hathaway and Ray Charles, along with more than a few surprises. “We’re all over the place. It’s going to be a borderline rock concert. It’s pretty hard-driving.”

The group members, for this night, “are also some of my favorite people,” Carter adds. They are Rod Alnord, drums; Elias Tona, bass; Patrick Bettison, keys; and Billy Norris, guitar.

Norris, from Tampa, met Carter back in the early days, and then spent 20 years as guitarist and musical director for singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw.

“He was really young when I first met him, but even then he was really talented. A lot of people know about him, because he’s from here, but not a lot know that he’s back. He doesn’t really do a lot, musically. So I’m really excited to keep in touch with him, and be able to incorporate him in this program.”

Tickets for Friday’s 8 p.m. performance are here.

“It’s fulfilling in that you have to just look within yourself, rely on your own creativity to not just put a bunch of songs together but to truly cultivate a show,” Carter says. “That has some connective tissue.”

Saturday’s art museum concert features an entirely different band: LaRue Nickelson, guitar; James Suggs, trumpet; Alejandro Arenas, bass; and Jean Bolduc, drums. It doesn’t have an official “theme.”

“The personnel is different, so inherently it’s going to feel much more jazzy,” says Carter. “And the program is different – not to give too much away, but it’s more soul-centered, more like Stanley Turrentine, and hard bop sort of stuff.”

The Saturday performance starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are here.

During the day, Carter’s regular gig is driving his son to and from school.

As a musician, however, nighttime is go time.

“I try to keep together a core unit of guys that I can kind of promote as ‘The Jeremy Carter Group.’ But the nature of the business is that a lot of stuff comes up where they want something specifically.

“Like, I’m doing a party coming up where they want a cross between Bog Bad Voodoo Daddy and Roaring ‘20s at the start of the night, and later on they want Earth, Wind & Fire and stuff like that. There are so many instances where I have to wear multiple hats in the same day. So I try to keep guys that are as versatile as possible.”

As a soloist, he’s at Dunedin’s Fenway Hotel every Sunday, from 10 a.m. until the early afternoon. He sometimes works as a DJ. He sometimes plays live sax, accompanying a DJ (that one, admittedly, is a challenge).

“I’m a saxophone player, but I’m also an … event coordinator, or whatever,” Carter explains. “I get calls with all sorts of requests. Sometimes I don’t play at all; I’ll just book the band and book everything that they need for it.

“I have a few different agencies that I work with around town, and I will go and do the most undignified stuff imaginable.”