Kenny and I met in Telluride about five years ago. After hearing me play he said he thought it would be great if we played together some time. He hired me into his group, and I hired him into mine for a couple of recording projects. He suggested we should try doing a duo recording just for ourselves, and he paid for that. We went into the studio and recorded four tunes. It was great because of the chemistry we have--we didn't really have to talk about things. We approached Verve Music and said we wanted to do this project. It took us four years to do it--our schedules didn't match up at all. Finally we had the opportunity to record Free Fall. Kenny is not one to rehearse. We just got together and talked about tunes--will this work for us or not? We went in for two days and just played. Some things worked and some didn't. We recorded so much material--we have enough in the can for another CD. There were some original ideas we had. "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise" just didn't work at first. The second day I think I was out grabbing a coffee, and Kenny was playing this montuno on the piano--just playing around. I came back in and started playing "Softly" over it, and it worked. It was much slower than we originally intended. We picked out enough pieces for the CD including one totally improvised piece, "Free Fall." We felt that Free Fall (the title) was indicative of the whole CD, being that we had to trust each other. We took a lot of chances. It's not just one particular type of record--it's not a bebop record or a ballads record. We didn't worry about record sales--it was a special project. It was about art, which you have to have in your life. We've been playing some of the pieces from the CD on the tour, and there are some we didn't record. Sometimes we'll be doodling around at sound check. Kenny will say, "There's a tune we can do." Every concert is different with its own magic--that's how we hope it will be when we come to Los Angeles. We'll allow the music to be what it needs to be rather than forcing it to sound like the record. The only preconceived idea is there are two of us.

I didn't have a lot of time off. I had a half-day in Turkey. I'd never been to Istanbul before. My thing was to walk around and see the city. I bought a rug! I took a vacation after those two weeks and went to Italy. My pianist, Werner "Vana" Gierig, took his group out on the road. He has a Brazilian project and my drummer Alvester Garnett plays with him. I checked them out in Rome and in the Canary Islands. I spent a few extra days down there, and I met a great Cuban percussionist, Mayra.

It was Motown music at first because my older brothers were playing that throughout the house. Later, in high school, a friend turned me on to jazz. I got a couple of records by a violinist Noel Pointer, then Jean-Luc Ponty. My friend Carla Cook, a jazz vocalist, took me to hear Stephane Grappelli. That just kind of changed my whole thing up that night. I think it was the live thing--seeing how much fun the band was having and how much freedom there was in the music. I wanted to have that experience. I had no idea who Charlie Parker was or Miles Davis or Ella Fitzgerald. I just knew jazz meant freedom! It was a slow, arduous road to get into this music and to find my footing.

I'm influenced by everything I hear. As a musician I don't think you can listen to anyone for a period of time and not get something from that. I don't copy anyone per se--I hear suggestions in the music.

I put it aside for a long time. When I was at the conservatory the way it was taught for me made me hate the music. I found a great teacher in New York after that who helped me come back around. Now I'm studying with another great teacher who's a major soloist, Gerald Bill. He's working with me on some pieces. In fact my quintet has a couple of gigs with a symphony orchestra in September and October. I'm going to play a piece with the orchestra. I don't plan to record the classical pieces. It's fun, but I've left the music way too long. I'm funny about that. Unless someone does it really well (like Wynton) I don't respect it. If I spent time getting my chops back up I'd do it, but I've got enough to work on with jazz right now.

I play a regular violin, a German trade violin from the late 1700's. I have a pickup on it, which attaches to the bridge. When I plug it in the vibration from the sound post resonates, and I can plug it into an amp. It modifies the sound a little. I have to use it when I'm playing with my quintet because I have drums and percussion. When I play with Kenny I play acoustic with a stage microphone--like a classical duo.

It's something that doesn't come very easy for me. I have to be inspired, and I have to have room to write. Sometimes I just wait for the inspiration to come to me from out of nowhere. I have to remember, "No, you have to go and look for it." I just saw Wayne Shorter's group the other night with Brian Blade, Danilo Perez, and John Pattitucci in the Canary Islands. It was so inspirational. I've been listening to Maria Joao. Not many people move me like that. When I first heard her live she made me cry. Charlie Haden's new record, Nocturne, has really been inspirational. I have to write for my new quintet project. I'm trying to give myself the room to be inspired, but it's hard on the road. There are all these outside things that can get to you.

I enjoy playing with everybody. My own quintet is not here with me now--I really miss them. Steve Turre, his sextet with strings. With Cassandra [Wilson] it wasn't really playing behind her, which I thought it would be. I was part of a string quartet playing with her. One night she asked me to take a solo here. I took a little one. She came up to me and kind of pushed me up to the front of the stage, which a lot of people won't do, especially vocalists. They can be funny about sharing their stage space. Cassandra was very open--I felt like we were all creating together. I got a chance to do one night with Paquito D'Rivera. I'd love to do something else with him. When you get together to play music with people it's such a sacred time, a joyous time.

We (the quintet) do them a lot when we're out on the road. Sometimes a high school or college big band will play for us and we'll give them some ideas. If it's string players it's just me. I teach them about improvising, using one or two notes or the blues. If it's non-musicians we talk about our instruments and what we do when we improvise. We try to get volunteers to come up and sing with us. Whatever's there we kind of figure out how we can work with it.

My next record will be with my quintet and some guest artists. (I'm not sure who yet.) I have to think about the music first.

Web site:

http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/bfeatures/regina_carter/

Interview with Kenny Barron:

http://wwww.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/kbarron.htm