Ron Carter, jazz’s most prolific bassist: ‘Our band was a laboratory – and Miles Davis was head chemist’

here are three pieces of advice I give all my students: first, be on time. Time is money so don’t waste it. Second, check your ego. Pay attention and play well. Third, keep your ears open. If you’ve left your ego at home and got your ears open then you can hear what is happening with the music and make the best possible contribution.”

Oddly, though, Carter never set out to play jazz. “I was a classical head, not a jazz head,” he says of his Detroit childhood. “Cello was my main instrument and, as a youngster, I was pretty good at it.” But segregation prevented Carter from realising his true potential. “Whenever my high school presented their kids to perform at a PTA meeting or other such adult gatherings they always chose a white kid, not me.

Regular work came Carter’s way and in April 1963, during a two-week residency with the trumpeter Art Farmer at New York’s Half Note club, Miles Davis entered and stood by the jukebox. “That band was a laboratory and Miles was head chemist,” says Carter. “I’m very proud of the music we made and, even now, I think it still stands out. Miles wasn’t one to give orders in the studio; he was more interested in what you would bring to the session. It was a case of listening, paying attention, understanding what was developing. It was an adventure.

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