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Laura Manchinu (aka La Manchù), CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Ron Carter performing at the European Jazz Expò 2007
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Ron Carter Apple Sauce
By Martin Durkin
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10 years ago, Ron Carter earned the World Record as the most recorded jazz bassist in history. By September 15, 2015, Carter had 2,221 individual recording credits. That record continues to grow.
Jack was in the early grieving stages after losing his wife June, of 37 years. As a jazz enthusiast, Jack had an impressive collection of jazz on vinyl. Nearly 7,000 copies to his name, collected over the past 50 years.
Other than his wife, music was his life. He believed the world of instrumental jazz was speechless, needing no words outside the trumpet or saxophone. A bass kept track of your heartbeat. It could speed up or slow down depending on life itself, it captured what was occurring in the moment, and in that moment the right record could be as powerful as any sermon.
With each note swirling about the turntable, Jack could see and feel everything around him. Jazz was more than transformative, it could cause a transformation, or open things between this world and the next.
Jack sat in the dark. The record player taking up the whole living room with throbbing mourning sounds. His cellphone glowed in his hand, as he re-read the world record, contemplating its meaning within his now collapsed world.
Jack had thoroughly believed that if there was a record playing in his house daily, he could never die. 10 years ago, he had joked with June that Ron Carter could keep them both alive for eternity. They could never get through all his recordings.
Jack had been wrong. Tonight like every other night for the past six months since her passing, he sat in the dark, looked at the world record story, and played Carters music. He was determined to hear every song, and every album Carter was on. Upon doing so, he was certain, his heart already broken, would thrum one final note on the last strum plucked by Carters fingers.
He wanted to die.
Jack had joked that to live forever; he and June had to promise never to listen to one album until they were both ready to move on and find out what lay ahead in the great beyond of music and space.
The album they had set aside was Carter’s, ‘Remember Love’, an album Carter had recorded with saxophonist, Houston Person.
Tonight, Jack was one record away from playing that album. He was ready to let the needle drop. He wanted to move over to the next life and be with his wife again.
In the chair, next to the record player, his thumb slid almost without his realizing across the phone screen. It felt like an involuntary push, a twitch of his muscles. He hadn’t intended to move from the world record page, but somehow now, he was looking at a new story about Ron Carter.
It was a video trailer about Ron’s life in a new documentary. This 30 second clip was about Rons’ son, Myles Carter. His boy had passed away from a stroke, and the trailer was using a segment about Myles to lure viewers in. “I can’t speak about that,” said Carter, and he just pounded on the bass, plucked some chords and pulled his green ball cap down. Then the trailer ended.
The needle scratched across the current record; it pulled Jack away from the moment. Time to get up and flip to side C. He sat back down and Golden Striker by Carter continued. Jack picked his phone back up. Once this record finished, it was time for, Remember Love.
His thumb involuntarily twitched again. The screen slid over to a new story. It was a Facebook recipe for Ron’s simple jazz applesauce. It showed Ron in his kitchen stirring a pot of what looked like apples breaking down.
Applesauce.
Was it apple sauce that kept things moving in Ron’s world? Was it music to cope using the heartbeat of the bass thrumming, and the swirl of apple sauce in the kitchen to make life enjoyable? June was the cook in the family. She loved the kitchen the way he loved the living room music. He would play songs for her, setting the mood for what she was about to create. Though there were times, she would say, ‘Shut that player off, we need some quiet time’.
Jack sat in the darkness with his phone glowing. Golden Striker was nearing the finish line. He shot his thumb across the keys and typed in Myles. A top 10 list came up from Myles about his favorite things in life. Number 10 was:
Silence.
Jazz might leave the world speechless, but silence could help put things back into perspective within the home.
Jack lifted the needle off the record before side D was completed. He put Golden Striker back in its double sleeve, placing it on the shelf. Then he picked up, Remember Love. June was waiting for him in that record.
Was June waiting for him in that record?
He slid Remember Love on the shelf, he could never forget.
Jack walked from the living room and into the kitchen. He turned a light on. A bag of apples sat next to a loaf of bread. It was quiet here in the kitchen, it provided a different perspective from what the living room offered.
The living room sat in darkness, aside for the light blue glow of the power button still lit from the turntable. But the glow seemed to dim a bit. Now that a record wasn’t playing, it seemed like the glow of a musical portal was shrinking and moving on for the evening. Jack turned his attention back towards the kitchen. His thumb twitched involuntarily again as though June was giving him a small squeeze urging him in her way to get him thinking about something other than music and…..her.
“I can’t talk about that,” Ron said. “Neither can I,” said Jack. “Let’s make some applesauce.”
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*Ron Carter holds the world record for most recordings by a jazz bassist
*Rons’ son Myles did pass away, and in the documentary, Ron would prefer to play vs speak about it
*Myles did have a top 10 list which included “silence”
*Ron does have an applesauce recipe
*Jazz does have certain powers, but nothing as great as the love of partner
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Martin Durkin is a writer currently living in Plymouth MA. To date he has published three books of poetry, and has been included in dozens of anthologies. His work is found in Massachusetts Bards, Otherwise Engaged, and an upcoming anthology entitled, I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis, by Roseway Publishing. Durkin has had several pieces of his work turned into videos, and art prints for various universities and colleges have been part of a video series entitled, SPEAK IT!, where he delivered poetry about being a military spouse.
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Listen to the 2018 recording of bassist Ron Carter and saxophonist Houston Person performing the Guy Wood/Robert Mellin composition “My One and Only Love” [IDOL]
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Click for:
Information about Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry, Vol. II (featuring women poets)
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita
“The Sound of Becoming,” J.C. Michaels’ winning story in the 70th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
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