Ron Carter, legendary jazz bassist, has no plans to slow down

Plus, a Tiny Desk (home) concert from the cast of 'Little Shop of Horrors.'

View this email online May 7, 2022 by Marissa Lorusso This week, we’re celebrating the 85th birthday of legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter — plus, remembering country music matriarch Naomi Judd. NPR Ron Carter, who turned 85 this week, is one of the most influential bassists in jazz history. Born in Ferndale, Mich. in 1937, Carter started to play the cello at the age of 10, but switched to bass in high school because he felt opportunities were limited for Black musicians to play classical music. By the age of 25, he was one of the most sought-after sidemen in jazz. And he’s gone on to an incredibly prolific career that includes playing with the greatest of the greats in jazz, plus film scoring, teaching, writing and numerous awards — from Grammys to a Guinness World Record as the most-recorded bassist in history. "Age has not made me think slower," Carter said in an interview this week with All Things Considered. “And it's not made me refuse gigs. What it's made me do is be thankful I got this far playing an instrument with four strings." Over the course of his myriad releases — from his tracks with Miles Davis in the 1960s to his 2021 album Skyline with Jack DeJohnette and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, which won a Grammy for best instrumental jazz album last month — Carter's discography reads like a definitive history of jazz. So in celebration of Carter’s 85th birthday, Jazz Night in America decided to do something special: a listening party with Carter and host Christian McBride, in which they hand-picked tracks from Carter’s mind-boggling catalog. The celebration didn’t stop there: Carter also performed a Tiny Desk (home) concert from the prestigious stage of The Blue Note in Manhattan. The way Carter and the members of his trio share sonic space in this performance, writes Jazz Night’s Nikki Birch, “is truly a testament to the sense of community that jazz fosters.”  Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music This week on New Music Friday from All Songs Considered: the sonically adventurous new album from Arcade Fire, a level-up from Jack Harlow, a collaboration between rapper IDK and producer KAYTRANADA and more great new releases out May 6. This week, the NPR Classical playlist celebrates mothers — from Virgil Thomson’s “The Mother of Us All” and Dvorak’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me” to a ditty for grandma by Grieg and sacred works by Tavener and Górecki. Plus, the Jazz Night in America monthly playlist features tracks by recent Tiny Desk (home) concert artists Samora Pinderhughes and Catherine Russell, and new music from Flora Purim and Jean Carne, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Despite hailing from opposite corners of the world, Let’s Eat Grandma and Girlpool have a lot in common: Both are duos who make music that pushes against the boundaries of indie rock and pop. And on new albums from both groups, the artists wistfully accept the inherent grief that comes with facing adulthood. Over the last 13 years, Sharon Van Etten’s albums have grown in scope from the spare, acoustic sound of her first few releases to the ambitious, bold palette of 2019’s Remind Me Tomorrow. On her new album, We've Been Going About This All Wrong, Van Etten asks herself the same question we've all been asking: How do we take care of each other when it feels like the world is ending? Featuring This week, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2022 class of inductees, which leans heavily on pop hitmakers from the 1980s, but also includes rapper Eminem and country star Dolly Parton, who initially rejected her nomination. Country music matriarch Naomi Judd died on April 30 at the age of 76. Alongside her daughter Wynonna, she willed one of the most riveting acts in country music into being through persistence and sacrifice. And Naomi's emergence as one of the most famous mothers in country music was a revelation, embodying a complexity at once down-home and thoroughly modern. The first Black Star album was released in Sept. 1998 to critical acclaim, immediately launching the solo careers for the duo of Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. This week, Bey and Kweli's second album as Black Star, No Fear of Time, was released. Kweli spoke to Morning Edition about the revival of the duo after 24 years, including a return to some of the duo's foundational themes: black excellence, unity, Pan-Africanism and the raising of consciousness. This week, our friends at WFUV shared a video of Seratones performing “Good Day" live at Rockwood Music Hall.  Tiny Desk NPR May 6, 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of Little Shop of Horrors’ first production. To celebrate, composer Alan Menken joined the stellar cast of the current off-Broadway revival for a Tiny Desk (home) concert, performing a joyful medley of five earworm-filled tunes from the cult classic. Plus, we aired the second episode of Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf, where two of our judges — Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and iLe — shared some of their favorite entries to this year’s Tiny Desk Contest. One More Thing A former Gap employee is on a quest. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! 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