Sweet, Sweet Spirit - New Jazz-Gospel Hybrid Album
NEW RON CARTER ALBUM DROPS FEBRUARY 2026!
PRE-SALE BEGINS DECEMBER 5
EMAIL RONCARTERBASSIST@GMAIL.COM
TO RESERVE YOUR COPY AND BE NOTIFIED WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE
In February 2026, Ron Carter's new and first-of-its-kind Jazz-Gospel hybrid album is launching, featuring the premier gospel Choirmaster Ricky Dillard.
The creation of Sweet Sweet Spirit is deeply important to Mr. Carter as it is a tribute to his mother, Willie O. Carter, and is in many ways a lifetime in the making.
The hymns on this album have an independent and deep history for the gospel community, in addition to having been integrated weekly into the life and musical development of the Carter family in the intimate Detroit church community they attended. A church which depended solely on the voices of the parishioners as instruments.
When Willie O. Carter was on bed rest toward the end of her life she asked her son to sit with her and sing the hymns of his childhood to keep her spirits elevated in musical reminiscence. Mr. Carter promptly went home, recorded himself composing his bass lines integrated with the hymns, for his mother to enjoy during the final weeks of her life.
Fast forward thirty years to Mr. Carter playing the Music for Don (Was) and speaking of the personal history of these hymns for the Carter Family. And “the Ron Carter Jazz-Gospel Hybrid Album” was conceived. An album echoing these voices of Mr. Carters youth, of songs sung in joy and faith with and by his mother.
The sound of this album has been forming in his mind throughout his life. It is a tribute to the beauty of the choir as instrumentation, instrumentation now woven into the choir with the bass at the helm. Both memories and a modern gospel tribute to the sweet sweet spirit of Willie.
The vision of Ron Carter and Don Was (Blue Note Records and Universal Records) needed a choir and choir master with the skill and spirit to integrate the moving and powerful history of Gospel music with the skilled notes of Ron Carter crafted bass lines. There was only one name on the list, Dr. Ricky Dillard.
Mr. Carter and Mr. Dillard have skillfully woven instrumentation with the generations of gospel music which embody a lifetime of memories of Mrs. Willie O. Carter and her son, Ronald Levin Carter. When this album plays up to the heavens one can truly envision her smiling in joy … and faith.