Ron Carter Doesn’t Need Much Prep Work

Photo: Dina Litovsky

You’ve likely heard Ron Carter play, even if you may not have realized it. The 87-year-old double bassist holds the Guinness World Record for the most recorded performances; he’s played bass for artists as disparate as Miles Davis, A Tribe Called Quest, Roberta Flack, and Billy Joel. Starting October 1, he’ll be holding a residency at Birdland, where he’ll perform jazz arrangements and original compositions with four different bands. 

I turned to the bass because back in the day I was a cellist in a very good high school orchestra. I went to Cass Tech in Detroit and you had to audition to get in and all that stuff. And I noticed that when they started putting these ensembles together, I played as good as the white kids. And I looked around one day and the only bass player was graduating and I’ve always been very good in math. One from one that means zero; I saw I need a bass player so I’ll be that guy. So I convinced my parents, I could sell the cello, take the bass and I could still play.

My senior year of college at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, I was part of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Every year they would add one student to fill out their orchestra and this was the year for the bass player. So I was the guy and I talked to the conductor. He said to me, “Young man, I like the way you play. I hear good things about you. But my board of directors are not ready to hire people of color or colored boys back in the day. At the time I was also working gigs in New York City as a house band for jazz groups and they would tell me, ‘when you graduate, you come to New York’. So I graduated in June, 1959. I moved to New York City in August that same year.

I’ve had a relationship with Birdland since the 1960s when they were on Broadway and 52nd street. Audiences don’t stay out as late. They know what it should sound like in the club. They want the band to sound alive as they do on the record at their house, on their gear. They don’t mind paying the money to hear it. And in general, they’re pretty well behaved.

People don’t realize how much of an influence a good bass player can be with any size group. Any size jazz group. We’re not just hanging around in the background behind the palm trees. I’ve been playing for a long time in a lot of different environments, a lot of different personalities, a lot of different tunes in weather, terrible weather, good weather, indoors, outdoors.When I practice, I do scales, just to see how the bass works that day, how it sounds that day, where my hearing that day, am I playing in tune today? Are the strings higher or different because of the weather changed, those kind of details. But if someone sends me some music to play that they think I can play, I practice my ass off because I’m going to show them you gave it to me, check it out.

I don’t have any preshow ritual like some guys do. I just need to have a few moments of quiet so I can separate the dressing room from the bandstand. I don’t have any anxiety because I know I’m supposed to be there. I can’t afford to have any favorite collaborators. That would mean the 2000 artists are not as good and that’s not the case at all. They’re all important to me.