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Ron Carter

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Ron Carter

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Bassist

As a Michigan teenager studying classical music, Ron Carter abandoned cello training and switched to double bass. Following a mere half year of intensive work, he managed to win a scholarship to the prestigious Eastman School of Music in New York. Carter had planned on a classical music career, only vaguely aware of jazz, but in 1958 a conductor visiting the school, Leopold Stokowski of the Houston Symphony, admired his work. However, Stokowski readily admitted that the South, at least, wasn’t ready for black musicians in their orchestras. Hearing this, Carter abruptly realized that racism had permeated the entire U.S. orchestral world—a state of affairs that, he would note in the late 1980s, really hadn’t changed much.

Carter finished his Eastman studies in 1959 and took off for the New York jazz scene. He immediately secured a gig with the well-known Chico Hamilton Quintet, featuring saxophonist Eric Dolphy. The group cut a record for Warner Bros, that was deemed too experimental and never released. After several months of touring, Carter settled down in New York for further training at the Manhattan School of Music.

For the next few years Carter did session work with a great number of musicians, including Cannonball Adder-ley, Randy Weston, and Jaki Byard. He also earned a master’s degree in music. But it was not until 1963 that Carter garnered national—and even international—attention, when he began his five-year stint with the now-legendary Miles Davis Quintet. With Carter on bass, a 17-year-old Tony Williams drumming, and Herbie Hancock playing piano, the quintet possessed "what has been called perhaps the greatest jazz-time-playing rhythm section ever," according to Jazz—The Essential Companion.

Acoustic Preference
If not for his commitment to acoustic bass, Carter might have remained with this extraordinary group for several more years. In 1968 the Davis quintet completed an important album, Filles de Kilimanjaro, which hinted at an abandonment of past practice: Davis required Carter to play an electric bass in the performance. This electrification was a step toward Davis’s famous 1969 jazz-rock fusion release Bitches Brew. Carter apparently wanted no part of the fusion trend and in 1968 departed the group.

Not long after this, in a 1972 Down Beat interview with bass master Richard Davis, Carter explained his attachment to the acoustic bass: he said he feels it has a unique sound, one that the electric bass could never

replace. Even hard-boiled session men prone to seeing the giant instrument as an antique enjoyed it when Carter showed up with his 70-year-old instrument. (He once boasted that his favorite bass had a sound that rivaled an antique one he owned made in 1734.) Nonetheless, Carter admitted that he always allocated the electric bass an hour or so of practice time a week in order to remain versatile.

"Things Are All Backwards"
Record-industry racism and a lack of commercial interest in jazz have concerned Ron Carter his whole career. In the Down Beat interview with Davis, Carter railed against suggestions that jazz help sell itself by going pop. "Why should jazz groups play the Beatles’ music?" he demanded. "Why not propagate … Herbie Hancock’s music … or Thad Jones’ music. Why propagate music that was stolen from us anyway?" Carter also decried the music business claim that jazz doesn’t sell; record company executives, he argued, make no effort to sell it. "They spent $80,000 or so for a sign on Broadway for a rock group that can’t play, so why can’t they spend a third of that for a group that can play—and make some money while they’re at it. Things are all backwards."

In the early 1970s Carter worked with various artists, including immortal songstress Lena Home during her New York appearances, flutist Hubert Laws, and jazz guitarist George Benson. He also recorded with Art Farmer, saxophonist Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, and others. Later in the 1970s Carter was signed by the Milestone label, which issued many of his records, including 1977’s Piccolo, featuring the bassist’s early efforts at piccolo playing;1+3, a live Tokyo album from 1978—essentially a Miles Davis Quintet rhythm section reunion with Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock; and Patrao, recorded two years later with Chet Baker.

The Davis rhythm section reunion played for some time under the name VSOP and, along with Hancock and Williams, included saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Two albums and a worldwide tour later, Carter was with another outfit, this one led by tenor sax player Sonny Rollins. He further built his list of all-star associations with the Rollins group, since it afforded him the opportunity to play with pianist McCoy Tyner. In 1981 some VSOP members regrouped as the Hancock Quartet, featuring the addition of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; this new quartet embarked on an international tour and released a double album. Later in the 1980s, jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, future bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, appeared for a time in the Hancock Quartet.

