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
Ron Carter performing at the European Jazz Expò 2007
Background information
Born May 4, 1937 (1937-05-04) (age 73)
Origin Ferndale, Michigan, U.S.
Genres Orchestral jazz
Mainstream jazz
Third Stream
Occupations Professor
Clinician
Jazz musician
Instruments Double bass
Cello
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]

He also has recorded a large body of classical work, and he contributed to the Film score for Desperate Characters (1971).

Contents

Early life and career

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 harmonics and concepts for 1961 were reminiscent of the then current Third stream movement.

Fame

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's regular group 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.

His work included some non-jazz albums as well, notably as the bassist on Gil Scott-Heron's album 1971 album "Pieces of a Man", which included the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".

During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.

Later career

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.

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.

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 2004.

Ron Carter is a pipe smoker and has been featured in a few advertisements for tobacco pipes, clothing lines, and basses. He also appears in the advertisements for a Tully's chilled coffee beverage in Japan.

Humanitarian

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.[4] 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.[5]

Discography

As leader

  • 1961: Where?
  • 1966: Out Front (Prestige Records)
  • 1969: Uptown Conversation (Embryo Records)
  • 1973: All Blues (CTI Records)
  • 1973: Blues Farm
  • 1974: Spanish Blue
  • 1975: Anything Goes
  • 1976: Yellow & Green
  • 1976: Pastels
  • 1977: Piccolo
  • 1978: Peg Leg (Milestone)
  • 1978: Standard Bearers
  • 1979: Parade
  • 1980: New York Slick (Milestone)
  • 1980: Patrao
  • 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)
  • 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
  • 2008: Jazz and Bossa

As sideman

With Tadd Dameron With Miles Davis With Herbie Hancock With Horace Silver With Charles Tolliver With McCoy Tyner With others

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Allmusic biography
  2. ^ http://danouellette.artistshare.com/default.aspx
  3. ^ Ron Carter Official Website
  4. ^ 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)
  5. ^ 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)
  6. ^ VIEW DVD Listing
  7. ^ VIEW DVD Listing

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