Mark Stryker

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Saying the Detroit-bred bassist Ron Carter has made a lot of recordings is like saying American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, has won a lot of medals.

Carter, who was born in Ferndale and graduated from Cass Tech, has more than 2,221 recording credits to his name. According to the Guinness World Records, he is the most recorded bassist in jazz history. At 79, Carter is also among the small handful of most influential bassists in jazz history.

Carter will be the guest of honor at Detroit's own Olympics of jazz — the 37th annual Detroit Jazz Festival, which runs Friday through Monday in downtown Detroit. As the 2016 artist-in-residence, the bassist will perform four times, from an opening night appearance with his nonet to closing out the festival on Labor Day at the helm of his big band. In between, he'll lead his quartet on Saturday and trio on Sunday.

► Ron Carter:Changing lives of bassists one song at a time

Overall, the festival features about 60 national, regional and school bands, among them such leading figures as guitarists George Benson and John Scofield, pianists Jason Moran and Stanley Cowell, saxophonist Chris Potter, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. But the brightest spotlight will shine on Carter, a Cass Tech graduate who came to fame as a member of the pioneering Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960s.

For nearly six decades, Carter's comprehensive approach to the bass, keen harmonic knowledge, swinging groove, fast ears, impeccable instincts, reliability and versatility have made him a compelling choice for musicians (and producers) across the spectrum, from the mainstream to the cutting edge. Ask any serious jazz musician or fan to list their favorite recordings and Carter is likely to be on a gaggle of them, including classics by Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson.

To explore his vast discography, I asked Carter to choose 10 favorite recordings that reflect the sweep of his career as a sideman and bandleader. He wasn't asked to choose the most historically significant, famous or best recordings but, rather, those that were simply memorable to him for one reason or another. His choices and commentary follow, supplemented by my introductions and occasional questions.

Wes Montgomery, "So Much Guitar" (Riverside). Aug. 4, 1961

Carter was 24 and just getting started in New York when producer Orrin Keepnews hired him for a date with guitarist Wes Montgomery, one of the most-talked-about musicians in jazz in the early '60s. From 1976-81, Carter would record extensively for Keepnews' Milestone label.

Carter: This was my first really, really, really big-time date for Orrin Keepnews and Riverside Records. I had heard about this person named Wes Montgomery, who was the new thing on guitar and quite an exceptional player. For Orrin to call me as the new guy in town to make this important record was quite an honor. ... Wes was very shy, very reserved, very concerned how it was going to go and wondering if he was in over his head. Wes was always quiet and reserved and always kind of quietly questioning whether he belonged in this environment.

Miles Davis, "Seven Steps to Heaven" (Columbia). Recorded April 16-17, May 14, 1963

When Carter joined Miles Davis' band in early 1963, the bassist became the pivot around which Davis built a new group. The first half of "Seven Steps to Heaven" was taped in Los Angeles with West Coast musicians Victor Feldman on piano and Frank Butler on drums. The second half was recorded a month later in New York with what would become the nucleus of the trumpeter's landmark '60s quintet with pianist Herbie Hancock and drummer Tony Williams. Tenor saxophonist George Coleman was in the band when Carter joined but was replaced by Wayne Shorter, a visionary composer and saxophonist, in 1964.

Carter: My first record with the Miles Davis band. ... On "Baby Won't You Please Come Home," Victor Feldman just plays some great chords. He was a wonderful pianist to play with and to listen to — and he plays very good vibes as well. I played with him with Cannonball Adderley in Europe before then; I did a tour with Cannon and when Sam Jones played cello, I played bass for one tune a night.

If you listen to that track very carefully we do a couple tags, and I'm trying to get Victor to play a diminished chord on one of those routines and he doesn't get it until the last time we do this tag cycle. I knew that he was paying attention to what I was doing and he decided that was a very good note, and how can I help that note? Miles.sensed that, and he dug what was going on between Victor and I.

Stryker: Did Miles ever talk to you directly about what he liked about your playing?

Carter: Not to me. The set opener was always "Autumn Leaves." One time I played a note on the last measure of the song to go back to the top of the tune. It was a note he didn't expect to hear, and as we were playing behind George he walked by and said, "What was that note?" I told him it was a B natural, the third of G dominant 7 going back to C minor, and I can't talk while I'm playing so don't ask me any more questions.

