Many, many years ago, I had the good fortune to have Ron Carter as the clinician at a Jamey Aebersold Jazz band camp at Indiana University. I was an 8th grader. He asked us to play a blues and he transcribed it while I played. If you want to learn how to play good jazz bass lines I suggest listening to his Columbia recordings with Miles Davis beginning with Four and More and then Miles Smiles, ESP, Sorcerer and his incredible body of work on CTI with everyone from Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws and many more. He was the house bassist for Creed Taylor. The Hubert Laws album In the Beginning is a fav of mine with Steve Gadd on drums. Milt Jackson's The Goodbye also incredible. You can appreciate Ron's incredible sound and feel and note choices that set him apart from everyone else. One of the only bassists sporting a C extension as well.
Mr. Carter's "Comprehensive Bass Method" is deceptive in it's simplicity as it mostly deals with walking bass lines. It is easy to play through it without examining his note choices and the relationships in harmony, phrase construction & direction and the economy of horizontal use of the fingerboard. Thank you Jason for pointing out the nuance of this method book. 💛💛💛
This was an absolutely beautiful presentation. I put Ron on the cover of Bass Frontiers magazine back in the day. This book is an important glance into what has us all devoted to the bass.
The Maestro! His jazz bass legacy is indelible. All of the sessions, all of the titans, all of the music...mind-blowing! Every word he utters is rife with his personal history of the greatest American musical art form. Wishing you continued good health and happiness sir. And, a robust, much appreciated shout out to you Jason, for bringing this out for the world. A blessing to have him still here to share first hand with us!
For all of middle school I was using my schools lower grade bases. Know that I am doing it in high school I want to get my own bass. I have a budget of 3000$ do you think that’s enough for a nice quality one? And if so where do you think I should look for to buy a bass?
That is plenty, most likely you’d be able to find a really nice laminate bass or a hybrid with a carved back or something. It’d be hard to find a fully carved bass for under 4500 but it’s possible. Kay’s are a nice place to start.
