Give a bass player a long stretch of the same chord and the walking line tends to turn into mush. That happens when we play in the same key, or even worse, on the same chord for 16 bars, because we’re not dividing the phrases. Ron Carter’s opening bass line on Freddie Hubbard’s “The Intrepid Fox” is just a C minor intro, and he divides the phrases so clearly that you can easily tell where each one is.
Quick answer
Ron Carter organizes the line in two-bar phrases, and each one ends with a cadence from beat four to beat one. In C minor he treats the second half of bar two as if it had a G7, so a B on beat four leads to C. He also moves the second phrase up an octave so it echoes the first.
The tune is on Hubbard’s 1970 album Red Clay, which was incredibly popular for an avant-garde jazz, soul and funk album. You’ve probably heard the bass line on “Red Clay” itself. This one is exceptional too, and it’s typical of all of Ron Carter’s bass lines: it’s organized in two-bar phrases. Here’s how he builds them, so you can do it in your own walking lines.
What makes Ron Carter’s two-bar phrases sound complete?
When you’re dealing with a sea of quarter notes, isn’t any two bars a two-bar phrase? The answer is no. A few things make a two-bar phrase distinctly a two-bar phrase. His first phrase literally goes walk down, walk up. That’s all it is. It’s such a classic, simple phrase that anybody can use.
What he’s doing is creating a cadence, and every good two-bar phrase has one. Here, the B on beat four of the second bar is functioning as a cadence. You can look at it as a passing tone, and it is, but it’s something much deeper. It’s the third of a dominant chord going to the root of the next chord. He’s actually playing a G7 there, even though there’s no G7 and even though he’s not playing a G. That B creates a cadence between bar two and bar three, so he can start a clean two-bar phrase.
Is there a G7 somewhere in the chord progression? It’s not even written out when you look at the lead sheet. It’s just a C minor intro. Maybe they talked about it beforehand. Maybe they didn’t, and Ron Carter is just adding that G7 to create movement. Either way, he does it again in bars three and four.
I don’t want to just describe the food that I’m eating. I want to give you the recipe.
Cole Davis
Here’s the recipe. You’ve got four bars of one chord. Create an imaginary five. Pretend the second half of the second bar has a G7, and then the third bar will feel like a cadence. When you get back to that C, it feels like you’ve completed a thought, a full two-bar phrase.
How do you create a cadence from beat four to beat one?
There are three best ways to create a cadence as a bass player, from beat four to beat one. You resolve by half step, you resolve by whole step, or you resolve by five-one. In C minor, that means playing a B or a C-sharp, a D or a B-flat, or a G, going to C.
Ron Carter does this at every point in this bass line, which is why it’s so clear. You’ll hear B to C by half step, G to C by five-one, and B-flat to C by whole step at the end. In one spot he does something more adventurous and resolves to the third of the chord instead of the root. It’s still a cadence. It just resolves in a different way. Totally legal move.
I love changing a bass line by one note just to prove how important these note choices are. When I changed his note choices in the lesson so the cadences weren’t there, it didn’t really sound like anything. You couldn’t tell if it was a two-bar phrase or one eight-bar phrase. With his notes, you can so easily tell where the phrases are.
Change register so the phrases echo
His second two-bar phrase starts an octave higher. That’s not because four bars in half position would be too monotonous. You can spend four bars in the same register and it’s not going to get boring. He does it to create two distinct phrases. By playing it an octave higher, the second phrase echoes the first. Listen to them back to back and you can hear it.
Think about a great melody. In Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love?” the bridge melody changes register, and all of a sudden it’s exciting. If it stayed down low, it would have no variation. Ron Carter is doing the same thing in microcosm, two bars at a time.
Later he uses an open string to change register and jump across the fingerboard. I talk about this all the time, and it’s why I wrote The New Simandl. It entirely revolves around using the open string to change register or move across the fingerboard.
I’ve taken a few lessons with Mr. Carter, and I know this is exactly what he thinks about. It isn’t just theory. And you can hear it show up in bass players before and after Ron Carter. He didn’t invent this. He just mastered it.
Try it on four bars of C minor
- Walk down, walk up. Play two bars of C minor that walk down and then walk back up.
- Imagine the G7. Treat the second half of bar two as G7 and put the B on beat four.
- Land it. Hit the C on beat one of bar three and hear the phrase complete.
- Echo it. Play the next two-bar phrase an octave higher and end it with a whole step or a five-one into C.
The free Walking Bass Line Builder lets you choose whether each chord is led into by a half step, a whole step or a fifth, which is a quick way to hear all three cadences. For the bigger picture, there’s my guide to walking bass lines, and if you like the idea of a cadence on beat four, look at Israel Crosby’s bass lines.
My lesson on Ron Carter: The Intrepid Fox goes through the whole opening line and the playbook behind every two-bar phrase. Once you know it, you’ll listen for it every time you hear Ron Carter. Play four bars of C minor tonight and make every beat four point at the next beat one.
Go deeper
Ron Carter: The Intrepid Fox
The full lesson on Ron Carter’s opening line, and the playbook behind every two-bar phrase he plays.
FAQ
What album is The Intrepid Fox on?
Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay, which was incredibly popular for an avant-garde jazz, soul and funk album. You’ve probably heard Ron Carter’s bass line on the title track, “Red Clay.” His opening line on “The Intrepid Fox” is exceptional too.
Is there a G7 in The Intrepid Fox intro?
It’s not written on the lead sheet. It’s just a C minor intro. Ron Carter plays a B on beat four as if there were a G7. Maybe the band talked about it beforehand. Maybe they didn’t, and he’s just adding that G7 to create movement.
How do I practice two-bar phrases on one chord?
Take four bars of one chord and create an imaginary five. In C minor, pretend the second half of bar two is a G7 and put a B on beat four, so bar three feels like a cadence. Then play the next two-bar phrase an octave higher so it echoes the first.
What does the register change do in Ron Carter’s Intrepid Fox line?
It makes the second two-bar phrase echo the first. Four bars in the same register wouldn’t get boring, so that’s not the reason. He plays the second phrase an octave higher to create two distinct phrases, the way a great melody like Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love? changes register on the bridge.
Does Ron Carter really think about cadences this way?
Yes. I’ve taken a few lessons with Mr. Carter, and I know this is exactly what he thinks about. It isn’t just theory. You can hear it show up in bass players before and after him. He didn’t invent this. He just mastered it.
