JIMMY GARRISON

Remembering Jimmy Garrison

Jimmy Garrison (March 3, 1933 – April 7, 1976) was an American jazz double bassist best known for his long association with John Coltrane from 1961 – 1967.

Biography

He formally joined Coltrane's quartet in 1962 as a replacement for Reggie Workman and appears on many Coltrane recordings, including A Love Supreme. During live performances of music by John Coltrane's group, the leader would often provide Garrison with time and space for an unaccompanied improvised solo (sometimes as the prelude to a song before the other musicians joined in).

Garrison also had a long association with Ornette Coleman, first recording with him on Art of the Improvisers. He and drummer Elvin Jones have been credited with eliciting more forceful playing than usual from Coleman on the albums New York is Now and Love Call.

Outside of the Coltrane and Coleman ensembles, Jimmy Garrison performed with jazz artists such as Kenny Dorham, Philly Joe Jones, Curtis Fuller, Benny Golson, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, Pharoah Sanders, and Tony Scott, among others. After Coltrane's death, Garrison worked with Hampton Hawes, Archie Shepp, and groups led by Elvin Jones.[1]

Family

Jimmy Garrison's son Matthew Garrison is also a bass player, playing mainly bass guitar. Matthew has recorded with Joe Zawinul, Chaka Khan, The Saturday Night Live Band, John McLaughlin, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Steve Coleman and others. [2] Garrison's daughter MaiaClaire Garrison is a dancer and choreographer who worked as a child acrobat with Big Apple Circus in New York.

Source: http://nightlight.typepad.com/nightlight/2005/10/remembering_jim.html

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Biography by Chris Kelsey

Garrison is best known as bassist for one of the most important jazz groups, John Coltrane's classic quartet with drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner. But Garrison had a full career backing other prominent saxophonists, including Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Ornette Coleman. Garrison's work with Coleman is especially noteworthy; his earthy, hard-swinging approach contrasted greatly with the work of the saxophonist's other, more finesse-oriented bassists like David Izenson or Scott LaFaro. The Garrison/Elvin Jones rhythm section transformed Coleman on two very underrated albums made for Blue Note, New York Is Now and Love Call. Nowhere else on record does Coleman sound so consistently forceful and passionate. The lithe tunefulness that marks the saxophonist's earlier playing is augmented by a more pronounced physicality that pushes the blues aspect to the fore; this due in no small part to Garrison and Jones' focused intensity, which drives Coleman harder than he's ever been driven. Of course, it's with Coltrane that Garrison did his most enduring work. Although Garrison could be a compelling soloist when the occasion presented itself (witness his work on A Love Supreme), he didn't need the spotlight to be effective. His propulsive sense of time never failed, and his empathy with those playing around him was complete. 

Garrison grew up in Philadelphia, where he learned to play bass. Garrison came of age in the midst of a thriving Philadelphia jazz scene that included Tyner, fellow bassists Reggie Workman and Henry Grimes, and trumpeter Lee Morgan. Between 1957 and 1960, Garrison played and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Dorham; clarinetist Tony Scott; drummer Philly Joe Jones; and saxophonists Bill Barron, Lee Konitz, and Jackie McLean, among others. His first record with Coleman was Art of the Improvisers (Atlantic, 1959). In 1960, he made My Favorite Things (Atlantic) with Coltrane. He continued to play with Coleman and others -- Cal Massey, Walter Bishop, Jr., and Dorham, to name a few -- but by 1962 his job with Coltrane had essentially become full-time. Garrison remained with Coltrane until the saxophonist's death in July 1967. The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording (Impulse!, 2001), a live recording made by Coltrane just a couple of months before his death, includes Garrison with Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Rashied Ali, and Jumma Santos. After Coltrane, Garrison worked with Ornette Coleman once again, and played on record dates led by Sanders, Jones, Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and Alice Coltrane. Garrison also taught occasionally; William Parker, one of the most highly regarded bassists of the late '90s and early 2000s, was his student.

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gzfixqt5ldde~T1

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Jimmy Garrison was one of the most advanced bassists of the 1960s, a perfect candidate to play with John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. 

He grew up in Philadelphia and came to New York with Philly Joe Jones in 1958. He freelanced for a couple of years with the likes of Bill Evans, Benny Golson, Kenny Dorham and Lennie Tristano and then succeeded Charlie Haden in Ornette Coleman's Quartet (1961). However Garrison will always be associated with John Coltrane (1961-67), not only playing with the classic quartet (which included McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones) but surviving the tumultuous changes and staying with 'Trane until the end. 

Garrison's solos (which were thoughtful and slow to build) were not to everyone's taste but his ability to play coherent and inspiring lines in the raging ensembles behind Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders was quite impressive. After Coltrane's death, Garrison played in groups led by Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Elvin Jones before lung cancer cut shorthis life. 

Source: Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

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Biography by Richard Eskow 

genius, teacher, good man

John at Crooks and Liars just made my day, by linking to this CNN story - John Coltrane has two of this week's three top jazz albums, 38 years after he passed away. I took lessons from his bass player, Jimmy Garrison, many years ago. It was an honor and privilege I didn't fully grasp at the time.

At every stage in my life there have been musicians or songs that triggered a near-mystical response in me: the first one I remember is "Stranger on the Shore" by Mr. Acker Bilk (I must have been four, maybe?), then Buddy Holly and the Chiffons at around the same time, Otis Redding at 12 -- for a while in my teens Trane was the guy elected to send me into an altered state.  

When I started taking lessons from Jimmy I was the least schooled and proficient of his students, but he said he liked my attitude and "philosophy" toward music. (We would have very theoretical conversations ...) When I ran out of money, he offered to keep teaching me for free.  

I took him up on his offer for a while, but the fact is I didn't have the self-control to woodshed as much as would be appropriate and respectful to him as my teacher. I was seventeen years old and not at my best. I couldn't keep up with his lessons and pursue my bad habits, too. I was ashamed to tell him that, so I lied and said I couldn't make the bus fare to his apartment either. When he offered to give free lessons and pay my way, I just disappeared.  

When he died I regretted having ended our relationship on a falsehood. He was a beautiful cat - and unusually tolerant of the fact that I sang in a country/western band on weekends. I even wrote country songs in the three- and four-chord structure Jimmy considered imprisoning and unimaginative, but elitism was not his thing. Today I can admit to him - and to you - that I've never been very disciplined, and that chops aren't my strong suit on guitar either.  

Hanging out at Jimmy's apartment was a thrill all its own. You never knew which legend would stop by. A fellow student and I once went through the black book by his telephone while we were waiting for him, just to see the names of the greats ...

His family now maintains a website in his memory. I'm glad. "Genius" is an overused word, but he was one. He was also kind, sensitive, warm, and generous. I wish I could talk to him. I'm not greedy - one time would be enough. I'd like to say "thank you" once more, with feeling.  

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Garrison is best known as bassist for one of the most important jazz groups, John Coltrane's classic quartet with drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner. But Garrison had a full career backing other prominent saxophonists, including Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Ornette Coleman. Garrison's work with Coleman is especially noteworthy; his earthy, hard-swinging approach contrasted greatly with the work of the saxophonist's other, more finesse-oriented bassists like David Izenson or Scott LaFaro. The Garrison/Elvin Jones rhythm section transformed Coleman on two very underrated albums made for Blue Note, New York Is Now and Love Call. Garrison grew up in Philadelphia, where he learned to play bass. Garrison came of age in the midst of a thriving Philadelphia jazz scene that included Tyner, fellow bassists Reggie Workman and Henry Grimes, and trumpeter Lee Morgan. Between 1957 and 1960, Garrison played and recorded with trumpeter Kenny Dorham; clarinetist Tony Scott; drummer Philly Joe Jones; and saxophonists Bill Barron, Lee Konitz, and Jackie McLean, among others. His first record with Coleman was Art of the Improvisers (Atlantic, 1959). In 1960, he made My Favorite Things (Atlantic) with Coltrane. He continued to play with Coleman and others -- Cal Massey, Walter Bishop Jr., and Dorham, but by 1962 his job with Coltrane had become full-time. Garrison remained with Coltrane until the saxophonist's death in July 1967. Garrison worked with Ornette Coleman once again, and played on record dates led by Sanders, Jones, Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and Alice Coltrane.

Source: http://www.jayhungerford.com/bassplayers-garrison.html

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Bassist Jimmy Garrison was the anchor in the classic John Coltrane Quartet, from 1961-'66, which recorded all of its well-known albums on Impulse. Garrison's big, blunt sound, steady time and inventive counter lines were an elemental ingredient in the sound of that famous group. He actually fitted into the group with great insight, supplying a traditional role on the more straight ahead material and exploratory counter melodies and responses as the music grew more progressive.

Garrison was born on March 3, 1934, in Miami, but grew up in Philadelphia, where he first played briefly with Coltrane and McCoy Tyner, in 1957. Garrison moved to New York the following year, where he worked with Curtis Fuller, Philly Joe Jones, Benny Golson, Bill Evans, Kenny Dorham and Lennie Tristano.

Garrison’s early work with Ornette Coleman earned him respect and recognition in the New York jazz circle, and his joint effort with Elvin Jones in that period is thought to be some of Coleman’s best outings.

