Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. He has participated in 2,221 recording sessions, making him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy Awards and is also a cellist who has recorded many times on the cello. In addition to a solo career lasting more than 60 years, Carter is well-known for playing on many famous Blue Note albums in the 1960s. He was also a central member of trumpeter Miles Davis's "Second Great Quintet" from 1963 to 1968.

As a leader, Carter released studio albums beginning with Where? in 1961. Other albums include Uptown Conversation (1969), Blues Farm (1973), All Blues (1973), Spanish Blue (1974), Anything Goes (1975), Yellow & Green (1976), Pastels (1976), Piccolo (1977), Third Plane (1977), Peg Leg (1978), A Song for You (1978), Etudes (1982), The Golden Striker (2003), Dear Miles (2006), and Ron Carter's Great Big Band (2011).

Early life

Carter was born in Ferndale, Michigan. At age 10, he began playing the cello. While attending Cass Technical High School, he changed to playing the bass. He received a B.A. in music from the Eastman School of Music in 1959 and a master's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music in 1961. During his time at Eastman, Carter started moving from classical music to jazz. He, Pee Wee Ellis, and friends formed a house band to perform at the Pythodd Room, a club on Clarissa Street in segregated Rochester. There, he met musicians from the Chitlin Circuit, who encouraged him to move to New York City.

Carter’s first jobs as a jazz musician included playing bass with Chico Hamilton in 1959. Later, he worked as a freelancer with Jaki Byard, Cannonball Adderley, Randy Weston, Bobby Timmons, and Thelonious Monk. One of his earliest recorded performances was on Eric Dolphy’s album Out There, recorded on August 15, 1960. The album featured George Duvivier on bass, Roy Haynes on drums, and Carter on cello. The album’s complex harmonies and ideas aligned with the third stream movement. In early October 1960, Carter recorded How Time Passes with Don Ellis. On June 20, 1961, he released Where?, his first album as a leader. The album included Dolphy on alto sax, flute, and bass clarinet; Mal Waldron on piano; Charlie Persip on drums; and Duvivier playing basslines on tracks where Carter performed on cello.

Career

Ron Carter was a member of the second Miles Davis Quintet in the mid-1960s. This group also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and drummer Tony Williams. Carter joined Davis’s group in 1963 and played on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E.S.P.. The album E.S.P. was the first to feature the full quintet. It included three of Carter’s compositions, which was the only time he contributed songs to Davis’s group. Carter stayed with Davis until 1968, when he was replaced by Dave Holland. He later participated in a few studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. During this time, he sometimes played electric bass, but he later stopped using that instrument and now only plays double bass.

Carter also performed on recordings by Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Wayne Shorter for Blue Note Records in the 1960s. He worked as a supporting musician on many Blue Note recordings with artists like Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, and Horace Silver. He also played on Roberta Flack’s album First Take and Gil Scott-Heron’s Pieces of a Man, including the famous bass line on “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

After leaving Davis, Carter became a main performer for CTI Records for several years. He recorded albums under his own name and appeared on many CTI Records projects with other musicians. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked with artists like Joe Henderson, Houston Person, Hank Jones, Gabor Szabo, and Cedar Walton. During the 1970s, he was part of the New York Jazz Quartet. In 1986, he played double bass on “Big Man on Mulberry Street” from Billy Joel’s album The Bridge. In 1987, he won a Grammy for an instrumental composition for the film Round Midnight.

In 1994, Carter won his second Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group for a tribute album to Miles Davis. He appeared on the album The Low End Theory by the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest on a track called “Verses from the Abstract.” Carter also recorded with the jazz group the Classical Jazz Quartet. In 1994, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s compilation album Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, which aimed to raise awareness and funds for the AIDS epidemic in the African-American community. The album was named “Album of the Year” by TIME magazine. In 2001, he collaborated with Black Star and John Patton to record “Money Jungle” for the Red Hot Organization’s Red Hot + Indigo album, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Beginning in the 1990s, Carter became a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the music department of City College of New York, where he taught for 20 years. He received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2005. In 2008, he joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York City, teaching bass in the school’s Jazz Studies program. Carter appeared in Robert Altman’s 1996 film Kansas City, which features a jazz club called the Hey Hey Club. The film’s end credits include Carter and bassist Christian McBride performing “Solitude” at the club.

