{"id":3768,"date":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzusa.com\/ron-carter-when-skies-are-grey\/"},"modified":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","slug":"ron-carter-when-skies-are-grey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=3768","title":{"rendered":"Ron Carter – When Skies are Grey"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Skies are Grey<\/font>
Ron Carter<\/font>
(Blue Note – 2001)
by John Barrett <\/font><\/p>\n

The bassist was skeptical when someone suggested “do a Latin album”. Then Ron Carter remembered a Wes Montgomery disc he played on:straight-ahead grooves, and congas to give it spice. They used that model for this date, and it works just fine. The leader opens “Loose Change” with a vibrant strum, to which Stephen Scott adds a bluesy bump. The colors drift from tense to sweet; when Scott starts to cha-cha, Carter swoops low for a trombone-like solo. “Besame Mucho” starts slow and builds in atmosphere; the chords are warm, and Ron walks a near-bai\u00e3o. His solo is deep and slinks on cat feet \u0096the bongos prod him faster, and Scott’s turn is surprisingly edgy.<\/p>\n

“Que Pasa” (Not Silver’s tune but a Carter original) starts like salon music, with lonely keys and distant brushes. Then Stephen turns bluesy and the scratchers come in \u0096 vintage soul-jazz, with a Latin kick. It may not be fancy, but Ron knows: sometimes the simple pleasures are the best. As Steve Kroon begins on the congas, a bolero starts up, slow and sinuous. Ron has the theme to himself: it’s “Corcovado”, stretched long and full of emotion. His solo is busy, trading short phrases with Scott \u0096 listen close, so it will grow on you.<\/p>\n

“Cubano Chant” was made famous by Tjader; normally played bold, this version is a delicate whisper. Stephen starts a phrase, Ron finishes … and of course there is time for the blues. This is Scott’s finest moment (and Harvey Mason, who gets lots of cymbal into his minute-long solo.) Ron stands alone on “Mi Tempo”: an insistent riff, thumping against the drummers. He’s earthy, he’s powerful; he knows what a song needs to make it work. And this album works; it’s my favorite so far in the new year. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Skies are Grey Ron Carter(Blue Note – 2001) by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}