Ron Carter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ron Carter; 2008

Ron Carter (* 4. May 1937 in Ferndale (Michigan) ) is an American jazz - bassist , cellist and composer. With involvement in more than 2,200 albums, he is the most recorded bass player in the history of jazz . Carter is also a celebrated cellist . The jazz bassist Stanley Clarke said of Ron Carter: Imagine if there wasn't a Ron Carter, then there would be so much less art in this world .

life and work

Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan. He started playing the cello at the age of ten , but after a while switched to bass and also learned violin, clarinet, trombone and tuba. He attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit and later the Eastman School of Music in Rochester , where he played in the Philharmonic Orchestra. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1959 and his master’s degree in double bass from the Manhattan School of Music in 1961 .

Ron Carter at the European Jazz Expò 2007

In his first jobs as a jazz musician, he played with Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton . He recorded his first albums in 1960 with Eric Dolphy , another former member of the Hamilton group, and Don Ellis . In addition to his own recordings as leader on bass with Eric Dolphy and Mal Waldron , he played on Dolphy's album Out There with George Duvivier and Roy Haynes as cellist. He also took part in recordings with Cannonball Adderley , Bobby Timmons and Randy Weston .

Its advanced harmonies and concepts were in line with the Third Stream movement. Although he played electric bass occasionally, he focused on acoustic instruments, often including a piccolo bass tuned to c, g, d, and a that sounds similar to a cello.

Ron Carter became known to a larger audience through his collaboration with Gil Evans ( Out of the Cool , 1960). Carter came to fame through his membership in the second Miles Davis Quintet along with Herbie Hancock , Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams . Carter became a member of Davis Quintet in 1963 and appeared on the albums Seven Steps to Heaven , My Funny Valentine and the follow-up album ESP , where he contributed three compositions, Eighty-One , RJ and Mood . He can also be heard on the albums Miles Smiles from 1966, Nefertiti and Sorcerer , Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro . In addition to participating in the tours of the Miles Davis Quintet, he played on many other, sometimes legendary, albums such as Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage . Carter played on several Williams and Shorter albums for Blue Note Records in the 1960s . He stayed with Davis until 1968 when he left to work more locally. Even when Dave Holland replaced him, he took part in several studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. Another interaction with Davis took place in 1986 to support an anti-apartheid campaign.

After leaving the Davis quintet, Carter was the mainstay for CTI Records for several years , recording albums under his own name as well as playing on a range of albums by other musicians. Notable musical partnerships existed in the 1970s and 1980s with Joe Henderson , Houston Person , Hank Jones and Cedar Walton . Carter played and produced with Antônio Carlos Jobim , Stanley Turrentine , Stan Getz , Coleman Hawkins , Horace Silver , Kenny Burrell , Milt Jackson , Billy Cobham and many other great jazz musicians. During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet .

He appeared as a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the time, including Sam Rivers , Freddie Hubbard , Duke Pearson , Lee Morgan , McCoy Tyner Andrew Hill , Horace Silver and others. Carter was also a member of the VSOP quintet, founded by Hancock in 1976, and appeared on the live album VSOP of the same name, recorded at the Newport Festival , the 1979 album Live Under The Sky and, in the 1990s, on the album A Tribute To Miles Davis .

Ron Carter Foursight Jazz Quartet at the North Sea Jazz Festival 2015 , (from left to right) Ron Carter (bass), Renee Rosnes (piano), Payton Crossley (drums), Rolando Morales-Matos (percussion)

As a band leader, Ron Carter recorded more than 20 albums. He can also be heard on the influential album The Low End Theory by the alternative hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest . In 1994, Carter appeared on the compilation Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool by the Red Hot Organization, an international organization dedicated to fighting the spread of AIDS through popular culture. The album was named Album of the Year by Time Magazine . In 2001, Carter worked with Black Star and John Patton on recording Money Jungle for another compilation, Red Hot + Indigo , a tribute to Duke Ellington . Since 2010 he has been playing with two different formations under the name Golden Striker Trio and Foursight Quartet .

Carter is considered an imaginative improviser. He also opened up the cello , the electric bass and participated in the construction of a piccolo bass. His bass colleague Reggie Workman acknowledged that Carter " continued to develop the concept of the bass as a frontline instrument founded by Monk Montgomery and Oscar Pettiford ." Carter made a notable appearance in Robert Altman's film Kansas City in 1996 . The credits show him and Christian McBride performing a duet on Solitude . Carter appeared as himself on an episode of the HBO series Treme entitled What Is New Orleans . As a member of the Miles Davis Tribute Band, he received a Grammy in 1993 for "Best Jazz Group".

Carter is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the City College of New York School of Music , where he taught for 20 years. He also taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York State. He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York City in 2008 , teaching bass at the School of Jazz. Carter was also successful as an author of jazz books; His book Building a Jazz Bass Line is becoming the standard work for advanced jazz bassists. He received honorary doctorates from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music .

Ron Carter serves on the Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America and the Honorary Founder's Committee . Carter worked with the Jazz Foundation since its inception to support senior American jazz and blues musicians.

Discography (selection)

Ron Carter live in the old pawn shop in Cologne (2008)

Albums under your own name

  • Where? (1961), Prestige Records
  • Uptown Conversation (1970), Embryo Records
  • All Blues (1973), CTI Records
  • Blues Farm (1973), CTI Records
  • Third Plane (1977), Milestone Records - with Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams
  • Piccolo (1977), Milestone Records - Live from “Sweet Brazil”, New York
  • Parade (1979), Milestone Records - with Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Tony Williams and more
  • New York Slick (1980), Milestone Records
  • The Bass and I (1997), Blue Note Records
  • Orfeu (1999), Blue Note Records
  • Stardust (2002), Blue Note Records
  • The Golden Striker (2003), Blue Note Records
  • Dear Miles (2007), Blue Note Records
  • Jazz and Bossa (2008), Blue Note Records
  • Ron Carter's Great Big Band (2011), Sunnyside
  • Ron Carter And The WDR Big Band: My Personal Songbook (2014), In and Out Records
  • Foursight-Stockholm Vol. 1 (2020), In and Out

Albums as a band member

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ron Carter earns world record as the most recorded jazz bassist in history (Guinness World Records)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Martin Kunzler: Jazz-Lexikon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
  3. ^ Ron Carter Official Website
  4. ↑ Biography at allaboutjazz.com ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.allaboutjazz.com
  5. ↑ Interview with Herb Storfer, President of the Jazz Foundation of America ( Memento from October 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Ron Carter  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files


personal data
SURNAME Carter, Ron
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz double bass player, cellist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Ferndale , Michigan