Ernest McCarty

Ernest McCarty Jr. (born March 26, 1941) is an upright bass player, musical composer, and playwright. He is known for playing with Erroll Garner from 1970 until Garner's death in 1977, as well as for plays he has written, scored and directed.[1][2]

McCarty was born in South Chicago to Samarie Hunter McCarty and Ernest McCarty Sr.[2] His mother had some Native American ancestry and his father was part Scottish and insisted he use "Junior" after his name.[2] He lived in New York for a long time, and moved to Pittsburgh in 1993. He played his bass on his front porch during the COVID era.[1][2]

McCarty learned piano as a child, then took violin lessons but stopped because his parents couldn't afford the lessons.[2] He attended DuSable High School, where the music instructor Captain Walter Dyett chose him to play bass and so he learned the instrument.[2] He was in the Chicago Youth Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra.[3] He was scheduled to audition for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra but wasn't allowed to audition because he was Black.[2]

He switched to Jazz after that experience.[2] He attended Roosevelt University where he took his first formal lessons in string bass.[2] He joined Oscar Brown Jr.'s band in 1962 and played string bass and acted as the musical director.[2] He has performed with Odetta, Ike and Tina Turner, and Gloria Gaynor.[4]

McCarty directed and co-wrote and the musical Dinah! Queen of the Blues with Sasha Dalton, about the life of Dinah Washington.[2][5] He has written or co-written more than 25 plays and musicals and acted as artistic director for New Horizons Theater in Pittsburgh from 1994 through 2008.[2]

McCarty is married to Patricia Kearney McCarty.[4]