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Ron Carter Interview  E-mail
Written by Bridget Sprouls   
Monday, 22 August 2011 04:30


Sometimes, we forget that our music paragons are real people, with real backstories, and we forget how much effort and long-seated passion goes into their art. Household names become static idols, and only after they are gone do we come to understand their genius in terms of humanness and dynamism. Recently, TimesSquare had the privilege of talking with one of these exemplar musicians - one who has played on over 2,500 recordings with artists such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, A Tribe Called Quest, and Black Star, and who you may have seen not long ago as a cameo on HBO's Treme. He's an old hand in the New York Jazz scene by the name of Ron Carter.

TS: So I know that you started early on as a cellist and quickly became a real adept before taking up the bass. Was this because your parents were music enthusiasts? Was there a lot of music in your home?

Ron Carter: Well, everyone liked music, but I'm the only one who decided to do it for a living.

TS: So your parents weren't necessarily pushing you in that direction...

Ron Carter: Absolutely not.

TS: What was the transition like from classical to Jazz bass after your College years? From reading every note in a measure to filling them in yourself?

Ron Carter: Very easy. I played Jazz while I was in school, and, when I was on vacations from school in the summertimes, I worked in a little Jazz quartet that played at the boat rides and fraternity sorority parties in Detroit; so I was pretty in the community already.

TS: You played Jazz on a boat?

Ron Carter: Oh yea, they had boat rides back then. So, the environment was different but the process is the same. Your responsible for playing your part and playing in tune and playing the best notes whether they're yours or the someone else's, so the process, the basic process, was the same. The only difference is that I had the chance to find my own notes.

TS: What might have been some of the more challenging moments during your career or what are the challenges inherent to a career in Jazz in general?

Ron Carter: Bringing a high level of professionalism to every time I took the bass out of the case and to be able to find the same kind of sound on Monday that I found on the weekend and kind of setting the standard of performance for the guys I worked with.

TS: And do you find that the audience tends to have an effect on that or is it just a matter of tuning in with the other players?

Ron Carter: Well your aware of them in that they kind of predict the order the songs, they kind of predict, sometimes, the tempo. Their response, you kind of use that so you can to see if they're responding to your efforts to get their attention. And you hope that when they leave your concert they can sing a melody.

TS: Does that mean that the set-list gets changed mid-show?

Ron Carter: Well, it may get changed. Sometimes if you get no response at all you think that maybe they're not the right tunes for that part of the program or they're too fast or too slow for the audience to grasp what kind of story your trying to tell; so I think most band leaders are aware of the audiences responses, whether they acknowledge it or not, whether they say it out loud or not. They're particularly aware of whether or not the audience is tuning in to what they're trying to do. I think every artist is aware of the audience.

TS: When you started playing with Mile Davis in the sixties, the drummer Tony Williams was only 17. What was the dynamic like there?

Ron Carter: I was kinda like the mature guy in the band, and, since Tony was only 17, he couldn't go into places where they served alcohol at that time; so if I didn't go into the club, he couldn't go into the club; and when I left, he had to leave; and we understood the process so it was never an issue as to "No I was stay inside or I want to go outside." It was never that kind of immature response from him. He understood that the laws of the land were what they were and that if he was going to play this kind of music he had to go along with the rules and regulations; so it was never an issue between us.

TS: So you were kind of looking after him?

Ron Carter: Yea, basically until he got 19.

TS: Was that the age for getting into a club?

Ron Carter: Well, you could always get in, but you couldn't stay in, and you certainly couldn't drink. He didn't drink at all, but, at the time, a 17 year old on the bandstand playing this music at a jazz club was kind of against the rules of the liquor authority.

TS: How do you decide where to do a show?

Ron Carter: You know, I play wherever I can find work if the price and the distance are reasonable and if they have a good piano. I mean, they gotta have some items in place before a good jazz band will work in those facilities, and if they don't have a good piano, that kind of kicks them off of my list.

