Ron Carter, 86, came to Helsinki with his quartet to breathe new life into jazz classics.
Ron Carter, 86, “Mr. Carter” or the “Maestro” gets out of a black charter taxi. The American jazz bassist looks dapper in his long gray coat, matching flat cap and colorful scarves. He’s nearly two meters tall but doesn’t look imposing like a heavyweight boxer.
He has the bearing of a tall Buddhist monk. His handshake is soft but firm like that of the Dalai Lama, whom I met 20 years ago. He shakes my hand twice and seems surprised that Finland Today is not allowed to photograph the concert, which starts at seven o’clock sharp.
On the street outside the Savoy Theater in downtown Helsinki on this early Monday evening in early November, Mr. Carter is full of sincere joy and laughter as he talks to his quintet, who seem to share most of his energy.
I quickly realize that Carter is a man who probably would and could change the course of our coverage. Nice photos of him behind the bass and the quintet in dark suits … with their instruments … something real … maybe a gallery for you, dear reader?
At this point, however, I will content myself with a short, sincere discussion and a portrait that I consider truthful, if not beautiful. I already bought the ticket for the concert and I have listened to most of his records.
At the concert, watching the theater filled to the brim with an attentive audience, I feel a sincere joy for Mr. Carter. He’s, after all, the epitome of class and elegance … a world-class bassist and jazz icon.
There isn’t room to list even half of the jazz artists Carter has worked with, so here’s a quick refresher on what he’s done outside of the genre.
Have you heard “Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack, recorded in 1973?
“Roberta Flack is a fantastic singer and a remarkable pianist,” Carter said in a recent interview. “Recording with her was a dream. We’d be in the studio and she would play the songs and I would just listen and add what I thought suited each song. I’d drop notes in where I felt they fitted, simple as that.”
With Aretha Franklin, Carter found a connection with the soul legend and diva, insisting that he found the right note to play when God told him to.
Aretha would laugh. “Man, we really got along,” Carter recalled.
Then there’s Paul Simon, Jefferson Airplane, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”—the haunting theme song from David Lynch’s haunting film from 1992. Have you seen House of Gucci (2021)? In it, Carter interprets Luiz Bonfa’s “Manha De Carnival,” a Brazilian tune, popularized by Quincy Jones and others.
Oh, and did you know that Carter holds the Guinness World Records title as the most-recorded jazz bassist in history with 2,221 individual recording credits as of September 2015? (Many music historians believe there may be more.)
Since we got started, let’s dig deeper! Carter is considered one of the most important players of all time in the music called jazz; one of the finest walkers in the history of the genre; the anchor of jazz icon and trumpeter Miles Davis’ classic 1960s quintet. Later, Carter was the backbone of the CTI label when some of the best jazz and funk of the ’70s was being recorded, appearing on most of the label’s records while spending Sundays setting up microphones in the late Rudy Van Gelder’s cathedral-like studio.
On Monday in Helsinki, on this unseasonably warm late-autumn night at the Savoy, Carter sits behind the upright bass in the center of the dimly lit stage with his “Foursight” quartet. If there are any professional photographers in the room, I can’t see them.
The group opens with “595,” an homage to Davis’ “So What,” the first of the songs on the classic 1959 album Kind of Blue.
The chords of pianist Renee Rosnes hit the audience in the head with their apparent simplicity—as if that were the most complex effect that an artist could strive to achieve.
The tune is widely regarded as the most recognizable of the Miles Davis classics, and applause follows, but the quintet does not pause between the next tune, “Seven Steps to Heaven,” the titular track of the 1963 album, the first Carter played with Miles. Rosnes’ refined touch and tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s stone-cold soulful solo, along with drummer Payton Crossley’s driving cymbal beat, including the solo, and Carter’s focused, occasionally waltz-like touch, give this tour de force its due.
“Flamenco Sketches” follows: another song from Kind of Blue. It’s a haunting blues with an obvious flamenco touch.
If Finns had a drop of Spanish blood in them, they would stand up during the song and sway their hips to the gently moving bass line.
“Saguaro” from Ron Carter Quartet’s album Piccolo (1977) is a funky heavy-hitter with a bebop touch that has the Savoy crowd tapping their feet. It’s one of those tunes where you can feel the bass moving the skin on your face.
“I’m going home,” Carter says after hearing the loud applause. The laughter stops as the crowd realizes he means it. “This last song is dedicated to you,” Carter says in a soothing tone.
“You and the Night and the Music” was composed by Arthur Schwartz in 1934 and popularized in jazz circles in 1959 by the late trumpeter Chet Baker.
The bass sounds like honey to my ears. Only the trumpet is missing, but you can imagine it in the spirit of Baker and, yes, Miles Davis.