Eddie Harris, "The In Sound" (Atlantic). Aug. 9 and 30, 1965

Widely recognized as tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris' finest LP, "The In Sound" is especially prized by musicians for the chemistry and charisma of the group, the deeply swinging rhythm section of pianist Cedar Walton, Carter and drummer Billy Higgins, and the alluring program, which introduced two standards in the jazz lexicon, Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile" and Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance."

Carter: I got a call from Eddie Harris saying he was going to do a song called "The Shadow of Your Smile" and so far he didn't have a lead sheet. That was the theme song for the movie "The Sandpiper." I was in Boston working with Tony Williams and Gábor Szabó, so I had to go into a theater in Copley Square with a pencil, a pad and a flashlight and write down the melody of this song called "The Sandpiper." I didn't really figure it out until I got back to the hotel, because I couldn't really read what I wrote.

We had a great time, and the music had its own way about it. If you want to hear a perfect storm, that's a good one to hear that. Eddie makes a band do what he wants them to do by playing the way he does.

Roberta Flack, "First Take" (Atlantic). Feb. 24-26, 1969

The debut LP by the jazz-influenced soul and R&B singer Roberta Flack is a special record, revealing an expressive depth and range not always apparent in later years when Flack's material moved in a more populist direction. Carter's supercharged, funky bass line is the first sound you hear on the opening track, "Compared to What."

Carter: She got discovered by Les McCann in Washington D.C., and they decided to make this record. As I got the story later, her working trio came to New York and they spent a couple of days trying to make this record. For whatever reasons, it didn't work out, so I got a call to come by and do this record with a young singer named Roberta Flack playing with this New York band. Ray Lucas on drums — an incredible drummer — Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar and some wonderful arrangements. That record put her on the map.

Stryker: Who came up with the bass line on "Compared to What"?

Carter: That was her idea, and it was my job to make it work. The bass lines were some of her choices and some of my choices. She's also a wonderful piano player. When singers ask how to get better I say listen to singers who play piano — Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, Roberta Flack, Sarah Vaughan, Blossom Dearie.

Antonio Carlos Jobim, "Stone Flower" (CTI). March-May, 1970

Carter's love affair with Brazilian music — and Brazilian musicians' love affair with Carter — began with a series of recordings he made in the late '60s and early '70s with the patron saint of the bossa nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Carter's playing here is magical in its pared-down simplicity and subtlety.

Carter: I had been down to Cincinnati to have my bass repaired. I was going to a clinic at Notre Dame University and I had heard this guy in Cincinnati was great. We talked on the phone, and what I decided to do was drive by Cincinnati, drop off my bass, go to South Bend, Ind., for the clinic, and then drive back and pick up my bass. When I get down there, the guy says, "Let me talk to you a minute. I've got this device I'm working on and it's like an extension that makes the bass go lower than it does normally."

I said, "Can you show me how it works?"

He put it on, and that Jobim record is the first one that I made with the extension with the low C. On "Brazil," there are some low C's that sound really good.

Stryker: What is it about Brazilian music that speaks to you?

Carter: All the melodies they play, or the ones I've fooled around with, allow themselves to be re-harmonized and not lose the essence of that specific melody. I love that kind of stuff.

Ron Carter and Jim Hall, "Live at the Village West" (Concord). November 1982

Hall, a guitarist of quiet intensity and melodic integrity, first recorded with Carter in a duo setting in 1972 on "Alone Together" (Milestone). A decade later, they added another recorded chapter to their deep and intuitive musical rapport by taping this live LP at a New York club.

Carter: This club was the kind of place what they call now a "flip." Guy goes in and buys a club, renovates it, gets a good business going and then sells it. Someone had done the same thing with this club called the Village West, and the guy who was responsible for the music policy ended up having duos play. It was a great room for us, because it had great sight lines, the sound was good, the food was very good. On any given night, you might hear sparks flying, and they caught those sparks on that tape.

Ron Carter, "All Alone" (Emarcy). March 29, 1988

Solo bass recordings are rare, and this stunner should be far better known. One of Carter's finest recordings as a leader, it offers five original compositions and the standard "Body and Soul" in performances that glow with Bach-like purity.

