Bass player Ron Carter’s debut album Where? features Eric Dolphy (clarinet, sax, flute) and Mal Waldron (piano). The album was originally released in 1961 having been recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios in New Jersey. This reissue features remastered audio from the original master tapes and is available on 192/24 hi res digital.
This well-rounded set gives listeners a good look at the adventurous music of Betty Carter. For this CD, she is joined by one of two rhythm sections (with either Benny Green or Stephen Scott on piano) and, on four of the nine songs, tenor saxophonist Don Braden. Carter twists and turns some familiar songs (such as "The Man I Love," "Imagination" and "The Good Life") along with a variety of lesser-known material including two songs of her own.
The title of this CD reissue probably refers to the fact that this was singer Betty Carter's first released recording in five years; a second CD (Round Midnight) also originated from the same concert. The mature Betty Carter is heard for the first time on this record which finds her taking wild chances on a set mostly dominated by standards.
Has there ever been a more consistent performer in jazz history over a longer period of time than Benny Carter? The classic altoist, who had fully formed his sound by the early '30s (he first recorded in 1927), has not altered his style much in the past 65 (and counting) years. The music on this Verve reissue CD features Carter in three settings: in a trio with pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Jo Jones (those performances were only previously out in Japan), heading a quartet with pianist Don Abney, bassist George Duvivier and drummer Louis Bellson and showcased on three previously unissued tracks with the Oscar Peterson trio plus drummer Bobby White. Carter knew most of these standards extremely well and he glides effortlessly over the chord changes, infusing the music with swing and subtle creativity.
Throughout much of the 20th century, Benny Carter was an accomplished composer, arranger, leader, sideman, and multi-instrumentalist. In 2004 the U.K.'s Proper label served his memory well with Proper Box 68 which carefully examines a 22-year segment from his unusually lengthy career. If a reasonably priced 88-track, four-CD set of swing and early modern mainstream jazz dating from 1930-1952 seems like too much of a good thing, maybe you really need to hear more jazz and not less, for here in the land of its birth we still have a lot of catching up to do in order to better comprehend this important part of our cultural heritage…