Carter serves on the advisory committee of the board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America and on the Honorary Founder’s Committee. He has worked with the Jazz Foundation since its start to help elderly jazz and blues musicians, including those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Carter appeared as himself in an episode of the HBO series Treme titled “What Is New Orleans.” His authorized biography, Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes (ISBN 978-0989982511), was published by ArtistShare in 2008.

In 2010, Carter was honored with France’s top cultural award, the medallion and title of Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was elected to the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2012.

In August 2021, Carter was the guest in a 47-minute video interview with musician Rick Beato. In November 2021, the Japanese government honored him with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for helping to popularize jazz in Japan and promoting cultural exchange. In April 2022, Carter performed with Bob Weir at Radio City Music Hall. In May 2022, he celebrated his birthday by releasing a Tiny Desk Concert recorded at the Blue Note Jazz Club, featuring Russell Malone and Donald Vega.

Carter continues to record as a supporting musician, most recently appearing on Daniele Cordisco’s 2023 album Bitter Head. In August 2024, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Documentary films

"Finding the Right Notes" is a documentary film about Ron Carter's career. It was produced and directed by Peter Schnall and released on PBS in November 2022.

Personal life

Carter was married to Janet Hasbrouck Carter, who supported African and African-American art. She passed away in 2000. He had two sons: Ron Carter Jr. and Myles Carter, who was a painter and graffiti artist. Myles died from a stroke, and this event is mentioned in the book Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes.

Discography

• Where? (New Jazz, 1961)
• Uptown Conversation (Embryo, 1969)
• Alone Together (Milestone, 1972) with Jim Hall
• Blues Farm (CTI, 1973)
• All Blues (CTI, 1973)
• Spanish Blue (CTI, 1974)
• Anything Goes (Kudu, 1975)
• Yellow & Green (CTI, 1976)
• Pastels (Milestone, 1976)
• Piccolo (Milestone, 1977)
• Third Plane (Milestone, 1977)
• Peg Leg (Milestone, 1978)
• A Song for You (Milestone, 1978)
• 1 + 3 (JVC, 1978)
• Carnaval (Galaxy, 1983) with Hank Jones, Sadao Watanabe and Tony Williams – recorded in 1978
• Pick 'Em (Milestone, 1980) – recorded in 1978
• Parade (Milestone, 1979)
• New York Slick (Milestone, 1979)
• Patrão (Milestone, 1980)
• Parfait (Milestone, 1982) – recorded in 1980
• Empire Jazz (RSO, 1980)
• Super Strings (Milestone, 1981)
• Heart & Soul (Timeless, 1981) with Cedar Walton
• Etudes (Elektra/Musician, 1982)
• Live at Village West (Concord Jazz, 1984) with Jim Hall – recorded in 1982
• Telephone (Concord Jazz, 1984) with Jim Hall
• All Alone (EmArcy, 1988)
• Something in Common (Muse, 1990) with Houston Person – recorded in 1989
• Duets (EmArcy, 1989) with Helen Merrill
• Now's the Time (Muse, 1990) with Houston Person
• Eight Plus (Victor (Japan), 1990)
• Panamanhattan (Dreyfus Jazz, 1991) with Richard Galliano – recorded in 1990
• Mr. Bow-tie (Somethin' Else, 1995)
• The Bass and I (Somethin' Else, 1997)
• So What? (Somethin' Else, 1998)
• Orfeu (Somethin' Else, 1999)
• When Skies Are Grey… (Somethin' Else, 2000)
• Dialogues (HighNote, 2000) with Houston Person – recorded in 2000
• Stardust (Somethin' Else, 2001)
• The Golden Striker (Somethin' Else, 2002)
• Just Between Friends (HighNote, 2008) with Houston Person – recorded in 2005
• Dear Miles (Somethin' Else, 2006)
• Chemistry (HighNote, 2016) with Houston Person – recorded in 2015
• An Evening with Ron Carter and Richard Galliano (In+Out, 2017) with Richard Galliano
• Remember Love (HighNote, 2018) with Houston Person

Filmography

• 2003: Ron Carter & Art Farmer: Live at Sweet Basil, featuring Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins
• 2002: Herbie Hancock Trio: Hurricane!, featuring Ron Carter and Billy Cobham
• 2019: Miles Davis: "Birth of the Cool"
• 2022: Ron Carter: "Finding the Right Notes"