Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes

Photo: Ron Carter

Credit: Courtesy of © PARTISAN PICTURES

 Discover the life and music of jazz luminary Ron Carter, the most recorded bassist in history.

Filmed over the course of six years, Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes, premiering Friday, October 21, 2022 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV,  invites viewers to meet the gentleman behind the bass. Best known as the rhythmic force in Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Carter has since amassed more than 2,500 musical credits over a prolific six-decade career.

A 2015 Rochester Music Hall of Fame inductee, Carter earned a full scholarship to the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1959 and becoming the first African American to play in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

His unmistakable melody and timbre accompany the likes of Chet Baker, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Paul Simon, and A Tribe Called Quest. Carter approaches every challenge with immovable grace and dedication, even in the face of discrimination and great personal loss.

An early rejection from the segregated tenet of classical music only emboldened Carter's innovation across all genres of music. "No one is gonna tell me what I cannot do," he states in the film. "They may tell me I can’t work there. They may tell me I can't go in their front door. But they're not telling me what I can't do."

Featuring original concert footage and candid interviews with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Jon Batiste, Finding the Right Notes is a vibrant portrait of one of America's great musical trailblazers.