Ron Carter - 1976 [1996] "Yellow & Green"

Yellow & Green is an album by bassist Ron Carter recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio in New Jersey in 1976 and released on the CTI label.

 This often overlooked album in the canon of Ron Carter is a pure gem and not often found. With Rudy Van Gelder on the controls, the outright magic of this session was brilliantly captured.This is a spectacular recording with great depth,presecence and separation and sound stage.

Moody, moody stuff from Ron -- who's really opening up his scope on this album, one cut during his strong emergence as an arranger/composer with a bent for pushing the bass way past its traditional jazz role. The record features Ron Carter on a variety of basses, and features different groupings of players that include Billy Cobham, Ben Riley, Kenny Barron, Don Grolnick, and Dom Um Romao. Titles include "Epsistrophy", "Yellow & Green", "Tenaj", and "Receipt, Please".

Ron Carter (born May 4, 1937, Ferndale, Michigan) is an American jazz double-bassist. His unique sound and great swing have made him a long sought after studio man -- his appearances on over 3,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vineger. He also has a large body of classical recorded work as well

Carter started to play cello at the age of 10, but when his family moved to Detroit, he ran into difficulties regarding the racial stereotyping of classical musicians and instead moved to bass. Carter attended the historic Cass Technical High School. He played in the Eastman School of Music's Philharmonic Orchestra, and gained his bachelor's degree in 1959, and in 1961 a master's degree in double bass performance from the Manhattan School of Music. His first jobs as a jazz musician were with Jaki Byard and Chico Hamilton. His first records were made with Eric Dolphy (another former member of Hamilton's group) and Don Ellis, in 1960. Carter also worked during this time with Randy Weston, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Bobby Timmons, Cannonball Adderley and Art Farmer. Carter is an acclaimed cellist who has performed on record numerous times with the cello, notably his own first date as leader, Where?, with Dolphy and Mal Waldron and a date also with Dolphy called Out There with Jaki Byard, George Duvivier and Roy Haynes and Carter on cello; its advanced harmonics and concepts for 1961 were reminiscent of the then current third stream movement on cello by Carter, for he is second probably only to Oscar Pettiford on the instrument in a jazz context.

Carter came to fame via the second great Miles Davis quintet in the early 1960s, which also included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Carter joined Davis's group in 1963, appearing on the album Seven Steps to Heaven and the follow-up E.S.P.. The latter was the first album to feature the full quintet, and also featured three of Carter's compositions (the only time he contributed compositions to Davis's group). He stayed with Davis's regular group until 1968 (when he was replaced by Dave Holland), and participated in a couple of studio sessions with Davis in 1969 and 1970. Although he played electric bass occasionally during this period, he has subsequently eschewed that instrument entirely, and now plays only acoustic bass.

Carter also performed on some of Hancock, Williams and Shorter's recordings during the sixties for Blue Note Records. He was a sideman on many Blue Note recordings of the era, playing with Sam Rivers, Freddie Hubbard, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill and many, many others.

After leaving Davis, Carter was for several years a mainstay of CTI Records, making albums under his own name and also appearing on many of the label's records with a diverse range of other musicians, including Wes Montgomery, Herbie Mann, Paul Desmond, George Benson, Jim Hall, Nat Adderley, Antonio Carlos Jobim, J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding, Eumir Deodato, Esther Phillips, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Chet Baker, Johnny Frigo and many others.

Carter has also performed and recorded with Billy Cobham, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver,Stanley Turrentine, Shirley Scott,Helen Merrill, Houston Person, Red Garland, Antonio Carlos Jobim and many other important jazz artists, and has recorded over 25 albums as a bandleader.

Carter was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of The City College of New York, having taught there for twenty years, and received an honorary Doctorate from the Berklee College of Music, in Spring 2004.

Always one of the most in demand bassist and session men. He does not have a large body of work as a featured artist, but here you can catch him in a rare environment. This time he gets to lead and pick the tracks. A great find.

This needs to be added to a serious jazz library, as the important jazz figure he is.

Track listing

    All compositions by Ron Carter except as indicated

    1. "Tenaj" - 7:44
    2. "Receipt, Please" - 7:05
    3. "Willow Weep for Me" (Ann Ronell) - 2:40
    4. "Yellow and Green" - 6:13
    5. "Opus 15" - 6:55
    6. "Epistrophy" (Kenny Clarke, Thelonious Monk) - 6:07

        Recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 17, 18 and 20, 1976

Personnel

    Ron Carter - bass, piccolo bass, cowbell, tambourine
    Kenny Barron - piano (track 1, 5 & 6)
    Don Grolnick - piano, electric piano (track 2 & 4)
    Hugh McCracken - guitar, harmonica (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5)
    Billy Cobham (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5), Ben Riley (track 6) - drums
    Dom Um Romão - percussion (tracks 2 & 5)