Citation
Mr. President, I have the great honor of presenting Ron Carter, legendary jazz double bassist, composer, bandleader, Grammy Award winner, and distinguished educator.
Mr. Carter, you are one of the most prolific and influential musicians in the history of jazz. Your rich tone and fluid rhythms have provided the soundtrack for generations of music lovers — from intimate club gigs to Carnegie Hall, and on more than 60 albums as a leader. In a career exceeding six decades, you have more than 2,200 recording sessions to your credit, making you the most recorded jazz bassist. You have played alongside giants such as Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among many others. You’ve supported the voices of Lena Horne, Roberta Flack, and A Tribe Called Quest. You’ve recorded Bach and you wove a reference to Stravinsky into an improvisation at your concert on campus in 2014. With your elegant and brilliant performances, you get us to move … and feel … and think … and dream.
From the moment you started playing — first on cello, then on bass, you have harnessed your talent in ways few can claim. Your reputation is global, earning you recognition as National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s premier cultural award, and the Order of the Rising Sun from the Japanese government for helping to popularize jazz in that country.
Mr. Carter, you have been a devoted mentor in the classroom, teaching at Juilliard and at City College of New York, where you are a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. On stage, you are a virtuoso, whose transcendent musicianship once inspired the great pianist Herbie Hancock to describe a performance you gave as “not just an exciting listening and playing experience but one that opened doors to new possibilities.”
Mr. Carter, you continue to open those doors in style. As you once told an interviewer, “My job is to knock your socks off.” There can be little argument that it is a job well done.
Mr. President, on behalf of the trustees, faculty, students, and staff at Clark University, it gives me great pleasure to request that the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, be conferred upon Ron Carter.