His first record with Coleman was “Art of the Improvisers,” (Atlantic, 1959). In 1960, he made “My Favorite Things” (Atlantic) with Coltrane. He continued to play with Coleman and others, but by 1962 his job with Coltrane had essentially become full-time. Garrison remained with Coltrane until the saxophonist's death in July 1967. “The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording” (Impulse!, 2001), a live recording made by Coltrane just a couple of months before his death, includes Garrison with Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Rashied Ali, and Jumma Santos. After Coltrane, Garrison worked with Ornette Coleman once again, and played on record dates led by Sanders, Jones, Shepp, Sonny Rollins, and Alice Coltrane. He was featured on quite an extensive number of sessions as bassist. He also taught at Bennington and Wesleyan colleges

Jimmy Garrison died on April 7, 1976, in New York.

Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6964

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Discography

As leader

1963: Illumination! (Impulse! Records) - co-leader with Elvin Jones

As sideman

Jazz Contrasts (Kenny Dorham , 1957)
Blues For Dracula (Philly Joe Jones, 1958)
Swing, Swang, Swinging (Jackie McLean, 1959)
Live at the Half Note (Lee Konitz, 1959)
Images of Curtis Fuller (Curtis Fuller, 1960)
Ballads (John Coltrane, 1962)
Coltrane (John Coltrane, 1962)
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (John Coltrane, 1962)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman ((John Coltrane, 1962)
Live at birdland (John Coltrane, 1963)
Crescent (John Coltrane, 1964)
A Love Supreme (John Coltrane, 1964)
Ascension (John Coltrane, 1965)
First Meditations (John Coltrane, 1965)
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (John Coltrane, 1965)
Kulu Sé Mama (John Coltrane, 1965)
Live at the Half Note: One Up, One Down (John Coltrane, 1965)
Live in Seattle (John Coltrane, 1965)
The Major Works of John Coltrane (John Coltrane, 1965)
Meditations (John Coltrane, 1965)
Transition (John Coltrane, 1965)
Sun Ship (John Coltrane, 1965)
Live in Japan (4 discs) (John Coltrane, 1966)
Live at the Village Vanguard Again! (John Coltrane, 1966)
Expression (John Coltrane, 1967)
The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording (John Coltrane, 1967)
East Broadway Run Down (Sonny Rollins,1966)

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RED GARLAND

William "Red" Garland (May 13, 1923–April 23, 1984) was an American hard bop jazz pianist whose block chord style, in part originated by Milt Buckner, influenced many forthcoming pianists in the jazz idiom.

Biography

Beginnings

Red was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1923. Though he came from a non-musical family, Garland showed an early interest in music. He began his musical studies on the clarinet and alto saxophone but in 1940 switched to the piano. Garland spent copious amounts of time practicing and rapidly developed into a proficient player. A short early career as a welterweight boxer did not seem to hurt his playing hands. He fought a young Sugar Ray Robinson before making the switch to a full-time musician.

Garland's sound

Garland's trademark block chord technique, a commonly borrowed maneuver in jazz piano today, was unique and differed from the methods of earlier block chord pioneers such as George Shearing and Milt Buckner. Garland's block chords were constructed of three notes in the right hand and four notes in the left hand, with the right hand one octave above the left. The right hand played the melody in octaves with a perfect 5th placed in the middle of the octave (a 5th above the lowest note of the octave) even when it seemed to not suit the harmony. The 5th played in the middle of the octave becomes virtually inaudible when the chord in the left hand is played simultaneously, but the added 5th gives the voicings a particularly rich, distinctive and slightly out-of-tune character. Garland's left hand played four note chords that simultaneously beat out the same exact rhythm as the right hand melody played. But, unlike George Shearing's block chord method, Garland's left hand chords did not change positions or inversions until the next chord change occurred. It's also worth noting that Garland's four note left hand chord voicings occasionally left out the roots of the chords, which later became a chord style associated with pianist Bill Evans. Garland's block chord method had a brighter quality, slightly more dissonance, and a fullness in the upper register compared to the mellower Shearing block chord sound. Garland's solo lines also had a glassy, shimmering tone that matched the quality of his chords.

Early work

After the Second World War, Garland performed with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Lester Young. He found steady work in the cities of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In the late 1940s he toured with Eddie Vinson at the same time that John Coltrane was in Vinson's band. His creativity and playing ability continued to improve, though he was still somewhat obscure. By the time he became a pianist for Miles Davis he was influenced by Ahmad Jamal and Charlie Parker's pianist Walter Bishop.

Miles Davis Quintet

Garland became famous in 1955 when he joined the Miles Davis Quintet featuring John Coltrane, Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers. Davis was a big fan of boxing and was impressed that Garland had boxed earlier in his life. Together the group recorded their famous Prestige albums, Workin, Steamin', Cookin', and Relaxin'. Garland's style is prominent in these seminal recordings—evident in his distinctive chord voicings, his sophisticated accompaniment and his musical references to Ahmad Jamal's style. One critic incorrectly labeled Garland as a cocktail pianist, a negative connotation that implies a style isn't original. (Ahmad Jamal likewise was mislabeled a cocktail pianist at one point in his career, but misguided critics were later corrected by the jazz musicians who worked with him.) The quintet's recordings would arguably influence the Free jazz movement more than some of the more jazz avant-garde records of the time.

Garland played on the first of Davis's many Columbia recordings, 'Round About Midnight. Though he would continue playing with Miles, their relationship was beginning to deteriorate. By 1958, Garland and Jones had started to become more erratic in turning up for recordings and gigs. He was eventually fired by Miles, but later returned to play on another jazz classic, Milestones. Davis was displeased when Garland quoted Davis's much earlier and by then famous solo from "Now's The Time" in block chords during the slower take of "Straight, No Chaser." Garland walked out of one of the sessions for Milestones, so that on the track "Sid's Ahead" the group was without a pianist. Davis comped behind the saxophone solos.

After the Miles Davis Quintet

In 1958 Garland formed his own trio. Among the musicians the trio recorded with are Pepper Adams, Nat Adderley (Cannonball Adderley's brother), Ray Barretto, Kenny Burrell, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Jimmy Heath, Harold Land, Philly Joe Jones, Blue Mitchell, Ira Sullivan, and Leroy Vinnegar. The trio also recorded as a quintet with John Coltrane and Donald Byrd.

Altogether Garland led 19 recording sessions while at Prestige Records and was involved in 25 sessions for Fantasy Records.

Garland stopped playing professionally for a number of years in the 1960s when the popularity of rock and roll music coincided with a substantial drop in the popularity of jazz.

Garland eventually returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. His mother was in need of closer supervision in her declining years. He led a recording in 1977 named Crossings which reunited him with Philly Joe Jones, and he teamed up with world-class bassist Ron Carter. His later work tended to sound more modern and less polished than his better known recordings. He continued recording until his death from a heart attack in 1984. His block-chord style, relaxed swinging feel, and classic jazz recordings remain as his lasting legacy.

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Biography By Joel Simpson

Born: May 13, 1923 

Who was Red Garland?

Largely self-taught, Red Garland established a reputation as a solid post-bop mainstream player in the 50s, playing with many of the most famous jazz musicians of the time. He achieved international fame in the late 50s as part of the Miles Davis quintet. He went on to lead his own groups, but then retired in 1968, a victim the declining demand for jazz. He reemerged in 1976 and performed regularly until his death in 1984.

Garland was known for his eloquent middle-of-the-road style. A fertile, often moving improvisor, he developed a characteristic block chord sound by combining octaves with a fifth in the middle in the right hand over left-hand comp (accompanying) chords. The style has been much imitated.

Origins

William M. “Red” Garland was born March 13, 1923, in Dallas, Texas. He came from a non-musical family: his father was an elevator operator at the First National Bank. His first instrument was clarinet and studied alto saxophone with Buster Smith, a well-known Texas saxophonist, who was a strong influence on Charlie Parker. Garland only started on piano in 1941, when he was 18, and in the Army. Stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, he heard a pianist named John Lewis play night after night in the recreation room-this was not the famous John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Finally giving in to his fascination with the instrument, Garland asked the pianist to teach him. Since he had learned to read music under Buster Smith he didn't have to start from zero. Garland his entire days practicing and made rapid progress. At that time he was also a semi-professional prizefighter, a welterweight, and once lost to Sugar Ray Robinson. There was a time when he had to decide whether to follow boxing or music as a career, and although he chose music, he was left with a broken knuckle as a souvenir of his road not taken.

Garland also studied with another Army pianist, Lee Barnes. By the time Garland left the service, he was learning on his own from recordings. His main influences at that time were Count Basie and Nat Cole, from whom he drew lessons in touch, phrasing and conception. He also learned from James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell and Art Tatum. Tatum was his favorite, and he knew he cold never play like he could.

Professional Debut

In 1945 Garland played his first gig on piano with Fort Worth tenor player Bill Blocker. It was less than five years after he had begun studying piano. Then traditional jazz trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page came through town. Word spread around that Page's pianist had quit and he was looking for a new one. Garland had intended to attend the dance Page was playing at anyway, so after his gig he stopped by. Four pianists, including Garland, played for Page that night, right out of Page's book of arrangements. Garland went home to bed after the dance and thought no more about it.

