Legendary jazz star Ron Carter is 85 years old and celebrating tonight at Carnegie Hall

For Ron’s Love is the title of the concert that will take place tonight, Tuesday, May 10, in the Perelman room of the prestigious Carnegie Hall. It was a celebration organized by the great Ron Carter, who turned 85 years old six days ago.

Double bass player and leader of large bands, Ron Carter made the announcement in his apartment located on the 10th floor of a building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. As background music, Antônio Carlos Jobim, who was with him before, plays.

With over 60 albums as leader and countless as sideman, and approximately 2,200 sessions under his belt, Ron Carter usually doesn’t give many reports, but at this meeting he wanted to give details of his concert. at Carnegie Hall with his trio, a quartet and an octet, to celebrate his new 85th birthday.

a musical life

Carter grew up a bit weird in the American Midwest, in a home where there were musical instruments, even if they weren’t very musical. “It was something that was common in the homes of black people in the ’40s and’ 50s,” he said, “because there was always someone playing the piano or singing like in a choir.”

At age 11, Ron began playing the cello, thanks to a teacher who wanted to form an orchestra and showed them the instruments. “It caught my attention and I played with it until I got to high school,” he recalls. That’s when he realized that they did not give him as many opportunities as white menno matter how good he played, and switched to bass when he saw that the lone bassist in the orchestra was about to end.

discrimination continued when he entered the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York. Carter played bass in the orchestra, but conductor Leopold Stokowski wanted him to join the Houston Symphony, but said the state of Texas was not progressive enough to have a black musician in the orchestra. Ron Carter then decided to play in a jazz club.

“They told me I played well and I would probably get a job in New York,” he said. He moved to the big city after graduating in 1959 and began playing in the band of drummer Chico Hamilton, while pursuing a graduate degree. at the Manhattan School of Music. Two years later he graduated and released his first album, wherewith Eric Dolphy and Mal Waldron.

With the exception of Charles Mingus and Oscar Pettiford, the bassists were not seen as band leaders, so forcing them to do so was an act of rebellion. “Bass players certainly don’t get attention like other musicians,” he explains, “so I thought it was a chance to do it.” Gradually, his fame grew on the New York scene and in 1963 he was one of the most promising talents in the city, and he was immediately sought after by the coolest actors.

Miles Davis calls

That’s how Miles Davis took him for a new quartet he put together, an experience that lasted five years, until Davis disbanded the group to do something more electric, with rock and funk. But that stage was only possible because of all the accomplishments of the Second Great Quintet, including Carter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter.

“Every night is an opportunity to play wonderful music with loving people,” Carter describes.

An ongoing evolution

Ron Carter’s music continues to evolve. She taught jazz at City College of New York, and worked for Blue Notes and CTI labels, playing with everyone from Roberta Flack and Gil Scott-Heron to Lena Horne and Archie Shepp. Later, he even recorded hip-hop with A Tribe Called Quest, a tip from his children.

According to bassist Stanley Clarke, “Ron is like the center of a concentric circle. He controls almost everything in the bands he belongs to, and on every album he clearly hears the bass. He’s the culmination of those. great bassist before. he, like Mingus, Pettiford and Paul Chambers. “There’s no bass player that he’s not influenced by,” Clarke said.

Ron Carter’s dedication to his bandmates is always on his mind. “I want to make sure you know I appreciate your love and care,” he concluded, looked out the window and said, “I’m still healing from what I’m doing.”

Source: The New York Times

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