 Ron Carter article in Bass Player
Its a good read - most memorable parts are his practice regimine - which consist wholly of one scale ("Db major is winning lately") played over an over (I assume in three octaves) FOR AN HOUR in a corner until it is absolutely in tune and smooth - perfect. He doesn't practice jazz at home, he claims the best way to practice jazz is to go play at a club.
Other nugget was a really good little paragraph about the necessity for musicians to be able to *articulate* what they are playing to each other. I thought this was interesting, especially since he was talking about it in the context of Miles' group - which I think we can all agree consisted of musicians with pretty big ears - and how important it was to be able to talk through the things each musician is doing to make the parts/chords/melodies unique.
Overall, a good article, with also a walkthrough one of Ron's lessons (no, its not just Db over and over!). He seems pretty dogmatic about what has worked for him, but that's the privelege of being Ron Carter.
One other cool thing was his refusal to compare himself to other bass players. He claims it a) discounts all the other great bass players not included in the comparison and b) just doesn't need to do it, since that's not what music's about. Amen.
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