Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Ron Carter: Finding The Right Notes aired Oct. 21 on PBS, providing a comprehensive look into the bassist-composer’s life and career.
(Photo: In+Out Records)Producer and director Peter Schnall’s process in making his new PBS documentary Ron Carter: Finding The Right Notes began simply enough: He saw Carter live at the Blue Note in New York City, then wrote him a letter. He subsequently visited Carter at home.
“It was the most wonderful and interesting and surprising conversation,” said Schnall, a seven-time Emmy Award and Peabody Award winner. “We chatted for two hours, not so much about music, but about life. That was to be the beginning of an extraordinary journey together.”
Schnall ended up interviewing Carter at his house, on the road and in the studio. Six years in the making, the documentary film is out — it aired on PBS Oct. 21 — providing a comprehensive look into Carter’s life.
Schnall moves the viewer through his early years as a cello student in high school through his time in the Miles Davis Quintet of the ’60s and into his solo career.
Accompanying the documentary, an exclusive soundtrack of never-before-heard Carter performances was also released Oct. 1 as a CD/double vinyl release from Freiburg, Germany-based In+Out Records.
The album includes a live performance filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival of Carter’s classic original “Soft Winds” and an impromptu bass duet of “Willow Weep For Me” with Christian McBride at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. It also includes songs from two New York Blue Note club sessions with Bill Frisell on “My Man’s Gone Now” and a first-time recording with fellow bassist Stanley Clarke on “Bag’s Groove.” Additionally, Carter meets up with Jon Batiste at the Power Station studio for a conversation and ultimately a song: “Sweet Lorraine.”
Batiste is in the documentary as well. Toward the end of the production, Schnall had thought of reviewing Carter’s history, but then decided to have someone else on screen. He invited Batiste, who was once a student of Carter’s while he attended Juilliard. Their filmed conversation lasted two hours. “My hope was that the two would play together,” Schnall said. “When Ron showed up with his bass, I knew that something was going to happen.” DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