Interest in Classical Music Resurfaced
Around the same time, Carter began a serious teaching career at City College of the City University of New York, handling practical courses as well as an authoritative examination of post-World War II jazz history. Carter’s music also appeared on film soundtracks, one ambitious project being Bertrand Tavernier’e 1988 motion picture Beatrice. The music for this film was made using only medieval instruments, including the vielle, sack-butt, hurdy gurdy, and string bass. The project required intense research and challenged Carter’s limits.

The Beatrice film score project resurrected Carter’s lifelong interest in classical music, an echo of boyhood training. In the late 1980s he voiced a desire to compose for string orchestras and quartets. Having already successfully recorded Bach cello music on Nippon/Poly-dor, Carter worked through the early 1990s on an album eventually released as Ron Carter Meets Bach. The classical music world resisted the project, however; after major classical labels rejected Bach, it wound up on the jazz label Blue Note. Hearing the finished album, a Musician magazine contributor hailed "the autumnal richness of the low-end colors [and] the surprising malleability of [Carter’s] dancing, singing bass parts."

Not all listeners shared the Musician reviewer’s enthusiasm. Kevin Whitehead, a National Public Radio (NPR) jazz critic, wrote in the pages of Pulse! that the album might be classified as comedy; he further lamented an inappropriate jazz trill, out-of-tune playing, and multi-tracking that seemed to emphasize a lack of time sense. Still, the album was generally well reviewed, at least in jazz publications. The Bach album reflects Carter’s willingness to venture beyond safe country—that country being jazz of the last several decades. After appearing on over 1,000 albums and authoring multiple volumes on jazz-craft, teaching, and playing around the world, Ron Carter has built his own kingdom in the music world.

Selected discography
My Funny Valentine, CBS, 1964.
Miles Smiles, CBS, 1966.
Filles de Kilimanjaro, Columbia, 1968.
VSOP Live under the Sky, CBS, 1977.
Piccolo, Milestone, 1977.
1+3, Milestone, 1978.
Patrao, Milestone, 1980.
Herbie Hancock Quartet, CBS, 1981.
Etudes, Elektra Musician, 1983.
Ron Carter Meets Bach, Blue Note, 1993.

Sources
Books
Jazz—The Essential Companion, edited by Ian Carr, Prentice Hall, 1988.

Periodicals
Down Beat, May 11, 1972.
Musician, February 1988; February 1993.
Pulse!, June 1993.
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:

Ron Carter

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  • Genres: Jazz

Biography

The epitome of class and elegance, though not stuffy, Ron Carter has been a world class bassist and cellist since the '60s. He's among the greatest accompanists of all time, but has also done many albums exhibiting his prodigious technique. He's a brilliant rhythmic and melodic player, who uses everything in the bass and cello arsenal; walking lines, thick, full, prominent notes and tones, drones and strumming effects, and melody snippets. His bowed solos are almost as impressive as those done with his fingers. Carter has been featured in clothing, instrument, and pipe advertisements; he's close to being the bass equivalent of a Duke Ellington in his mix of musical and extra-musical interests. Carter's nearly as accomplished in classical music as jazz, and has performed with symphony orchestras all over the world. He's almost exclusively an acoustic player; he did play electric for a short time in the late '60s and early '70s, but hasn't used it in many, many years.

Carter began playing cello at ten. But when his family moved from Ferndale, MI, to Detroit, Carter ran into problems with racial stereotypes regarding the cello and switched to bass. He played in the Eastman School's Philharmonic Orchestra, and gained his degree in 1959. He moved to New York and played in Chico Hamilton's quintet with Eric Dolphy, while also enrolling at the Manhattan School of Music. Carter earned his master's degree in 1961. After Hamilton returned to the West Coast in 1960, Carter stayed in New York and played with Dolphy and Don Ellis, cutting his first records with them. He worked with Randy Weston and Thelonious Monk, while playing and recording with Jaki Byard in the early '60s. Carter also toured and recorded with Bobby Timmons' trio, and played with Cannonball Adderley. He joined Art Farmer's group for a short time in 1963, before he was tapped to become a member of Miles Davis' band.

Carter remained with Davis until 1968, appearing on every crucial mid-'60s recording and teaming with Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams to craft a new, freer rhythm section sound. The high-profile job led to the reputation that's seen Carter become possibly the most recorded bassist in jazz history. He's been heard on an unprecedented number of recordings; some sources claim 500, others have estimated it to be as many as 1,000. The list of people he's played with is simply too great to be accurately and completely cited. Carter's been a member of New York Jazz Sextet and New York Jazz Quartet, V.S.O.P. Tour, and Milestone Jazzstars, and was in one of the groups featured in the film Round Midnight in 1986.

