Today, May 10th, , Ron Carter returns to Carnegie Hall as part of the celebration of his 85th birthday. It came as part of an incredibly ambitious pair of events conceived by George Butler and produced by Jay Chattaway. This post covers both the events and the resulting releases. This post includes our exchange, styled as an interview. It was a time of change and high energy throughout the United States. A new president was taking office.
The Americans held for well over a year as hostages in Iran were coming back home. And jazz, long a music of celebration and renewal, gave evidence to indicate that its tough, strong, gentle, and sometime whispered voice was willing and more than ready to address new times β again.
Butler set to work to create his keyboard extravaganza. The two shows had similar content, but not everyone could either attend, or contractually commit to be at both shows. As well as the concerts there were rehearsals, all in all a major event and major expense. This was no more obvious than in the artists portraits, which are almost exclusively Columbia artists and missing Ron Carter, Earl Klugh and Noel Pointer who were not Columbia artists.
I was excited and delighted. The Laws track though never made it onto the laserdisc which is disappointing. Sir Roland Hanna had provided the impetus for this exploration, and while there are other films and performances of him, most came later in his career.
After that, prolific as ever, another dozen or so albums had been released on other labels by While I enjoyed seeing the musicians in a live setting, I wanted to get feedback on the performances. Doug Payne: Thank you for sharing the laserdisc video, I had no idea there was a video. Doug Payne: You may, however, not really care for my opinion on this. For all the talent involved, ONS is an amazingly undistinguished, mostly boring affair.