Then at about five in the morning there was a loud knocking at the door. Garland's mother thought it had to be the police and suspected her son of having done something wrong. But it was Page and Garland's old teacher Buster Smith.

“You're the guy who sat in with me tonight?” Page said. “Well, I need you, man. Come on, throw somethin' in a bag and let's go.”

Garland refused at first, thinking he wasn't ready, but Page and Smith talked him into it. Garland was on the road. He enjoyed working with Page, admiring his strength and versatility. He stayed with Page for several months until the tour ended in New York. There Garland decided to look for work, and found it in small clubs. Art Blakey heard him and recommended him to singer/bandleader Billy Eckstine, who was always looking for cutting edge musicians for his big band. At various times he employed Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, Stonny Stitt and Miles Davis. Eckstine accepted Blakey's recommendation, and Garland was hired, touring on Eckstine's bus for six weeks. It turned out to be a new chapter in his musical education.

Survival in the Big Time

Back in New York, Garland concluded his stay in Eckstine's band to join with tenorman Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis playing in a variety of clubs and with a variety of bands. One night, while playing at Minton's Bud Powell came in and insisted Garland yield the piano bench to him. When Powell played, Garland was so overwhelmed he gave him the gig. But then he started visiting Powell frequently at his home and learning from him. They became friends, and Powell became Garland's most important influence-after Art Tatum, whom Garland put in the superhuman category. He received some coaching from Tatum too. One night at Luckey's Rendezvous, a piano-only club owned by Luckey Roberts, Tatum told him to stop forcing the piano, to let it “play itself” and gave him some arpeggios to work on.

In 1947 Garland began a two-year stint at the Blue Note club in Philadelphia, the main venue for modern jazz in that city. While playing in the house rhythm section there he accompanied Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Bill Harris, Flip Phillips, Charlie Ventura and Bennie Green. In 1949 jazz legends tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpeter Roy Eldridge hired him for their band. This turned out to be the key group for Garland, since after that word began to spread that he was an exceptional player. Lester Young and the Ben Webster hired him, and soon he was receiving more calls from famous players than he could handle.

In Demand-Miles Calls

By the early 50s Garland's reputation with the public was strong enough for him to get work as leader of a trio. Then in 1953 he received his first call from Miles Davis, who was trying to form a group of his own for the first time. Davis didn't succeed that time, so Garland stayed with his trio and with Lester Young. Garland made one recording session with Davis and drummer Philly Joe Jones in mid-1955, while still with Young.

Finally, in October of 1955 Davis called Garland again and said he was ready to form a quintet. He had originally planned to include Sonny Rollins and Max Roach, but they now had other commitments. Garland suggested Philly Joe Jones on drums and a young tenor player who was based at the time in Philadelphia: John Coltrane. Miles already knew of him, since Coltrane had been working with Dizzy Gillespie and Johnny Hodges. Miles added Paul Chambers on bass. The group opened at Anchor's Inn in Baltimore.

It was a perfectly balanced rhythm section, with Garland tending to play conservatively, acting as anchor for the extravagant centrifugal playing styles of Coltrane, Jones Davis and Chambers. He stayed with Davis until 1958, when according to Davis, Garland got at mad at Davis when Davis was trying to direct him during a recording session with Cannonball Adderley. After that, Davis's music went in a more modal direction, and he replaced Garland with Bill Evans.

Garland never got into modal jazz. He stayed playing primarily standards, show tunes and blues with occasional jazz tunes from the bebop era. He didn't like the direction Miles or Coltrane went in after he left Miles's band.

Retirement and After

Garland continued leading his own trio, but the jazz scene was contracting, and he didn't feel up to fighting against the times. So in 1968 when his mother died, he returned to Dallas, where he retired from performing until 1976. Then he began playing locally in Dallas at a club called, appropriately enough, the Recovery Room. In 1978 he made a comeback at the more nationally visible Keystone Corner in San Francisco, his first gig outside Dallas in 15 years. He had been sheperded out of retirement by the famous producer Orin Keepnews.

Garland continued a modest performing schedule up until his death by heart attack at age 60, April 23, 1984. Style Red Garland became widely known for his distinctive block chord approach to melody playing, which has been widely imitated. In a block chord style, both hands sound on every note of the melody. There is no separation between right melody and left hand comping (accompanying). It is a device which produces a lot of sound out of the piano, so is ideally suited as the climax of a solo. Other pianists known for their block chords include George Shearing, whose block chords span an octave with the melody on top and bottom, and Bill Evans, who tended to drop the second note from the top of Shearing's formation down one octave, spreading out the voicing into what became known as the “drop 2” technique.

Garland's block chords are at the same time easier to execute and produce more sound out of the piano, although they lack the harmonic subtlety of Evans' approach. In Garland's style the right hand plays octaves and fifths over standard modern jazz voicings in the left, with both hands sounding on every note of the melody. Garland maintained an absolute paralellism of his perfect fifth above the bottom melody note, and the resulting dissonances (the fifth above the seventh is the #4) came to characterize his style. Although this was the most characteristic thing Garland played, it certainly wasn't the only thing.

His impeccable rhythm fueled perfect single-note melodic lines. In particular he was a master at extracting a special poignancy from minor blues. An economical player who chose his notes wisely, he was also an adept at spontaneous counterpoint, and he knew how to build a tune slowly, to draw the audience in gradually.

New York Times critic Robert Palmer described his playing in a 1979 review:

One often gets the impression that he is playing in perspective, furnishing foreground, middle and background as a painter might. A prominent phrase in the piano's middle register s answered by a distant tinkling , and suddenly everything is overwhelmed by a series of hammered ascending chords. A perfect little exercise in counterpoint suddenly emerges from the bridge of a popular song, continues without seeming to heed the transition back to the main verse, and modestly resolved itself in its own sweet time. One could listen to this sort of playing all night, and perhaps one should.

Source: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6951

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Biography by Scott Yanow

Red Garland mixed together the usual influences of his generation (Nat Cole, Bud Powell, and Ahmad Jamal) into his own distinctive approach; Garland's block chords themselves became influential on the players of the 1960s. He started out playing clarinet and alto, switching to piano when he was 18. During 1946-1955, he worked steadily in New York and Philadelphia, backing such major players as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Roy Eldridge, but still remaining fairly obscure. That changed when he became a member of the classic Miles Davis Quintet (1955-1958), heading a rhythm section that also included Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. After leaving Miles, Garland had his own popular trio and recorded very frequently for Prestige, Jazzland, and Moodsville during 1956-1962 (the majority of which are available in the Original Jazz Classics series). The pianist eventually returned to Texas and was in semi-retirement, but came back gradually in the 1970s, recording for MPS (1971) and Galaxy (1977-1979) before retiring again.

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0iftxqt5ldae~T1

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Red Garland mixed together the usual influences of his generation (Nat Cole, Bud Powell, and Ahmad Jamal) into his own distinctive approach; Garland's block chords themselves became influential on the players of the 1960s. He started out playing clarinet and alto, switching to piano when he was 18. During 1946-1955, he worked steadily in New York and Philadelphia, backing such major players as Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Roy Eldridge, but still remaining fairly obscure. That changed when he became a member of the classic Miles Davis Quintet (1955-1958), heading a rhythm section that also included Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. After leaving Miles, Garland had his own popular trio and recorded very frequently for Prestige, Jazzland, and Moodsville during 1956-1962 (the majority of which are available in the Original Jazz Classics series). The pianist eventually returned to Texas and was in semi-retirement, but came back gradually in the 1970s, recording for MPS (1971) and Galaxy (1977-1979) before retiring again.

Source: Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

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Selected discography

Keystones! (1977; Xanadu Records)

Red Garland Trio at The Prelude (live recording in NYC on 10/2/1959) Concord Music Grp d/b/a Prestige Records c. 2003

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RUFUS REID

Rufus Reid (b. February 10, 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. He lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Personal history

Rufus Reid was raised in Sacramento, California where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation from Sacramento High School, he entered the United States Air Force as a trumpet player. During that period he began to be seriously interested in the bass.

After fulfilling his duties in the military, Rufus had decided he wanted to pursue a career as a professional bassist. He moved to Seattle, Washington, where he began serious study with James Harnett of the Seattle Symphony. He continued his education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Warren Benfield and principal bassist, Joseph Guastefeste, both of the Chicago Symphony. He graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Music Degree as a Performance Major on the Double Bass.

Rufus Reid's major professional career began in Chicago and continues since 1976 in New York City. Playing with hundreds of the world's greatest musicians, he is famously the bassist that saxophonist Dexter Gordon chose when he returned to the states from his decade-long exile in France. His colleagues include Thad Jones, Nancy Wilson, Eddie Harris and Bob Berg.