He's led his own bands at various intervals since 1972, using a second bassist to keep time and establish harmony so he's free to provide solos. Carter even invented his own instrument, a piccolo bass. Carter's also contributed many arrangements and compositions to both his groups and other bands. He's done duo recordings with either Cedar Walton or Jim Hall. Carter's recorded for Embryo/Atlantic, CTI, Milestone, Timeless, EmArcy, Galaxy, Elektra, and Concord, eventually landing at Blue Note for LPs including 1997's The Bass and I, 1998's So What, and 1999's Orfeu. When Skies Are Grey surfaced in early 2001, followed a year later by Stardust, Carter's tribute to the late bassist Oscar Pettiford. In 2006 another tribute album was released, Dear Miles, dedicated to Miles Davis, also on Blue Note. ~ Ron Wynn, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Ron Carter

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For the basketball player, see Ron Carter (basketball). For the ice hockey player, see Ron Carter (ice hockey).
Ron Carter

Ron Carter performing at the European Jazz Expò 2007
Background information
Born (1937-05-04) May 4, 1937 (age 75)
Origin Ferndale, Michigan, U.S.
Genres Orchestral jazz
Mainstream jazz
Third Stream
Occupations Professor
Clinician
Jazz musician
Instruments Double bass
Cello
Piccolo bass
Electric bass
Years active 1960–present

Ron Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that instrument.[1]

Contents

Biography

Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan. He started to play cello at the age of 10, but when his family moved to Detroit, he ran into difficulties regarding the racial stereotyping of classical musicians and instead moved to bass. He attended the historic Cass Technical High School in Detroit, and, later, the Eastman School of Music, where he played in its Philharmonic Orchestra. He gained his bachelor's degree at Eastman in 1959, and in 1961 a master's degree in double bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music.

His first jobs as a jazz musician were with Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton. His first records were made with Eric Dolphy (another former member of Hamilton's group) and Don Ellis, in 1960. His own first date as leader, Where?, with Dolphy and Mal Waldron and a date also with Dolphy called Out There with George Duvivier and Roy Haynes and Carter on cello; its advanced harmonies and concepts were in step with the third stream movement.

Carter came to fame via the second great Miles Davis quintet in the early 1960s, which also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Carter joined Davis's group in 1963, appearing on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E.S.P., the latter being the first album to feature only the full quintet. It also featured three of Carter's compositions (the only time he contributed compositions to Davis's group). He stayed with Davis until 1968 (when he was replaced by Dave Holland), and participated in a couple of studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. Although he played electric bass occasionally during this period, he has subsequently eschewed that instrument entirely, and now plays only acoustic bass. Carter was close to Davis and even revealed to an interviewer in 1966 that the famous trumpeter's favorite color was fuchsia.[2]

Carter also performed on some of Hancock, Williams and Shorter's recordings during the sixties for Blue Note Records. 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.

After leaving Davis, Carter was for several years a mainstay of CTI Records, making albums under his own name and also appearing on many of the label's records with a diverse range of other musicians. Notable musical partnerships in the 70's and 80's included Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Hank Jones, and Cedar Walton. During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.

He appears on the alternative hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest's influential album The Low End Theory on a track called "Verses from the Abstract". He also appears as a member of the jazz combo the Classical Jazz Quartet.

In 1994, Carter appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine. In 2001, Carter collaborated with Black Star and John Patton to record "Money Jungle" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Carter was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of The City College of New York, having taught there for twenty years,[3] and received an honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music, in Spring 2005 [4]. He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York City in 2008, teaching bass in the school's Jazz Studies program.

Carter made a notable appearance in Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City. The end credits feature him and fellow bassist Christian McBride duetting on "Solitude".

Ron Carter sits on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of The Jazz Foundation of America as well as the Honorary Founder's Committee.[5] Ron has worked with the Jazz Foundation since its inception to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians including musicians that survived Hurricane Katrina.[6]

Carter appeared as himself in an episode of the HBO series Treme entitled "What Is New Orleans."

Carter's authorized biography, "Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes," by Dan Ouellette was published by ArtistShare in 2008.