TS: You and your big band are soon to perform at the Jazz Standard. Is it the same big band that is on your upcoming album "Ron Carter's Great Big Band"?

Ron Carter: It's the same personnel, I'm happy to say.

TS: You should keeping calling it the Great Big Band then.

Ron Carter: Yes, yes.

TS: During your many tours both stateside and abroad what kind of stylistic differences have you found between the Jazz happening her and the Jazz in Europe, Asia, and S. America?

Ron Carter: Well the Europeans seem to not really be interested in what the musicians call Swing. They seem to be less interested in having a pulse that helps them, that makes them do something different. They kind of playing by the seat of their pants, which is one approach to the music. In Japan they seem to have clear role models. African American musicians and some musicians, Bill Evans, Miles, 'Train. They seem to be interested in allowing those figures to be their role models. In Brazil they're still working out how to combine the American Jazz feeling with the Brazilian beat and rhythm, and they're doing a very good job at it.

TS: What is the main difference between American and Brazilian Jazz? I know they're kind of two different niches.

Ron Carter: Well, they're kind of two different zones. The Brazilians...Brazilian Jazz, as we know it, has kind of been based around a lot of percussion, a lot of drums, and with most American Jazz that's not really they're focus. But they're both viable and both have to sound good.

TS: Can you talk about the difference between finding work playing Jazz music versus Classical music?

Ron Carter: Well I think, generally, when you join an orchestra, you're there until you get fired or you quit. And you get to have some pretty awful behaviors, I understand the process. But, in a Jazz band, you stay in the Jazz band until the leader finds someone better.

TS: That's kind of brutal!

Ron Carter: Well, you know, talent level comes to different places and I'm sure any band leader who has a group and finds a piano player who is immeasurably better than the person he is currently hiring will find a way to get this new cat interested in playing in his band and playing good music. But he has to find a way that is comfortable for everyone to replace musicians in the band. It happens all the time.

TS: So, it's kind of an ongoing audition process for your chair.

Ron Carter: Absolutely - whoever does the job best. Someone may get the job Monday, and if someone else comes along Tuesday, maybe they'll get the job by Wednesday.

TS: Wow, no pressure or anything!

Ron Carter: No, not much.

TS: Are you still teaching?

Ron Carter: I'm teaching only private students at Juilliard right now. I'm on the faculty, and I teach the masters students.

TS: Well, obviously the students there have been shedding a while, but what kind of advice would you give people just learning how to play Jazz?

Ron Carter: Get a teacher on your instrument, so you can learn how the instrument works. Study some piano, study some harmony, and play as often as you can.

TS: You always wake up this early?

Ron Carter: Oh yea, I was up at 5:25 with my trainer who comes three days a week.

TS: Ha! Well, my last question is - What is the secret to your bright, clean sound?

Ron Carter: I spent time trying to find the best pickups and the best amps that make my sound reach the people at the back of the hall or the back of the club. And I think most bass players don't spend that kind of time. They kind to think "if bass player A uses this pickup then I will use it," and that's okay to a point. But if your instrument doesn't respond to this particular pickup that someone else's responds to, I think you got to sit down and kind of hire one of your tech friends who will show you different pick ups or different amplifiers, different strings, and different combinations of all these things. Trying to make your sound, not sound not tubby and not sound like it's coming out of a barrel. But generally people don't tell a bass player that. They kind of accept what he does and I've never been into that zone. I've always wanted and always listened to others' advice; maybe I didn't always take it, but I was always curious how other people saw the issues. I think the bass players need to sit down and admire other's sounds and be more critical of theirs.

TS: Ok, cool! Well, thank you very much, and have a great show next Thursday!

Ron Carter: You're more than welcome. I'll play some notes for you.

Ron Carter will be performing with the Ron Carter Big Band at the Jazz Standard on Sept. 1st. For more about his life, check out his bio: Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes.

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