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Biography by Ron Wynn

A prolific bassist who's seemingly always in the recording studio, Rufus Reid's name appears on countless hard bop, bebop, swing, and even some pop sessions. His restrained yet emphatic and pungent tone, time, harmonic sensibility, and discernible, if understated, swing are welcome on any session. Trumpet was Reid's first love, but he switched to bass while in the Air Force. He played with Buddy Montgomery in Sacramento, CA, then studied music in Seattle and Chicago in the late '60s and early '70s. Reid worked in Chicago with Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Curtis Fuller, and Dizzy Gillespie, and recorded with Kenny Dorham, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, and Howard McGhee in 1970. He toured internationally several times with the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold Land quintet, Freddie Hubbard, Nancy Wilson, Eddie Harris, and Gordon through the '70s. Reid moved to New York in 1976, playing and recording with a quartet co-led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and taught at William Patterson College in Wayne, NJ, starting in 1979. He recorded with Konitz, Ricky Ford, Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition with Kenny Burrell, with a quintet co-led by Frank Wess and Art Farmer, and in duos with Kenny Burrell and Harold Danko in the '80s. Reid also did sessions with Art Farmer and Jimmy Heath. He has co-led a group with drummer Akira Tana since the late '80s that is called TanaReid. As a leader, Rufus Reid has cut sets for Theresa, Sunnyside, and Concord.

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifpxqy5ld0e~T1

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Rufus Reid

Rufus Reid is, without a doubt, one of the most influential bassists working in jazz today, and he has had a significant impact on double bass performance and pedagogy throughout his career. His book The Evolving Bassist was one of the earliest of the contemporary generation of double bass method books, and it continues to be a foundational text for double bass students. I recommend it to all of my students who are interested in jazz, and I use many of his exercises for arco study and sight reading practice even with students who only study classical music.

Born on February 10, 1944 in Atlanta, GA., Rufus Reid was raised in Sacramento, California where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation from Sacramento High School, he entered the United States Air Force as a trumpet player. During that period he began to be seriously interested in the bass. After fulfilling his duties in the military, Rufus had decided he wanted to pursue a career as a professional bassist. He moved to Seattle, Washington, where he began serious study with James Harnett of the Seattle Symphony. He continued his education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Warren Benfield and principal bassist, Joseph Guastefeste, both of the Chicago Symphony. He graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Music Degree as a Performance Major on the Double Bass. The MidAtlantic Arts Foundation awarded Rufus The 2005 Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award for his dedication to America’s National Cultural Treasure: Jazz, for his personal and professional commitment to Jazz Education in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The International Society of Bassists presented Rufus with their highest honor, The Distinguished Achievement Award, in 2001. The New Jersey Chapter of the IAJE named him OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR of 1999. The International Association of Jazz Educators awarded Rufus the Humanitarian Award in 1997 BASS PLAYER magazine, awarded Rufus the 1998 Jazz Educator Achievement Award.

Source: http://doublebassblog.org/2008/07/cbc-87-rufus-reid-interview.html

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Rufus Reid

Rufus Reid, one of today's premiere bassists on the international jazz scene, with his reputation firmly established in the education arena, now adds composition to his vitae. These past three years, Rufus has been a participant in the BMI Jazz Composer's Workshop which has empowered him to move more deeply into the composing arena. He won the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award for his composition, "Skies Over Emilia." His composition, "Whims of the Blue Bird" is the result of this award's commission. This has led to further commissions. He is writing for string orchestra, jazz ensembles large and small, and double bass ensemble pieces. 

Rufus travels throughout the world as guest artist performing his compositons with both small and large ensembles. The BBC Big Band in Great Britain has recorded three of Rufus' compositions, and three arrangements of standards. 

The Gait Keeper is a result of a commission from Cornell University Jazz Ensemble. The title tune of the new Rufus Reid Quintet CD is an adaptation of that big band work. 

The Gait Keeper (Sunnyside Records) contains several new works by Rufus. This Quintet CD features a variety of moods and textures, opening with an infectious bouyant melody, called The Meddler. It also includes a musical tribute to his mentor and friend, the great bassist, Ray Brown. and closes with a majestic bowed solo paying tribute to the great bassist, Sam Jones, with his composition, "Seven Minds." This CD will definitely survive a journey of repeated listenings for the jazz enthusiast. 

Rufus already has two trio CD's out with Sunnyside: Perpetual Stroll, and Seven Minds; Corridor To The Limits, a quartet CD that features Harold Land, plus his duo CD with Harold Danko, called Myrth Song.

From 1990-2001, Rufus co-led a Quintet with Akira Tana. They released five CD's during their tenure: Yours and Mine and Passing Thoughts on Concord Records; Blue Motion ,Looking Forward , and Back To Front are available on Evidence Music. 

Rufus also has four duo CD's. Two in cooperation with Michael Moore, released by Double Time Records: Double Bass Delights and Intimacy of the Bass. Rufus and Ron Jackson did Song for Luis for Mastermix Records, and Peter Ind and Rufus recorded Alone Together for Wave Records. 

Rufus' book, The Evolving Bassist , published since 1974, continues to be recognized as the industry standard as the definitive bass method. As of January, 2000, the book is available in its millennium edition. 

Rufus Reid is equally known as an exceptional educator as well, teaching clinics since 1971, with associations with Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops, the Stanford University Jazz Workshop, and the Lake Placid Institute, to name a few. Rufus was on the faculty of William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, as Full Professor and Director of the Jazz Studies and Performance program for twenty years completing his tenure in 1999. The WPU Jazz Program continues to be considered one of the best in the country for the aspiring jazz student. 

Rufus Reid's major professional career began in Chicago and continues since 1976 in New York City. His extensive jazz background and discography reads literally like the Who's Who in jazz. He has traveled, performed and recorded with many of the great Jazz Masters. He was privileged to share many musical moments with some that have passed on: Gene Ammons, Kenny Dorham, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Don Byas, Philly Joe Jones, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Farmer. 

Rufus has performed and recorded with Andre Previn, Kathleen Battle and the St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra in 1992. Also in 1992, Rufus had two performances of "Two Faces," a Concerto for Solo Double Bass and Jazz Trio, composed by Benny Golson for Rufus with the Wayne Chamber Orchestra. It was debuted at William Paterson University and had a New York premier in October in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. 

Born on February 10, 1944 in Atlanta, GA, Rufus Reid was raised in Sacramento, California where he played the trumpet through junior high and high school. Upon graduation from Sacramento High School, he entered the United States Air Force as a trumpet player. During that period he began to be seriously interested in the bass. After fulfilling his duties in the military, Rufus had decided he wanted to pursue a career as a professional bassist. He moved to Seattle, Washington, where he began serious study with James Harnett of the Seattle Symphony. He continued his education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied with Warren Benfield and principal bassist, Joseph Guastefeste, both of the Chicago Symphony. He graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Music Degree as a Performance Major on the Double Bass. 

In 1997, The International Association of Jazz Educators awarded Rufus with the Humanitarian Award. BASS PLAYER magazine, awarded Rufus the 1998 Jazz Educator Achievement Award, and DOWN BEAT magazine in March 1999, had a feature story on Rufus Reid as a legendary thirty year veteran. In November 1999, The New Jersey Chapter of the IAJE named him OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR of 1999, Rufus Reid truly continues to be THE EVOLVING BASSIST.

Source: http://www.sonsofsound.com/artists/reid/biography.html

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Discography

As leader

Live at the Kennedy Center (Motéma Music)
The Gait Keeper (Sunnyside Records)
Perpetual Stroll (Sunnyside Records)
Seven Minds (Sunnyside Records)
Corridor To The Limits (Sunnyside Records)
Myrth Song, with Harold Danko
Yours and Mine (Concord Records)
Passing Thoughts (Concord Records)
Blue Motion (Evidence Music)
Looking Forward (Evidence Music)
Back To Front (Evidence Music)
Double Bass Delights, with Michael Moore (Double Time Records)
Intimacy of the Bass, with Michael Moore (Double Time Records)
Song for Luis, with Ron Jackson (Mastermix Records)
Alone Together, with Peter Ind (Wave Records)

As sideman

With Jack DeJohnette
Album Album (1984)

With The Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra
It Only Happens Every Time (1977)

With Dexter Gordon
Sophisticated Giant (1977)

Books: The Evolving Bassist(1974) (2nd Edition:ISBN 9780967601502)

Contributions to Education

Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops
Stanford Jazz Workshop
The Lake Placid Institute
Professor Emeritus[2], William Paterson University, Jazz Studies and Performance program (1979-1999)
The "Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists" Annual Bass Conference
The Sligo Jazz Project

Recognition/Awards

2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Arts / Music Composition category[3]
Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award ("Skies Over Emilia")
2006 Fellowship, from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts
The 2005 Mellon Jazz 2005 Living Legacy Award, from The MidAtlantic Arts Foundation
The Distinguished Achievement Award, 2001, The International Society of Bassists
Outstanding Educator of 1999, The New Jersey Chapter of the IAJE
Humanitarian Award, 1997, The International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE)
1998 Jazz Educator Achievement Award, BASS PLAYER magazine
Raymond and Beverly Sackler Composition Competition 2006 Award Winner, administered by the University of Connecticut
2006 ASCAP/IAJE Billy Strayhorn Commission Recipient

