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Double Bass Ron Carter

#21
John Clayton is also a fine bassist. For my personal tastes, a better one than Ron Carter, though that's a matter of preference. Mr. Clayton is Ray Brown's protige and it is true the he held a doublebass seat in the Amsterdam Philharmonic for some period of time.

Listen to as many bassists as you can and spend time focusing on the ones that, as your teacher said "inspire YOU". It doesn't really matter who inspires your teacher or me or any of us.

Listen, dig, learn...
 
#22
TroyK said:
John Clayton is also a fine bassist. For my personal tastes, a better one than Ron Carter, though that's a matter of preference. Mr. Clayton is Ray Brown's protige and it is true the he held a doublebass seat in the Amsterdam Philharmonic for some period of time.

Listen to as many bassists as you can and spend time focusing on the ones that, as your teacher said "inspire YOU". It doesn't really matter who inspires your teacher or me or any of us.

Listen, dig, learn...
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Amen, I tend to dig John's playing more than Ron's. John's attack is awesome and his lines are tasty and diverse. I guess, for me at least, I'm not into the more metallic, amplified sound that Ron was using the in 70s, but i can't fault him as a bassist.j
 
#23
Ron is what he is. I personally really dig the earlier, earthier sound that he got with Miles, up through '"the quintet". But there's a lot of great stuff that came later too, including his work with Jim Hall. IMHO.

And I agree with Paul.... the one time I met Ron, I found him to be a gentleman. No problems here.
 
#24
jdwinva said:
When I was at Berklee for a summer session I found that a lot of the falculty thought Ron was an arrogant *******. Just relaying the information, not provding an opinion.
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Which members of the Berklee faculty are you referring to? Since you're providing information, it is only fair that their names be included in your post. Unless you feel you have some allegiance or affiliation, then lets hear it. Ron Carter was on the faculty at C.C.N.Y. when I was studying for my B.F.A. and although I didn't attend any of his classes at the time, of some 20 students who had him that I saw on a daily basis, none ever referred to him that way.
 
#26
My first exposure to RC was through the Miles records, but I gotta say, I'm much more digging the way he sounds on records like MODE FOR JOE. There is such propulsion and bounce in his sound on those BLUE NOTES from that time period. His playing on SWEET HONEY BEE is just SO swinging.
 
#27
Scott McC said:
I didn't plan for that implication. Wow. Well, for your sake, I hope its not the case;) In regards to Mr. Carter, I've got a recentish trio record he did with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell that is amazing. I dig the scoopy RC, its quirky.
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Relax, dear. Just my idea of a joke.

I think most of us agree on Ron. Swell guy, very classy, wonderful bassist, highly respected for many years.....when he picks up that piccolo bass, I vant to keel heem.......

EDIT: Also holds the world record for the longest end-pin setting on a Juzek.
 
#28
mathieu.mcconne said:
I mixed up Ron Carter for John Clayton... I have indeed check out the bass players in my favorite list. I don't know why It's bizzare that I'm seventeen... My teacher despises most contemporary bass players, and he's more of a classical guy...
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John Clayton... Ron Carter, either one the statement is seriously wrong. Both deserve listening to and both are extremely good jazz bassists. Your teacher needs to open his friggin ears.

I've had workshops with both. I swear John Clayton is one of the most beautiful people we have on this planet. IMO, he is the heir-apparent to Ray Brown. And RC, well RC is the most recorded jazz bassist ever with more than 1500 records to his name. I dunno, maybe you should change teachers.:eek:
 
#30
hdiddy said:
John Clayton... Ron Carter, either one the statement is seriously wrong. Both deserve listening to and both are extremely good jazz bassists. Your teacher needs to open his friggin ears.

I've had workshops with both. I swear John Clayton is one of the most beautiful people we have on this planet. IMO, he is the heir-apparent to Ray Brown.
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I'll second this, I met John at GGBC this summer and he's a really great guy. He has a very organic teaching style like Ray Brown. The whole idea of you gotta hear it before you can play it.
 
#34
to address the cellist comment...

Mingus was also a classical cellist (and quite a good one) that took up the bass for the very same reason.

The fact that this 'teacher' used this reasoning for discrediting Ron is ridiculous. If you don't like Ron's playing, say why you don't like his playing. Ron's reasons for picking up the bass in the first place have nothing to do with whether or not he's a great bassist.
 
#39
fingers said:
I'm curious. Why so many strange feelings about Ron. I've heard more than a few people bad mouth him over the years.
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Yeah. I'm wondering the same thing. The guy is a genuine living legend. He is iconic. He is one of the few guys you can identify by his sound as soon as he starts playing. You say the name "Ron" and we ALL know who you are talking about. His lines are worthy of SERIOUS study. He was "Checkpoint Charlie"-the guy the rest of the band keyed off of (take that UglyBassplayer's stupid college ensemble instructor-weak link my ass)-in Miles' 60's band which was one of the all time great bands. He's played and/or recorded with just about every great player of the last 50 years.

Whether demonstrably lesser individuals personally get along with the guy or not seems utterly meaningless to me given all that he's done with his life.

mark
 
#40
One thing to keep in mind about Ron's sound in the 70's is that it wasn't necessarily -his- sound. There's a great little blurb in "Deep in a Dream", a Chet Baker biography, about the sessions for "You Can't Go Home Again", a quintet date with Ron that was also Paul Desmond's last recording session. Chet listened to the playback and gave his stamp on the sound of the group, thought it sounded like a classic group of his from the 50's and was really excited for the record to come out...

A few months later he was disgusted when he heard what Creed Taylor and his CTI magicians had done to it - the trumpet and alto were all "slicked up", the piano had been compressed to all hell, and the bass had been completely transformed from a natural sounding wood instrument to the heavy-mid, compressed, super-loud in the mix, etc, sound that is on so many of those CTI albums from the time.

A lot of companies tried to commercialize jazz records in the 70's, some without the artists' consent or involvement... If you listen to your favorite artist from that time, you'll notice that almost EVERYBODY went through a phase where they just don't sound the same... It always made me laugh that on one side you had ECM discovering the beauty of getting a completely natural, organic recording, and CTI finding new ways to compress, process, mutilate, and just obscure the actual musicians' sounds. (End rant) ;)
 

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