Ernest McCarty Jr. (born March 26, 1941) is an upright bass player, musical composer, and playwright.
[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 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][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.