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Rufus Reid by Bob Bernotas

Rufus Reid is one of the world's greatest bass players. At least this is what I read in Downbeat about two years after I witnessed him buying his first bass from a friend of ours named Malcolm Groves who was the bass player in our high school jazz band at Sacramento High School. Rufus built his reputation in Chicago, but he went to high school with me and many other fine musicians in Sacramento, California. The bandmaster, Aubrey Penman, was an inspiring figure and great organizer. Rufus was a quiet little cat and played third trumpet. Every now and then he would stand up and take a little solo and us hotshots would turn around and go "yeah!". So the world lost a trumpet player but gained a great bassist and educator. A number of years later, I ran into Rufus at a clinc he was doing at the University of California at Berkeley. He was up there with an afro and speaking eloquently about the bass, jazz and improvising. I walked up to him and congratulated him on finding himself, a truly magnificent event. I used to listen to him a lot with Dexter Gordon at the old Keystone Corner in San Francisco and later with Stan Getz. In the last few years, I had the opportunity to work with him on several fine occasions and he was my bass player of choice for my Benny Carter recording. So it is with great pride and admiration that I present an interview with my good friend and colleague the great Rufus Reid, courtesy of Bob Bernotas, for you to savor. MM

Jazz critics love to call this or that bassist, "the anchor of the band." It's one of their most well-worn, and least apt, cliches. A far more fitting metaphor-still in a nautical vein-would be that the bassist is the rudder of the band. Harmonically, bassists have to navigate through the often dense and deep chord changes, finding the notes that give each chord its character and stringing them together smoothly. Rhythmically, bassists must steer a steady course amidst the unruly eddies and currents of jazz polyrhythms.

So, in brief, the bass player's job is really very simple: just play the right notes in all the right places. Then, after all the other players have had their say, the bassist gets to solo. And nobody does all of these things better than Rufus Reid.

From his days in Chicago during the early 1970s to his current and longtime tenure on the New York scene, Reid has built a reputation as one of the most reliable, respected, and sought-after players in jazz. Clearly, when you've been the bassist of choice for masters like Dexter Gordon, Gene Ammons, James Moody, Kenny Burrell, Art Farmer, and J.J. Johnson, well, you must be doing something right. Alongside his countless sideman gigs, Reid, in partnership with drummer Akira Tana, co-leads the quintet, TanaReid.

And as if all that were not enough to occupy one busy bassist, Reid is a dedicated jazz educator. Since 1980 he has served as director of the Jazz Studies and Performance Program at New Jersey's William Paterson College. He also is an active clinician and private teacher, the author of two books on bass playing, and a former panelist for the National Foundation for the Arts. In recognition of this long record of service, the International Association of Jazz Educators, at it's annual convention in January 1997, honored Reid with its Humanitarian Award. BB

Did you begin on the smaller string instruments, like violin or cello, as many bassists have?
No, I was a trumpet player. I was a brass player, actually, from junior high school-mellophone, euphonium-but only by default, because they ran out of trumpets. But I eventually got the trumpet in high school. And then I was in the Air Force Band as a trumpet player. So on one level I guess you could say I was a "professional" trumpet player, but that's really a misnomer.
I think I always had an affection for the bass, but I didn't really get into it until I got into the military and I had a lot of time to practice and I ended up teaching myself.

So you found your true instrument relatively late.
Yeah, I was between 18 and 19. When I was in a band in high school, whenever we took a break I always went over to the bass player and kind of fooled with the bass a little bit. But I never really thought of it as something I would do, until I was in the military and had a lot of time and there was a bass standing in the corner. That's where I started. 
So I had an affinity for the bass. I was much more comfortable with it. It's funny, I knew less, but I actually could do more on the bass. So it was much more satisfying.

When I quit the trumpet I was actually playing better than I ever did play. I was never a lead player, but I was a good ensemble player. But in retrospect, I wasn't a very good trumpet player at all. Jazz-wise, I was trying to sound like Miles or trying to do some things Louis Armstrong would do, but only because I had a good ear. I had no idea what they were doing until I really began to work with the bass. Then I began to get into chords and understand that stuff.

Did you get to study bass formally in the Air Force?
I was basically working on my own. There were some guys in the military that actually helped me. Even though I was a young player they liked my time-feeling better than the bass player who had the job. 'Course he didn't really care about it anyway. And then I did some studying with a retired Japanese bass player from the Tokyo Symphony when I was in Japan.

But I didn't really study the bass until a couple years after getting into the instrument-I mean seriously. I had gotten hooked, so to speak, and so I said, "Maybe I better get serious, get me a real teacher and buckle down." I lived in Seattle for about three years after I got out of the service because my brother lived there. And so I studied with James Harnett, who was the principle bassist at the Seattle Symphony at the time. So that was really my first real formal study, although it wasn't jazz. It was just learning the instrument and playing orchestral stuff.
So the military was a really wonderful thing for me, whereas it's not a real fond. memorable event in a lot of people's minds. It really helped change my whole life. I met some wonderful people and I had some great experiences.

You began your real professional career in Chicago.
Right. I finally went back to college when I was up in Seattle. I went to Olympic College, which was a two-year community college, and then I moved to Chicago in 1969 and I finished up at Northwestern, which was great because it was a heavy-duty music school. So I really had to bear down. And then in Chicago, I became kind of the house bass player for the Jazz Showcase. I was there about seven and a half years, and five of those years were pretty intense.

Who were some of the people you played with there?
Well, every week there was somebody-Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Kenny Dorham, Booker Ervin, Curtis Fuller. That's where I met Kenny Burrell. That's the first time I got to play with Dexter. Illinois Jacquet, James Moody. Moody and Gene Ammons used to do a lot of sparring together, so did Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. And of course, Harold Land and Bobby Hutcherson. Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, I used to play with him a lot. Zoot Sims, Al Cohn. You know, anybody who came through town. So there was always something for me to get involved with.

And most of the people didn't have a book. They came in and called tunes. Chicago was a "tune town," and if you worked, you had to know a lot of tunes. I wouldn't say that everyone who came in didn't want to rehearse. Harold Land and Bobby Hutcherson came into town demanding a rehearsal and were very particular about what they wanted to hear, and that was really very intriguing to me. And consequently those were the two people that took me to Europe for the first time. The Showcase, that was an education in itself, every week.

I would get records if I didn't really know the person's music, the way that they played, 'cause I would assume if they made this record, this was the way that they played on a gig, which was not necessarily the case. But at least it was a start. And so, in a way I was beginning to get a reputation on people's lips. Chicago was a very, very strategic period for me.

What were some of the skills that you needed to develop in order to cope with that sort of situation?
Well, as a rhythm section player I think part of the job description is really being pliable, being flexible enough to find that sweet spot in a person's rhythm, where they place the beat. And as a bass player it was a challenge. I never really thought about it so much, I just did it because I had to. It was something that made sense to me. I tried to connect with all the people I played with. But it was a real challenge to try to play with everybody.

Were there any particular musicians with whom you worked who were especially challenging?
Well, Harold Land and Bobby Hutcherson really did it harmonically, and they were a lot more modern, let's say, more modal, in what they were doing, especially during that period, although they had this incredible bebop core. But Bobby Hutcherson was doing all these things with Andrew Hill and stuff earlier which harmonically were really open. That was probably the most demanding thing.

I did play with Joe Henderson a little bit at that time, and his music was harder. I mean, it swung and everything, but harmonically it did other things. It was harder. You know, playing the blues with Gene Ammons, I mean, it had a big, fat groove and that was really the most important thing. On Joe's stuff, that was important, too, but harmonically you had to be more on it. So that was challenging for me.

So it seems like versatility is the most important quality for any bassist who wants to work a lot.
I think so. And being able to hear, because a lot of times I came up playing and there were no books, there was no music. And a lot of times I couldn't see the keyboard. They'd ask me if I know the song. I'd say, "No." So they would just start the tune. "Well, I'll play a chorus and you just come in." I had to figure out what key it was in, whether it had a bridge or not, and fumble my way the best way I could. In a way, the first couple choruses might have been pretty chaotic, but at the same time I learned how to really hear changes, and then remember sequences as they go by.

So retaining events that were happening was important for me. And I think most people liked me because I caught on real fast. This musical savvy is unwritten, but it's there, and a lot of young students today really don't understand that. You don't have time to analyze anything, you've just got to go with the flow, 'cause you gotta play! So to me, that has been my survival kit.

My tentacles were always out. Always. I think that a lot people, that they get complacent and they get comfortable and their tentacles kind of recede and sometimes they forget how to get out. And then all of a sudden these people don't have their senses anymore of how to survive. They can't think fast enough. But as bass players we have to think fast, because we have that ability to completely sabotage the band immediately, harmonically, rhythmically, or both.

And It's the bass line, or the attitude of the bass line, I guess, is really what makes a tune work. I think, maybe, a lot of bass players don't give enough consideration to the clarity of their bass lines.

What gives a bass line clarity?
Well, the first thing I tell students is they should always play as if there is no one else in the rhythm section. Assume that there is nobody else to clarify the tune harmonically, meaning a pianist or a guitarist or whatever. They also should assume that there is no drummer, that their time is good enough. So without playing chords, we are able to make the listener hear something that's not completely all there. Just to say, "Well, I just want to walk a bass line," that's a cavalier way to think about it.

