Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes

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.

At six feet, four inches, the bassist towers over the bandstand, no longer relegated to the back, in the shadows behind the frontline players. And in a historical shift of jazz bass playing, he's no longer just a timekeeper, a rhythm man, a sidekick to the spotlight artist-but an architect of the highest order, an impromptu composer even when he's not taking solos. Pliable yet powerful. The instigator. The catalyst. The shepherd. The finest walker in the history of jazz. The risk-taker with an elegant streak. Refined. The anchor of Miles Davis's classic 60s quintet. The most recorded jazz bassist of all time. National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. If he were a character in a novel, he would be the protagonist. That's Ron Carter, jazz legend, and Finding the Right Notes is his story.

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. 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".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.Far more than a major influencer in jazz, Carter has appeared on seminal recordings in spoken word (with A Tribe Called Quest, Gil Scott Heron) rock (Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Billy Joel, Paul Simon) and even classical music, with his arrangements and recordings. At age 85 he continues to record, tour the world with his trio, quartet, nonet and big band. He has written a series of books teaching his signature bass method, and recently he re-invented music transcription with his Chartography method.