Ron Carter's Groove Mastery

Last time we looked at Ron Carter’s mastery of blues walking bass. This month let’s check out some of the classic lines that Ron made famous during the ’60s and early ’70s. Ron rose to popularity in 1963 when he joined the Miles Davis quintet, where he played alongside drummer Tony Williams and pianist Herbie Hancock. He created classic bass lines during his Miles tenure, including new versions of Paul Chambers’s lines on “All Blues” and “So What,” as well as his original stamp on the compositions “Joshua” and the Wayne Shorter classic “Footprints.” Ex. 1 shows the basic C minor “Footprints” line, from the 1966 Columbia recording Miles Smiles. During the melody chorus, Ron walks a fast double-time 6/4 line in bars 9 and 10 (Ex. 2); this creates a riot of rhythm for two bars, which then calms down and reverts to the original C minor line in bar 11. During subsequent choruses, Ron and Tony play with the time in bars 9 and 10, sometimes creating a half-time swing feel using dotted quarter-notes (Ex. 3). Ron often embellishes this dotted-quarter line using his trademark drops (Ex. 4). In the wildest variation of bars 9 and 10, Tony and Ron shift into a fast 4/4 groove against the original 6/4 time (Ex. 5). The ultimate development of the rhythmic underpinning comes when Tony switches to a fast 4/4 Afro-Latin groove while Ron plays the original line’s 4/4 variation over bars 1 through 8 (Ex. 6). Remember that the measures are always moving at the same rate; Tony and Ron are just changing the groove underneath. Find the original recording to hear how they do it!

Outside of his tenure with Miles Davis, Carter led the ultimate freelance career, playing with the best musicians on the scene. Ex. 7 shows his line on the changes to “Red Clay,” a 1970 Freddie Hubbard rock-fusion tune [Red Clay, CTI]. Ex. 8 shows Ron’s take on the rockish, minor II–V progression that forms the basis for Hubbard’s “Gibraltar,” which appears on Stanley Turrentine’s 1970 LP Sugar [CTI].
Perhaps the most recognizable Ron Carter bass line, shown in Ex. 9, comes from the 1964 Herbie Hancock tune “Cantaloupe Island” [Empyrean Isles, Blue Note]. You might also recognize this line from the hip-hop hit “Cantaloop” by the band US3. A simple, funky bass line has a very long shelf life! Ron Carter, still active on the scene, is one of our living bass legends. Check out his work—past and present—to find out why he (along with Milt Hinton and Ray Brown) is one of the most recorded bassists ever. Next time we’ll hear from Henry Grimes, a bass giant who recently re-emerged on the scene after a 35-year absence.



Read more about Ron Carter in John Goldsby’s The Jazz Bass Book [Backbeat Books], the definitive guide to jazz bass players and their techniques. www.goldsby.de