Ron Carter, during his concert in Getxo. Getxo Culture Classroom
Less than two months ago, New York's Carnegie Hall celebrated an evening for the 85th birthday of double bassist Ron Carter, one of the most important living legends of jazz, who remains fully active and in good shape.
Perhaps because we are used to a wide circuit of international stars passing through the jazz festivals in Euskadi every summer, or perhaps because the figure of Carter - an artist not given to eccentricities, always comfortable in that role of double bass player that he leads from the second row, whatever the context— it never stood out as much as the others, the truth is that one is not aware, until it is in front of it,
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Ron Carter: the modesty of a legend
Carter is more than a jazz musician: he is an institution of 20th century Western music.
When Miles Davis signed the double bassist to his group in 1963, at a time when the trumpeter was still searching for a vehicle as powerful as his quintet with John Coltrane had been in the previous decade, he laid the foundation stone for what would become in one of the most overwhelming combos that jazz has given.
Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter followed suit, and Davis finally had a quintet as good as the one from the 1950s, if not better.
But Carter was not a newcomer to the scene: his work with Davis catapulted him and that unrepeatable music that group made for five years changed the lives of all its members,
That would be perhaps the greatest characteristic of Carter's career, always being one of the most requested musicians in the world, a trend that has been maintained from those years until the new century.
The anecdote haunts him: the Guinness awards crowned him in 2015 as the jazz bassist with the most recordings in history, listing 2,221 at the time;
but the question is not how many, but the excellence and personality provided by the double bass player in all of them.
Still having his feet on jazz, Carter has played almost everything from classical music to rock, soul or
hip hop,
and he has done it with a high level and contributing his own personality.
In the same way that at the end of the sixties he put his mark on already legendary recordings by Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack or the Rascals, at the beginning of the nineties he did it with the
hip hop group
A Tribe Called Quest: there were only three takes and Less than an hour in the studio, but Carter's majestic sound accompanying rapper Q-Tip's rhymes made history.
Those brushstrokes help to highlight Carter's career, although his contribution to jazz alone would be more than enough to justify his place in the Olympus of contemporary music.
Today, at 85 years old, he is fully active, teaching and leading his groups, among which the Foursight Quartet with which he performed last Saturday at the 45th Getxo International Jazz Festival stands out.
His appearance of a university professor and his distinguished demeanor, added to a deceptively shy demeanor and the inevitable air of fragility of a man of that age, did not anticipate the vigorous and eloquent concert that the group offered.
Carter, although seated throughout the performance, continues to lead sheltered on his double bass, setting the pace and direction of the music.
His precision as an instrumentalist is not the same as in his best years,
Ron Carter (right), together with the pianist Renee Rosnes, the saxophonist Jimmy Greene (with his instrument) and the drummer Payton Crossley, after the concert in Getxo. Getxo Culture Hall
This is also the most exhilarating lineup Carter has had in quite some time.
Apart from drummer Payton Crossley, the double bassist's recurring accompanist for more than two decades, the quartet is completed by pianist Renee Rosnes and saxophonist Jimmy Greene, two extraordinary musicians: their name is not, nor probably will be, one of the most popular on the scene , but both are among the most brilliant American soloists on their respective instruments, as they demonstrated on the Getxo Jazz stage in different improvisations.
As a solo artist, Carter was never the best double bass player.
Where he has always shone like few others is accompanying, carrying the theme on the fly and directing with sense and firmness, and this is what he does in concert: lead and generate a creative accompaniment that never falls behind or gets stuck in the routine or monotonous .
The outstanding record release of this group,
Foursight - Stockholm Vol.1
(In+Out, 2019), predicted a new creative stage for the double bass player with his new band, but the pandemic came and everything stopped.
Little given to being with nothing to do, Carter then revealed himself to be an active creator of
online content,
doing video call interviews with old friends like Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Lenny White or Diana Krall, and keeping his YouTube channel well fed. .
Two and a half years later, Carter is back on the road with
Foursight,
and what happens on stage is very exciting.
In Getxo, before greeting an audience that broke into applause and stood up a few seconds after the last beat of the night, the double bassist hugged his musicians one by one, in a gesture full of tenderness.
Seeing that skinny man through whose hands so much, so much music has passed, sincerely enjoying getting back in front of an audience is in itself a milestone of the jazz season in our country.
If it is also to offer a magnificent concert, it only remains to hope that Carter continues as before: setting the pace and creating remarkable music.
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