Ron Carter closes his Birdland October with Foursight

After a duo with Bill Frisell and two big-band nights, the bassist brings his quartet with Renee Rosnes, Jimmy Greene and Payton Crossley back to 44th Street on Wednesday.

Most musicians book a club for a week. Ron Carter has spent most of October at Birdland. On Wednesday, October 28, the bassist brings Ron Carter's Foursight Quartet back to the club for two sets. It caps a month that has also included a duo, a big band and a gospel record still making the rounds.

The details from Birdland's own listing: the quartet is Carter, pianist Renee Rosnes, saxophonist Jimmy Greene and drummer Payton Crossley. The 7 p.m. set (doors at 5:30) runs $45.76 to $61.21, and there's a 9:30 p.m. set with doors at 9. Both are ages 10 and up.

It's been quite a run. Birdland's calendar had Foursight in for October 8 through 10. On the 17th Carter played a duo with guitarist Bill Frisell, three sets in one night. Then last week came Ron Carter's Great Big Band on October 21 and 22, where the 7 p.m. sets sold out both nights and the club added a livestream. Wednesday brings the quartet back to the format he keeps returning to.

Foursight is the group to see if you want Carter's playing up close. With Rosnes, Greene and Crossley, the bass isn't buried under horns; it leads. The band's chemistry has been captured on record too: a multi-volume concert series later collected as *Foursight: The Complete Stockholm Tapes*. Wednesday doesn't promote anything new from that project. It's just a working band in a room built for this kind of music.

The bass isn't buried under horns; it leads.

If you want something new, the record of the year is a detour. In February, Blue Note and Motown Gospel released *Sweet, Sweet Spirit*, Carter's collaboration with gospel choirmaster Ricky Dillard and his New-G choir. The backstory is the heart of it. Nearly thirty years ago, when Carter's mother, Willie O. Carter, moved into a care facility, his sisters asked him to arrange and record ten of her favorite hymns so she could hear them in her final weeks. The album revisits that list: "Pass Me Not," "Farther Along," "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," "In the Garden," "Softly and Tenderly," the title track and others. Reviewers have noted that the choir takes center stage, with Carter's bass as the anchor underneath, so don't expect a jazz album with a choir tacked on. It's a gospel record by someone who has spent more than sixty years learning when not to play.

That restraint is what you're paying for on Wednesday. Carter was born in 1937, and few musicians alive have recorded more. He doesn't need to prove anything, and he doesn't try. In a small room like Birdland's, you can hear every choice: the note he leaves out, the turnaround he slows down, the moment he hands a chorus to Rosnes and just listens.

For New Yorkers, this is the easy version of a once-in-a-lifetime night. Carter plays this city more than anywhere else, and Birdland has given him October. Take the 9:30, sit close, and watch his right hand.

Sources: Ron Carter's Foursight Quartet - Birdland Jazz Club & Theater (birdlandjazz.com); Ron Carter Foursight Quartet - Birdland Jazz Club & Theater (birdlandjazz.com); Birdland Jazz Club - Birdland Jazz Club & Theater (birdlandjazz.com); Ron Carter Foursight Quartet - Monterey Jazz Festival (montereyjazz.org); Ron Carter & Ricky Dillard announce new album Sweet, Sweet Spirit - Bass Magazine (bassmagazine.com); Ron Carter announces joint album with Ricky Dillard - JAZZ.FM91 (jazz.fm); Ron Carter & Ricky Dillard - Sweet, Sweet Spirit - Blue Note Store (store.bluenote.com); Ron Carter & Ricky Dillard 'Sweet, Sweet Spirit' - Musica Jazz (musicajazz.it); Ron Carter explores jazz-gospel roots with Ricky Dillard - No Treble (notreble.com); Category:Ron Carter - Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org); Jazz Legend Ron Carter & Gospel Icon Ricky Dillard Unite for Sweet, Sweet Spirit - Blue Note (bluenote.com); Ron Carter Duo Featuring Bill Frisell - Oct 17, 2026 (app.ckord.com); Ron Carter - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)