Discography

As leader

Ron plays.JPG
  • 1961: Where? (Prestige Records) with Eric Dolphy, Charlie Persip, Mal Waldron, George Duvivier
  • 1966: Out Front (Prestige)
  • 1969: Uptown Conversation (Embryo Records)
  • 1973: Blues Farm (CTI)
  • 1973: All Blues (CTI)
  • 1974: Spanish Blue (CTI)
  • 1975: Anything Goes (Kudu)
  • 1976: Yellow & Green (CTI)
  • 1976: Pastels (Milestone)
  • 1977: Piccolo (Milestone)
  • 1977: Third Plane (Milestone)
  • 1978: 1+3 (JVC) trio live with Hank Jones or Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams
  • 1978: Peg Leg (Milestone)
  • 1978: Standard Bearers
  • 1979: Parade
  • 1980: New York Slick (Milestone)
  • 1980: Patrao
  • 1980: Empire Jazz
  • 1980: Pick 'Em (Milestone)
  • 1981: Super Strings (Milestone)
  • 1990: Carnaval
  • 1991: Meets Bach (Blue Note)
  • 1992: Friends (Blue Note)
  • 1994: Jazz, My Romance (Blue Note)
  • 1995: Mr. Bow Tie (Blue Note)
  • 1995: Brandenburg Concerto (Blue Note)
  • 1997: The Bass and I
  • 1998: So What (Blue Note) trio with Kenny Barron and Lewis Nash
  • 1999: Orfeu (Blue Note)
  • 2001: When Skies Are Grey (Blue Note)
  • 2002: Stardust (Blue Note)
  • 2003: The Golden Striker (Blue Note)
  • 2003: Eight Plus
  • 2003: Ron Carter Plays Bach
  • 2006: Live at The Village Vanguard
  • 2007: Dear Miles featuring his quartet Stephen Scott, piano, Payton Crossley, drums and Roger Squitero, percussion
  • 2008: Jazz and Bossa

As sideman

Ron Carter.JPG

With Toshiko Akiyoshi

With Gato Barbieri

With George Benson

  • Giblet Gravy (1968)

With Bob Brookmeyer

With Kenny Burrell

With Henry Butler

  • The Village (Impulse!, 1987)

With Donald Byrd

With Billy Cobham

With Alice Coltrane

With Harry Connick, Jr.

With Tadd Dameron

With Miles Davis

With Eli Degibri

  • Israeli Song (2010)

With Paul Desmond

With Eric Dolphy

With Lou Donaldson

With Roberta Flack

With Bill Frisell

With Johnny Frigo

With Red Garland

With Stan Getz

  • Voices (1967)

With Astrud Gilberto

With Giorgio

  • Party Of The Century (2010)

With Jim Hall

With Chico Hamilton

With Herbie Hancock

With Eddie Harris

With Gene Harris

With Coleman Hawkins

  • Night Hawk (1961)

With Joe Henderson

With Andrew Hill

With Freddie Hubbard

With Bobby Hutcherson

With Jackie and Roy

With Milt Jackson

With Quincy Jones

With Steve Kuhn and Gary McFarland

With Hubert Laws

With Herbie Mann

With Helen Merrill

  • Duets (1987)

With Wes Montgomery

With Airto Moreira

With Oliver Nelson

With David "Fathead" Newman

With the New York Jazz Quartet

  • In Concert in Japan (1975)

With Hermeto Pascoal

With Duke Pearson

With Austin Peralta

  • Maiden Voyage (2006)

With Sam Rivers

With Shirley Scott

With Gil Scott-Heron

With Don Sebesky

With Marlena Shaw

With Wayne Shorter

With Horace Silver

With Grace Slick

With Phoebe Snow

With Gábor Szabó

With Livingston Taylor

With Bobby Timmons

With Charles Tolliver

With A Tribe Called Quest

With McCoy Tyner

With Mal Waldron

With Grover Washington Jr.

With Randy Weston

With Kai Winding

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Allmusic biography
  2. ^ http://danouellette.artistshare.com/default.aspx
  3. ^ Ron Carter Official Website
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ jerryjazzmusician.com. 2009-13-10. URL: http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=storfer.html. Accessed: 2009-13-10. (Archived by jerryjazzmusician.com at http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=storfer.html)
  6. ^ ireport.com. 2009-13-10. URL: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-337150. Accessed: 2009-13-10. (Archived by ireport.com at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-337150)
  7. ^ VIEW DVD Listing
  8. ^ VIEW DVD Listing

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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