One thing about the players who are successful, you know, Ron Carter, Buster Williams, Eddie Gomez, Dave Holland, is the clarity of their playing, and I think my career has been able to benefit from that. I feel I could play it as if no one else was around and someone could transcribe my bass line and say, "This must be this chord." If you can get that clear, then you have arrived, so to speak, at understanding the sounds.

I spend a lot of time talking about making a bass line satisfy me. It can satisfy me academically, it can be "correct," but when I play something and I flinch, that means I didn't like it or I wish I hadn't played it or whatever. There's no "perfect line," right? But it has to be satisfying. So I actually may go from one bar to the next and say, "Well, there's something about that I don't like," even though I know it's correct. It's not wrong. But then I just maybe flip an octave or change a note, and then I say, "Yeah, I'm satisfied there."

As a player, when you begin to improvise you don't have time to analyze stuff. So I advocate that a person really should sit down and write out a lot of lines. Not necessarily transcribing, say, one of Ron Carter's lines, because he did those. Transcribe your own lines and then say, "Why did I do that? I don't like that." Well, why didn't you like it? "I don't really know why. I just didn't like it." So you change it. And if you really are meticulous enough it should take you about a half hour to write out just one chorus, quarter notes, that would be totally satisfying.

I think bass players end up having to be magicians, you know, illusionists, because they end up making people believe they're hearing more than they're hearing, hearing more harmony, hearing implied harmony that isn't really there. And that adds a lot of color.
But that's because, I think, some of the greatest bass players that I've studied, like Ray Brown, he's a good pianist. Red Mitchell was a wonderful pianist. Ray Drummond is a wonderful pianist. People don't hear him play, but he's kind of a frustrated pianist. But that's why when he solos, he comes up with these other notes. And the more I became friendlier with the piano and began to understand the way harmony moves, then my lines were better. My implications were better, more clear. And my soloing was better.

One of the problems we have as bass players is that we're supporting everybody with this bass line, but when it comes to our solo, there's no bass line. So consequently we end up feeling that we have to play a solo which is really more of a glorified bass line. And it ends up not really being as melodic as one might like it to be. Now I'm not saying that I want that support from the pianist, because I don't really want a piano player to walk a bass line while I'm playing, although sometimes, depending on who it is and how well they are able to do it, it may be very nice.

I guess this is why most bass players tend to play in the upper register, because it gets them in the realm of where they feel people will believe that they're soloing, as opposed to being a "bass player." But I tend to still play in the lower registers, even though I could play in the upper register, like an Eddie Gomez or a Niels-Henning ÿrsted-Pedersen or like John Patitucci, now, in particular, or like Michael Moore, who play a great deal in the upper registers of the instrument predominantly. I'm more down in the gut part of the bass.

I suppose your big breakthrough came in 1977 when you joined Dexter Gordon's quartet.
It was an incredible period for me. It's been over 15 years now since I left his group, for sure, and I'm still reaping the benefits of having played with him. As loose as he was, he was still clear when he played. He wasn't, as you know, a real technical, dazzling kind of a player, but he had an incredible sound and he was demanding enough when he played. He had this huge, robust sound and Eddie Gladden had this huge, robust sound on the drums, and George Cables had this huge palette at the keyboard, so I didn't have a choice. And we began to really work very well together. I really felt I was an integral part of that band.

Dexter was great. We got along fine. It was easy to travel with him. He was so laid back all the time but we never missed any airplanes, I don't know why. And he was not a malicious kind of guy. I was always paid, well and on time. And when he played, he played. Forever.
He was an extremely intelligent man. He came from a well-bred family, his father was a doctor. He would read the newspaper every day and he was always on top of current affairs. He had a lot of thoughts about a lot of things. So it was really nice to be around somebody like that.
And it was a strategic time for him, too, kind of a second chance, in a sense, coming back to this country and actually reaping some of the things that he should have had a long time ago. So I had four years of really a great time. We were busy, we were playing a lot and traveling a great deal, and it still has really fond memories.

I eventually left the band because as we became busier, it was more difficult for him to really take care of business sometimes, because of his physical condition. He was still drinking too much and still dealing with some of the drugs, and it just got to be a hassle. I was actually having difficulty dealing with that, so eventually I left before it really got funky, because I loved him so much and I wanted to leave all the good stuff in place.

That was around the time you joined the faculty at William Paterson College. What is your role there?
I am the director of the Jazz Studies and Performance Program at William Paterson. This is my eighteenth year, which is hard to believe. As director of the program I replaced Thad Jones, who was artist-in-residence,when he decided to move to Europe. He was a full-time person, but at that time there was no degree program. So the idea was to create a program that was different from any other program, if that were possible, and have a real connection to the marketplace, because of our logistic set-up to New York, and then set up a curriculum that I felt that was more realistic to the bandstand.

Realistic in what way?
In that, you're not just studying the music, but preparing to be able to hang on the bandstand. In other words, we're really developing the students' ears, instead of giving them a test and then grading them on the test and saying, "OK, you're a good player." We wanted to create an atmosphere so that once they got to the bandstand it wasn't a culture shock. And I felt that from my experience, good, bad, and indifferent, we would be able to show the students what works and what doesn't work.

I learned on the bandstand and you don't have time to analyze, you have to deal. But as students, we feel that we can stop and we can analyze stuff, we can rationalize, or whatever, and that doesn't work in the real world. You don't get a second chance, sometimes, if you can't prove that you actually have some savvy. And so, we have created the environment where the students perform in a couple different groups learning a lot of repertoire, a minimum of 25 tunes for each group with no duplications. So that's 50 tunes, plus their private lessons.
In a nutshell, I helped develop the curriculum that worked-and some of the stuff that didn't work, we tried it again. And yet, what I do best is play. Even with the educational thing, what I do best is to play. So when I teach, I play and I talk about what I'm doing. This is basically why I was hired, because I was able to communicate, and I enjoy that. It has been a challenge, but I get a chance to work with a lot of young players and see them develop. And it's made me into a stronger player.

When students come into the program, what do they need to learn most of all?
Most of them, they want it now, without working for it. A lot of the young students, their priorities are in the wrong places, in my mind. Not everyone, obviously, but there are a lot of students who really want to become famous before they actually know how to play their instruments. This is one thing that Wynton Marsalis has made very evident, being more knowledgeable about a lot of things. On one hand, it's been great. On the other hand, it's made some students put their priorities in a different place because they want a manager and they want a record contract, but they don't have anything to manage yet nor do they have the experience.

In May 1992 you premiered a remarkable piece at William Paterson, a three-movement bass concerto by Benny Golson, Two Faces. Would you like to talk a bit about that?
I hadn't really worked that hard since I left school. It was fantastic for me, first of all, that Benny Golson, of all people, would write something for me. He was asked to do it through the auspices of the school. I had worked with him with the Jazztet and with his quartet and different things, so he said, "Yeah, that sounds great," and we went to work. It was over 700 measures, you know? And it was fantastic. It actually was the greatest thing for me because it made me utilize all the things that I had studied in school, in the orchestral fashion, and yet it also utilized all the things that I do as a jazz player.

When I began to really "go underground," so to speak, working on the concerto, it felt so good. My hands felt good. I wish I could have played it a couple more nights back to back. I really feel that I could play Benny's piece better now, although I still need to go back in the woodshed with it, but it made me realize how much music I didn't know, and how much I wasn't connected with my instrument. I'm constantly thinking about it, 'cause I would like to record that piece. But that was a highlight of my career, to have that, basically, dropped in my lap.

In the last few years you had been working with J.J. Johnson. Has he really retired?
He's serious. Our last concert was at William Paterson, November 10 [1996]. He hates to travel, always has, with a passion. And he feels that he doesn't want to come out and play less than he would like you to hear him. He's been very adamant about that, extremely concerned about not being up. And of course when you hear him, you say, "What are you talking about?"

Well, he's gone out on top, which is rare.
That's what he wants. He said, "There are a lot of my colleagues that ended up not playing as well," I mean really bad, and he says, "I don't want to do that." And he's made enough money, I guess, that he doesn't really have to. I won't say that he won't ever play out again, but he's not going to travel with the band anymore.

What impressed you most about working with J.J.?
Just his focus. And when I worked with J.J., when I worked with Benny Golson, these were incredible gentlemen. Kenny Burrell. They are elder statesmen.

And Art Farmer?
Yes, absolutely. I mean, these are absolute gentlemen, and I think a lot of the young players don't see enough of that kind of person, not only as heavy-duty players, but as people.
One of the first records my brother gave me was Walkin' with Miles and J.J., and I could sing his solos. I was 16. Now, for me to play with him was really fantastic. So I had this vision when I went to the first rehearsal. I had all these expectations and it was even more. It was unbelievable. He was very meticulous. After the rehearsal, I didn't even have to do the gig. The rehearsal was so satisfying and so wonderful.
When we played together that first night people thought we had been together for a long time, because J.J. is so very meticulous. He's a ponderer. He really ponders about how the whole picture looks, not only his part, which he's extremely concerned about, but how it all works. That's why he hates jam sessions. He hates the unknown.

We were on the road, and there was one very good concert, one of the real exceptional ones that I remember, and they were all pretty good. This was outside of Amsterdam and the place was packed and it just went nuts. The next morning, I woke up and there was a note under my door. It was a handwritten note from J.J. saying, "Thank you for last night. You played your butt off." And that really messed me up.

