Bio:
RON CARTER is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz history, with more than 2,200 albums to his credit, an accomplishment honored in the 2015 Guinness Book of World Records. He has recorded with greats including: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons, Jaki Byard, Eric Dolphy and Cannonball Adderley.
From 1963 to 1968, Ron 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 MVP by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He earned two Grammy awards, one in 1993 for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, and another in 1998 for Call Sheet Blues from the film Round Midnight.
Ron has composed music for the classic films A Gathering of Old Men, The Passion of Beatrice and Blind Faith.
In 2014, Ron received the medallion and title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s premier cultural award, by the French Minister of Culture.
A best- selling author, Carter’s books include Building Jazz Bass Lines and his autobiography Finding The Right Notes, available in print as well as an audio book read by the Maestro himself. In 2016 he published Ron Carter’s Comprehensive Bass Method, an advanced level book pioneering the use of QR codes to demonstrate technique in printed books.
Additionally, Ron authored The Ron Carter Songbook, a collection of 121 original compositions including classic hits such as Little Waltz, For Toddler’s Only, Loose Change.
In 2017, Ron expanded his reach to his considerable worldwide following on Facebook, where he regularly posts helpful information and back-stories for bass players and fans alike. His “Facebook Live” events are enjoyed around the world.
2018 saw the publication of Behind the Changes, another groundbreaking book where Carter shows how he “changes the changes” with each new chorus, with a clear roadmap to how any bassist can do it with proper practice.
Ron teaches frequently at master classes around the world. He has also received five honorary doctorates, most recently from The Juilliard School.
Ron continues to tour worldwide, with his trio, quartet, nonet and big band, playing to sold-out crowds across Europe, Asia, and South America.
Contact Information
Management/Booking:
For press interviews, master classes and engagements for any of Mr. Carter’s ensembles, please contact:
THE BRIDGE AGENCY
JoAnne Jimenez
(718) 522-5107 [email protected]
2600 John F. Kennedy Blvd. Ste 1H
Jersey City, NJ 07302 – USA
For all Ron Carter’s licensing or publishing inquiries please contact:
RETRAC PRODUCTIONS INC.
119 West 72nd Street
P.O. Box 218
New York, New York 10023
Quotes, Notes & Etc.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE RON CARTER NEWSLETTER
AND YOU'LL GET:
*Members-only invitation to regular Zoom meetings with the Maestro.
*First-to-know about Ron Carter news.
*Subscribers-only discounts and offers.
*Playing and composing tips from the Maestro himself.
*20% off your next order.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).