With more than 2,000 jazz albums recorded, the double bass player had commitments in two cities and at Cartagena Jazz, in what would be his announced retirement from the stage
Bad news for lovers of Jazz in Cartagena and the Region of Murcia. They won’t be able to enjoy double bass player Ron Carter. The musician canceled his European tour for health reasons at the age of 85, which could bring forward his announced retirement from the stage.
In large theaters or in small halls, Ron Carter always embodies the spectacle of subtlety, even when his fingers traverse the fretboard at great speeds. He always seems to caress the silk without deviating from a feeling charged with irreverence and syncopation, a grace that pervades modern jazz, whose styles he plays all of, always attached to the rhythm. Happy in improvisation, in his solos he demonstrates how melodies are extracted naturally, without fuss. In his giant, slender hands, the double bass looks like child’s play, never hitting a wrong note. But he steps on them, opening surprising paths in the themes.
With the elegance of past decades, in a suit and tie that he also imposes on his companions who are much younger than him, he knows how to move wisely through the vast repertoire that he knows by heart, as if he had a ‘real book’ and thousands of of sheet music He has participated in more than 2,000 albums, according to his own calculations, since the beginning of the sixties, when he played on two by maestro Coleman Hawkins (‘Night Hawk’ and ‘The Hawk Relaxes’) and released his first album as leader (‘Where?’). Right from the start, he caught the eye of Miles Davies and recruited him into his quintet. With Davis he recorded ten studio albums and as many live until the seventies.
This living legend of jazz celebrated his 85th birthday this summer, with a tribute concert in New York and was preparing his European tour, in which he would stop in Spain and with which he announced his definitive retirement from the world stage. Accompanied by the Foursight Quartet, his band for years and with which he also visited Spain in 2018, he had dates at Jazzmadrid, the 54th Barcelona Festival and Cartagena Jazz. It was going to be his last tour. But Carter announced this week that he must cancel these commitments.
looking for the right note
“Unfortunately my doctors have told me that the best thing I can do is postpone my 2022 European tour, to facilitate my recovery. And I will do exactly what my doctors tell me, and I will take care of myself so I can continue to find the right notes! », she wrote on her Instagram account. In that final sentence he was alluding to the documentary about his life that was just released by PBS, entitled ‘Ron Carter. Finding the Right Notes’, based on the biography of the same name. A few days ago he had already canceled his participation in Birdland in the United States.
The last time the maestro visited Spain, he gave an unforgettable concert in the small Clamores hall in Madrid. That night he paid tribute to some of the legends who, like him, lengthened the trail of great contemporary jazz, such as Jim Hall, with whom he made one of the most extraordinary double bass and guitar duos. That night he walked through the standards that he performed with Roberta Flack, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Henderson, George Benson, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Antonio Carlos Jobim and a long list of top-level figures that leaves anyone speechless.
The most recent thing he has left -to date- has been his collaboration with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, last year (‘Smoke Sessions’) and two entrances to the studio as a leader (‘Cocktails at the Cotton Club’ and ‘Remember Love’ ), plus some theatrical recordings. He may soon join those of Carnegie Hall in New York where the 85 candles were blown out.
Carter, living history of jazz, with a humble genius capable of enduring three days without luggage in a Spanish city without raising his voice, today asks for patience for his return to the stage.
#Ron #Carter #cancels #European #tour #stopped #Cartagena #health #reasons