So I had some really wonderful people to learn from in my career. Eddie Harris was my first boss. Everything he said, he did. All he wanted you to do was to be on time and play good. You always got paid on time. So he spoiled me. Nancy Wilson spoiled me. I never had any problems with Dexter. I never had any problems with J.J. They set a precedent for me.

So this is also something that we talk about at the school with the kids. I say, "You don't have to be abused by a lot of people just because you're a musician." I guess it's easier said than done, but I say, "Many of the problems that we as musicians have, we've allowed them to happen." If you look good and you come in on time, you don't have to allow a lot of the crap that we end up having to take, out-of-tune pianos and all that. You have to learn to speak up, but then you also have to back it up. The bottom line is, you have to be able to play, all the time.

I mean, Eddie Harris played good every night. And Gene Ammons and all these people. James Moody, man, you better be in good shape to play with this man. And J.J. was consistent every night. So he demands you to be the same.

You do get the chance, occasionally, to work as a leader, or co-leader, of your own quintet, TanaReid. Why don't you say a few words about that?
Akira and I are in our sixth year collaborating. We're working on some new music for a new album, which we hope will be recorded later this year. So a lot of my energies are really on that band, because I haven't been this happy in a long time, as a leader. Although I'm being hired, now, for who I am, on other people's gigs I still have to play the way that they want me to play. But with this band, I play the way I play, and it's been very gratifying.

Reprinted from Jazz Player Vol.5, No.1

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RON CARTER

"I'd like to know where all of his tales comes from. I've got to get me some of that!"-Bill Cosby

"...an acknowledged master..." -The Wall Street Journal

"(Carter) is arguably the gretest bass player jazz have ever known." -Philadelphia Inquirer

"Carter is a standard-bearer on his instrument..."-Jazziz

"One of jazz's most venerable bassists."-Jazz Times

"Ron Carter Has Become the Mercedes-benz of bass players."-Stereo Review

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Ron Carter (born May 4, 1937, Ferndale, Michigan) is an American jazz double-bassist. His unique sound has made him a long sought after studio man. 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 cello. He also has recorded a large body of classical work, and he contributed to the film score for Desperate Characters (1971).

Early life and education

Carter 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 where he played in the Eastman School of Music's Philharmonic Orchestra. He gained his bachelor's degree in 1959, and in 1961 a master's degree in double bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music.

Career

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.

Carter is an acclaimed cellist who has performed on record numerous times with the cello, notably 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 on cello by Carter.

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 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 with Davis and even revealed to an interviewer in 1966 that the famous trumpeter's favorite color was fuchsia.

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 and many, many others.

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.

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, 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.

Ron Carter appears in the advertisements for a Tully's chilled coffee beverage in Japan.

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Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons. In the early 1960s he performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy. He later toured Europe with Cannonball Adderley. From 1963 to 1968, he was a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet. He was named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. 

In 1993 Ron Carter earned a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, the Miles Davis Tribute Band and another Grammy in 1998 for Call 'Sheet Blues', an instrumental composition from the film 'Round Midnight. In addition to scoring and arranging music for many films, including some projects for Public Broadcasting System, Carter has composed music for A Gathering of Old Men, starring Lou Gosset Jr., The Passion of Beatrice directed by Bertrand Tavernier, and Blind Faith starring Courtney B. Vance. Carter shares his expertise in the series of books he authored, among which are Building Jazz Bass Lines and The Music of Ron Carter; the latter contains 130 of his published and recorded compositions.

Carter earned a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School in Rochester and a master's degree in double bass from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He has also received two honorary doctorates, from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and was the 2002 recipient of the prestigious Hutchinson Award from the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. Carter has lectured, conducted, and performed at clinics and master classes, instructing jazz ensembles and teaching the business of music at numerous universities. He was Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Studies while it was located in Boston and, after 18 years on the faculty of the Music Department of The City College of New York, he is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus although, as a performer, he remains as active as ever.

Source: http://www.roncarter.net/officialSite.html

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A legendary player with one of the most recognizable tones in all of jazz, bassist Ron Carter has appeared on literally thousands of recordings over the course of his nearly fifty-year career. Aside from his distinguished career leading his own units, he has played with a who’s who of jazz players of the last half-century, and established himself as one of the genre’s all-time greats.

Source: http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/legendary+jazz+bassist+ron+carter+on+being+a+bassist+and+bandleader

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Ron Carter aspired to be a classical cellist, but ended up as a bass player who helped shape modern jazz. He was a member of Miles Davis' classic 1960s quintet, the group whose dauntless experiments with form and musical landscape vastly contributed to the jazz palette in the decades since. Today Carter is one of the most esteemed performers, recording artists, and jazz educators around, and his life story can be found in a new biography entitled "Ron Carter - Finding the Right Notes" by Dan Ouellette. 

The book is the first to be published by ArtistShare, a fan-funded music network that compensates artists directly for their work, and allows audiences a chance to witness the creative process. The biography is available now for pre-order on Oullette's website, where you can also watch videos and listen to podcasts of interviews with Ron Carter.

Source: http://jazz.about.com/b/2009/01/30/ron-carter-biography.htm

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Biography by Ron Wynn

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.

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… Using Nothing But His Bass

When Warren Murchie of Global Bass informed me that he had arranged my recent interview with the great Ron Carter, my first reaction was -- FEAR. Ron, undeniably one of the most influential bassists in the world, has done so many interviews during this long career. I ought to know, I had studied them all. I worried that Ron would be disinterested, and his responses laconic. I told Warren that I would rise to the challenge, and do a story about Ron like no other. I reasoned that it would be a labor of love to write about a man who has been an icon to thousands of musicians around the world -- with this writer being at the top of the list. 

Now more than ever, I truly believe that everyone has a destiny, and that all things, good and bad, happen for a reason. How else can one explain how Ron picked up the bass one day … and ended up changing the world! Was it fate that Ron Carter would eventually make the acquaintance of Miles Davis and become a part of the illustrious quintet that gave us quite possibly the most celebrated, beloved music of our times? How else can we explain the fact that when Miles Davis brought his musicians together to record, everything fell into place so perfectly, as if it were truly meant to be -- even down to the studio chosen. Rudy Van Gelder's studio, nestled away in an undisclosed location in Englewood, New Jersey, became the place where the revolutionary music was to be forever documented into our hearts and minds. It was clear to me that it was fate that led me to interview a man I had all but worshiped for so many years.

As I write this article, in the background, someone is babbling about Madonna's new, controversial video, a video that is too violent to be shown on television. When asked, Madonna apparently stated that the purpose of the video was to "raise questions and open dialogue." Ron Carter accomplished this objective armed with only the revolutionary sounds of his bass. When I was a six-year old child, my Dad (a trumpet player who toured the world with Tito Puente), introduced me to the music of Miles, Tito, and Freddie Hubbard. The music alone raised the questions, and dialogue inevitably followed about true art, and the distinctive soul of an excellent musician. I distinctly remember staring at the photo of Ron Carter on the back of his LP entitled Peg Leg, which my Dad just happened to have lying around the house. With his pipe and beard, Ron looked so dignified, sort of like a college professor. And in truth, that is exactly what he is to so many. Ron's playing on the LP was quite scholarly indeed -- it was vintage Ron Carter. It was a primer on truly advanced upright bass playing. The fifths, major sixths, the funky double stops, the piccolo bass, the growling tone, and the low C's (courtesy of Ron's fingerboard extension), were all there for me to hear, absorb, and learn. I vividly remember, as a teenager, listening to Freddie Hubbard's great LP entitled Polar AC (produced by Creed Taylor). Ron absolutely knocked me out with his opening riff to the title track, outlining the D to D sus chord changes with style. "Naturally" was the first track on side 2 of the LP, and was arranged by Grammy Award winner Don Sebesky. Ron's bass sounded awesome, and when he played those low C's on his fingerboard extension towards the end of the verses, I knew I was hearing something special. Can you come up with more inspiring dialogue?

The truth is that we were all privileged to have had Ron Carter to lend us inspiration, but who inspired Ron? I asked Ron if there were any particular bassists to whom he listened when he starting out. He responded: "Primarily, no. I listened to J.J. Johnson and [baritone saxophonist] Cecil Payne. J.J. was a trombone player who was able to make the instrument do something other than slip and slide. He found a way to play all those notes, and all those intervals without going past the bell of his horn. Cecil Payne came up when you had Gerry Mulligan and Harry Carney all playing with the same basic sound. Cecil was able to find his own quality that's clearly a personal approach to the instrument as far as sonics are concerned."

You see, Ron learned the merits of developing a personal sound and style partly from his exposure to JJ and Cecil Payne. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons you can learn from Ron. It is critical to develop your own style regardless of what instrument you play. Be inspired from listening to others, but don't plagiarize. Innovate, don't imitate! It is the only way to have staying power.

