Switch Sounds Upside Down

Ron Carter is one of the titanic bassists in the history of jazz. Raised in Detroit, he started playing the cello, then added the bass, training as a classical musician at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and then the Manhattan School of Music. While still studying, he started playing jazz in 1959 with some of the leading musicians of the era, including Chico Hamilton, Cannonball Adderley, Thelonious Monk, and Eric Dolphy. He made his first album as a leader, “Where?,” in 1961. In 1963, Miles Davis hired him, along with pianist Herbie Hancock and teenage drummer Tony Williams. That formed the core of the second Miles Davis Quintet, arguably the greatest small ensemble in jazz history.

But that was only part of Carter’s extraordinary career, as that group came apart in 1968. Carter has been leading and recording his own ensembles, including his Nonet string ensemble, for decades; has taught at Juilliard, City College, and other institutions; and appeared with artists like Roberta Flack, Gil Scott-Heron, and A Tribe Called Quest. He also joined the Kronos Quartet for their 1985 album “Monk Suite: Kronos Quartet Plays Music of Thelonious Monk,” a breakthrough recording of arrangements of Monk pieces that connected the quartet with a larger audience.

Carter will be recreating “Monk Suite” with the ETHEL String Quartet in Zankel Hall on March 13, the first time this music has been played live, and the musicians will briefly tour the show to Cambridge, Hollywood, Detroit, and elsewhere. Last month, I spoke with Carter on the phone about his classical background, his connections with ETHEL, and time.