Carter: My aim was to show as many facets of the bass pizzicato sound, and with a library of rhythms and harmony, to make the audience not wonder: Where's the rest of the band? I picked a library that covered different keys, different tempos, different stories and went into the studio. ... Early in my career in New York, the avant-garde scene was pretty big. Musicians were all experimenting with different sounds, and I made some records with some of those bands. I understand the language; I made my own dictionary of those kinds of sounds. But there's not always a place to play them, because the band is either not in that sound zone, or the sound doesn't fit or there's no amplification to make a particular sound audible. This record was a chance with just me to try some of these sounds out.

Stryker: On "New York Standard Time," you experiment with constantly shifting meters and expand on the idea a "walking" bass solo. The track shows that you don't have to fly all over the bass to be effective or interesting.

Carter: I'm still trying to get that point across to my students. ... I try to explain that if people play one blues chorus, you have these 48 quarter notes and assorted rhythms and non-chord tones to tell your story.

Ron Carter Nonet, "Eight Plus" (Dreyfus). April 9 and 11, 1990

As far back as the '70s, Carter experimented with a piccolo bass — pitched higher than a regular bass — to highlight his role as a bandleader. He sat in front of the group, playing melodies and solos, with a regular bassist behind him in the rhythm section. "Eight Plus" was the second recording Carter made with his nonet, pairing his piccolo bass with a conventional trio, percussionist and four cellists.

Carter: I did all the arrangements. I did all the hiring. I did everything on the record other than print the cover and go out and sell it on the corner. I think the sound of the piccolo bass here is really very good, and the rhythm section is just on fire.. When people ask me: How do you define jazz? I tell them to go buy this record. It's got everything — fast, slow, blues, soul, funk, gospel, classical. It's a wonderful view of how nine people can play this music that we call jazz.

Rosa Passos and Ron Carter, "Entre Amigos (Chesky). 2003

A sublime bossa nova recital in which Carter teams with Rosa Passos, a leading Brazilian singer whose gossamer voice breathes with wispy intimacy, subtle phrasing and sly spontaneity.

Carter: I wasn't going to do this record, because they put this project together, hired an arranger and then asked if I wanted to do it as a co-leader. I said, "no, man, I don't know these people. I don't know what they sing, how they play." I could've done it, but sometimes you gotta stop and say, I need some considerations here. But it turned out one of my students was helping produce the record. I called him and he gave me the rundown. I called the guy back and said, "OK I'm in."

Rosa is a beautiful singer, and she can play the guitar too. I never played with a singer who was so sensitive to my choices as she was. Her body language during the playbacks and the run-throughs told me she heard the notes and rhythms I was playing. She would sing a phrase, and I'd be able to mimic it the next four measures. That got her attention.The more I thought I had her confidence, the more I felt I could do.

Ron Carter, "Brandenburg Concerto" (Toshiba EMI/Blue Note). Dec. 27, 1995

Carter had explored marriages of classical music and jazz before, but this remains his most ambitious foray into the idiom, featuring his arrangements of themes by Bach, Bartok, Ravel, Grieg for 16 strings and himself as an improvising soloist on bass and piccolo bass. The centerpiece is a 14-minute version of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.

A very important record for me, because I had always wanted to do it. This was my orchestral record. For me, this was my validation that it's possible to combine jazz and classical music with a certain kind of approach, a certain kind of temperament and a certain kind of clarity and determination. ... Bach is one of the few composers whose music sounds good on instruments so far removed from what it was written for. I think a bagpipe guy would sound great playing the cello suites just because of their construction, the sound, the harmonies, the range. That appeals to me first of all. Secondly, the chords he uses to express his story are the kind of chords I've found that if I can manipulate them in my own fashion, I can tell my own story by moving these notes around to my own pleasure.

Detroit Jazz Festival

Friday through Monday (Labor Day), featuring about 60 national and local arts.

7-10:15 p.m. Fri; 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Sat.; 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Sun; noon-6:30 p.m. Mon

Four stages at Hart Plaza and Cadillac Square/Campus Martius

Ron Carter leads four bands: 7 p.m. Friday (nonet); 7:30 p.m. Sat. (quartet); 5:15 p.m. Sun.; 5:15 p.m. Mon. (big band)

www.detroitjazzfest.com.

Free admission

Coming in Thursday's Play section: Full coverage, including complete schedule with descriptions of all the acts, critic's picks, and more