Ron has a brand new CD entitled When Skies Are Grey. It is a classy, Latin influenced collection of music all anchored by Ron's bass mastery. According to Ron, arranger Bob Freedman played a big part in the tight focused sound of the CD. Ron has worked with Freedman since the 1970's (Freedman was the arranger on the Peg Leg LP in 1977). "He's a wonderful arranger", Ron acclaims, "he's worked with Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, just a wonderful arranger. I like the way he writes. I like the way he works. I like what he does."

Like all true innovators, Ron's mindset on When Skies Are Grey was not to compete with or copy the great Latin bands of today. "I wasn't trying to imitate guys like Tito Puente, because they do what they do with all those pieces much better than I can with a quartet. I was trying to acknowledge their presence on the Jazz scene, and have people go away feeling that if you don't have three violins, five trumpets, [and] six percussionists, you can still play the Latin beat."

Percussionist Steve Kroon, pianist Stephen Scott, and drummer Harvey Mason all added their unique styles and sound that make this record a wonderful piece. I was surprised to find Harvey Mason on this CD (thinking that he was primarily a funk/R&B drummer). I voiced this to Ron who replied, "I often hear that comment that people are surprised to see Harvey in a Jazz setting, and it really surprises me, because I've always known Harvey as a jazz drummer, I don't know him through all the other music everyone seems to associate him with." 

All the material on When Skies Are Grey is strong, and the musical performances stellar. From the opening tune entitled "Loose Change", the Ron Carter touch is evident. Ron lays down the opening groove as only Ron can, incorporating major fifths played harmonically into the bass line. Besame Mucho is the second tune on the CD, but before you start thinking Julio Iglesias, think again. Bob Freedman's arrangement is really fresh and hip. My favorite tracks are Corcovado (which was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim) and Mi Tiempo, a Ron Carter composition. On Corcovado, Ron plays the melody, and Stephen Scott really embellishes with some nice chord voicings. Mi Tiempo is a Ron Carter extravaganza in which Ron is the catalyst for some great interaction between Steve Kroon and Harvey Mason. To sum it up … it's all good.

As those of you who have followed his career already know, Ron has always been an innovator in regard to tone. He was the first bassist to really get that growling tone on the upright bass. I listened attentively to every aspect of When Skies Are Grey, and I noted that Ron's tone seemed a bit rounder and warmer on this particular outing. I wondered if he did anything different this time around when recording this CD. Ron replied, "As you know, when you make a record, a lot of things are out of your control. There are a lot of processes that take place after the recording is done that affect tone. There are about six processes that take place in the studio, and sometimes the engineers get it right, sometimes they don't. The bass sounds different every day, my hands feel different, but as far as the tone of the new CD, it's nothing that I'm consciously doing." 

In the studio Ron never uses an amplifier when recording his tracks. Critical to his beautiful sound are his hands. As everyone knows, that's the starting point for great bass sound. But in particular, Ron records his bass with a Neumann microphone. The instrument Ron used is the instrument that he has been playing since 1959. His bass is a Juzek, "whose parts were made in Czechoslovakia, and assembled in Germany before Germany became east and west, about 1910 or so. I have a fingerboard extension that I put on in the 1970's, probably the first extension of it's type, which now has become a standard in jazz. I use LaBella 7710's, which is a black nylon wound steel core string, and I've been using them for the last 12 years, and a David Gage (The Realist) bass pickup."

Looking to the future, I wanted to know Ron's views on Rap and Hip Hop music. Since the music industry has become such a melting pot, I wondered if there was a possibility of a future Hip Hop tinged to Ron Carter's musical offerings. "The language of a lot of the Rap stuff is pretty coarse for my age group. I don't appreciate some of the words and thoughts. If some of these rappers really want to become poets as they profess to be, they'd have people playing with them live to really affect the music." Ron further noted that "A Tribe called Quest and Dr. Dre know the jazz cats, they just haven't gotten around to feeling it essential to incorporate it into their music, especially live." One thing is for sure, although I currently do not own any Hip Hop CDs, if Dr. Dre hires Ron for an upcoming project, he's got my word that I'll buy it!

For your information, Ron is a degreed professional, with degrees from Eastman School of Music, and a Masters from the Manhattan School of Music. Ron has been teaching music at City College of New York for almost two decades. "I've been teaching full time for the past 19 years, at CCNY, City College of New York [at] 138th [Street] and Convent Avenue (212-650-5411). I teach four ensembles and seven bass students." When asked if he presently has any prodigies under his wing he replied, "They all show promise, how they do when they get out there is another story, but they all show promise."

In these times of hype and fads, it is easy to find a new "star", but increasingly difficult to find great music. We have game shows in which pretty faces are awarded record deals without having to pay their dues -- the dues every true musician must pay in order to reach a higher level. Ron Carter has paid his dues and as a result has lived and thrived in the worst of times. He is a role model for all -- black, white, whatever your ethnicity. He is proof positive that it is possible to make a living as a musician without selling your soul, "selling out", or trying to copy the flavor of the month dime a dozen bands with which we have been inundated of late.

However, it must be noted, that the music business itself does have its price. On a personal note, in the pursuit of "making it" in the music business, this writer has shelved a lot of the music and musicians that were once so important to me as a young optimistic beginner. Trying to make a name for myself and work in New York's unforgiving music seen can be overwhelming. Listening to Ron's new CD brought back all of the beautiful musical energy I once thrived upon. Ron is still here, right now, inspiring and enlightening and for this I must say … "Thank You, Ron." 

If you are serious about music, I strongly suggest picking up When Skies Are Grey. You will be listening to the most revered jazz bassist alive today -- the one and only Ron Carter. Make it your business to learn about him, you will truly enrich your life by doing so. 

On a sad note, one week before the recording of When Skies Are Grey, Ron Carter's wife passed away. It was something that I did not feel comfortable discussing with Ron at the time of the interview, but I think it is important that the readers of Global Bass send Ron their warm thoughts. Ron, the consummate professional, had to put aside his grief and head into the studio to make music. My deepest condolences to Ron and his entire family.

I would like to thank Ron Carter, Cem Kurosman, Marty Straub, and most of all, Warren Murchie for granting me this distinct honor.

Source: Tony Senatore, March 22, 2001

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Discography

As leader
 
Yellow & Green
Pastels
Anything Goes
Piccolo
All Blues
Bass and I
Stardust
The Golden Striker
Orfeu
Telepathy
New York Slick
Blues Farm
Standard Bearers
Jazz, My Romance
When Skies Are Grey
Friends
Holiday In Rio
Mr. Bow Tie
Ron Carter Plays Bach
Uptown Conversation
Carnival
So What
Peg Leg
Meets Bach
Spanish Blue
Patrao
Parade
Guitar & Bass
A Song For You
Brandenburg Concerto
Live at The Village Vanguard
Eight Plus
Dear Miles
Etudes 1982
Live at Village West with Jim Hall
Telephone with Jim Hall
Third Plane (1978) with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams

As a sideman

Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles, Maiden Voyage, Speak Like A Child, V.S.O.P.
Joe Henderson - Power To The People, The State Of The Tenor: Live At The Village Vanguard
Sam Rivers - Fuchsia Swing Song, Contours
Eric Dolphy - Out There (1960)
Coleman Hawkins - Night Hawk (1961) with Eddie Davis and Tommy Flanagan
Andrew Hill - Grass Roots, Lift Every Voice, Passing Ships
Bobby Hutcherson - Components
Wes Montgomery - So Much Guitar (1961), Tequila, California Dreaming
Oliver Nelson - Sound Pieces
Miles Davis - Quiet Nights (1962), Four and More, My Funny Valentine, Live at the Plugged Nickel, Miles Smiles, ESP, Miles In the Sky, Seven Steps To Heaven, The Sorcerer, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Water Babies
Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil (1964), The All Seeing Eye
Toshiko Akiyoshi - Toshiko at Top of the Gate (1968)
George Benson - Giblet Gravy (1968)
The Rascals - "See" (1969)
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy, Expansions, Trident, Counterpoints, Fly with the Wind, Supertrios, Extensions (1970)
Quincy Jones - Gula Matari (1970)
Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay (1970), Empyrean Isles, First Light
Donald Byrd - Electric Byrd (1970)
Roberta Flack - First Take (1970), Quiet Fire (1971), Killing Me Softly (1973)
Milt Jackson - Sunflower (1972)
Billy Cobham - Spectrum (1973)
New York Jazz Quartet - In Concert in Japan (1975)
The Wiz (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1978)
Jim Hall - Alone Together (1986), Concierto
Helen Merrill - Duets (1987)
Harry Connick, Jr. - Harry Connick Jr. (1987)
Johnny Frigo - Live from Studio A in New York City (1988)
Twin Peaks (Television Series, 2nd Season) (1990)
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory (1991)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1993)
Austin Peralta - Maiden Voyage (2006)
Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (2001, Vertical Jazz) (deleted)
The Classical Jazz Quartet Plays Bach (Vertical Jazz, 2002)
The Classical Jazz Quartet Play Rachmaninov (May 16, 2006, Kind of Blue)
The Classical Jazz Quartet Play Tchaikovsky (September 19, 2006)
Christmas (2006)[3]
Grace Slick-"Manhole (1973)

References

http://danouellette.artistshare.com/default.aspx
Ron Carter Official Website
allmusic ((( Classical Jazz Quartet > Discography > Main Albums )))

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