Legendary Bassist Brings Bebop to Berklee Signature Concert Series

The 2010 Berklee College of Music Signature Series continues on October 14 as Grammy Award-winning bassist Ron Carter joins the Berklee World Strings in a tribute to the legendary bebopper Oscar Pettiford. One of the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in music, Carter will play the piccolo bass in homage to Pettiford, who was one of the very first jazz musicians to perform on a cello instead of a double bass.

Audiences can catch the jazz legend perform with Berklee students and faculty on Thursday, October 14, at 8:15 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. General admission tickets are $20-$25 and are available at the box office, at ticketmaster.com or by calling 617 931-2000. For more information, call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com.

Sharing the stage with the Berklee World Strings and a five-student horn section, Carter will perform as part of a quartet, bringing a full sound to the Berklee Performance Center. The Berklee World Strings, directed by Eugene Friesen, is a 27-student ensemble devoted to performing music that features improvisation and the rhythmic capabilities of string instruments and players. The quartet will include Berklee faculty member Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, bassist Leon "Boots" Maleson, and pianist and arranger Eric Gould. When he's not performing, Gould also serves as Carter's manager and as director of Berklee City Music network's site at the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

One of the most-recorded jazz bassists, Carter has played on more than 2,000 albums with a variety of superstars, including James Brown, Lena Horne, Thelonious Monk, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, and A Tribe Called Quest. From 1963-1968, Carter was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet. As a bandleader, Carter released more than a dozen albums—the most recent was Jazz and Bossa (2008). Carter served as artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Studies and was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus at City College of New York.

The Berklee College of Music Signature Series embraces the college's global community and Boston's diverse musical tastes. Upcoming shows include Jorge Drexler (November 18) and the annual Singers Showcase spotlighting the Beatles' Abbey Road (December 2). Most of the performances feature Berklee faculty and students. For more information on these events, visit berklee.edu/events.