Ron Carter - Yellow & Green [9]

Title: Ron Carter - Yellow & Green
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1976, Jazz-Funk, Post Bop, Ferndale, Michigan 10/26
Matrix #: CTI 6064 S1 (CTI, yellow label, label code RVG 87725); runout not legible in photo
Condition: EX (LM) | Members: Ron C (37' - ), Kenny B (43' - ), Hugh M (42' - 13'), Billy C (44' - ), Don G (47' - 96') | Producer: Creed Taylor
Cultural Facts: [9]

1. He Sold His Cello: Carter started on cello at 10, picking it from a carload of instruments a district music teacher unloaded into his school auditorium. At Detroit's Cass Technical High School he noticed the paying gigs at PTA meetings and conferences always went to white kids, never to him. When he saw the orchestra's only bass player was graduating, he reasoned that if he was the only bassist they would have to call him, so he sold his cello, started bass lessons, and was playing bass in the orchestra by January 1955.
2. "They're Not Ready": Carter won a full scholarship to the Eastman School of Music and became the first African American to play in the Rochester Philharmonic. When he was 20, conductor Leopold Stokowski came to Rochester to guest-conduct, pulled him aside after rehearsal and told him he would love to have him in his Houston orchestra, but they were not ready for Black musicians who played classical music. That moment pushed Carter toward jazz.
3. Zoo by Day, Boat by Night: His first summer home from Eastman, Carter worked maintenance at the Detroit Zoo through the city's Parks and Recreation department. A saxophone-playing neighbor who loved Paul Desmond invited him to play a fraternity boat-ride gig, and when Carter said he didn't know the tunes, the neighbor handed him the lead sheets and gave him two days to learn them. Twenty years later he was alone in the studio for this record's "Willow Weep for Me," played solo on piccolo bass.