Ron Carter Foursight

• Reduced mobility
• Magnetic loop

Here at last! Last year, when he’d just turned 85, Ron Carter was invited to play at this festival. Unfortunately, as I am sure you can understand, he had some medical issues and it was impossible for him to attend. But he is a man of his word, and so now here he is! And, as he said twelve months ago, he wants this to be his farewell performance. A formal farewell to the stage and to music for a man who’s not only tall and elegant on the outside, but also on the inside.

Throughout all this time, Carter has never ceased to be the superlative voice of the double bass and an exemplary exponent of the jazz that has been created over the last six decades. A man who makes music with the enthusiasm of an explorer, who has always been ahead of his time in a natural way, yet also classical because he has never made concessions to the demands of fashion. The musician has explained this more than once, in fact, he’s done so every time he’s had the opportunity to speak to the media about his relationship with the spirit of renewal in jazz: “It’s not so much about how you choose to make music or who you’re aiming at; what’s important is that the music sounds like a rush of pulsating life”.

Some of us have been calling him the Lope de Vega of recordings for many years now. And quite rightly so, considering that his more than 3,500 studio sessions make him one of the most prolific artists in the history of jazz. His professional career was launched at the age of 18 and on closer examination it is clear that it has spanned many different periods. Nonetheless, if it’s a question of summarising the most important ones, let’s not forget that he was part of a dream team rhythm section: the one that accompanied Miles Davis between the years 1963 and 1968 in a quintet formed by Davis, Carter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and finally, Wayne Shorter. Another highlight would be the mid-seventies reconstitution of this band, with Freddie Hubbard replacing Miles, and yet another was when he joined tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ quartet in 1978.

After having appeared with his group at several editions of JAZZMADRID, he now intends to once again show us the high lyrical register of his talent as a performer. Qualities of enormous expressive impetuosity and exquisite subtlety. From the first chord to the last, each note will take us on a journey towards perfection, but with the virtue of not sounding like an exercise or a precious manifesto, but rather like a pulsating heartbeat, like the process of instantaneous creation that defines the best jazz.