Jazz Articles about Regina Carter

Regina Carter: Southern Comfort

by Dan Bilawsky
March 19, 2014

Violinist Regina Carter's debut for Sony Masterworks finds her knee-deep in history once again. Carter has become something of a genre-blind and stylistically-inclusive musicologist, marrying her violin, family history and more to music of various shapes and origins. She paid tribute to the dark lord of the violin on Paganini: After A Dream (Verve, 2003), explored the songs that her mother loved on I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (Verve, 2006), and bridged the gap between ...

Regina Carter: Reverse Thread

by Mark F. Turner
May 17, 2010

What does the award-winning, classically trained, jazz violinist Regina Carter do, after playing Niccolo Paganini's famous Guarneri “Cannon" violin in Paganini: After a Dream (Verve Music Group, 2003), or reinterpreting songs from the 1920s-1940s in I'll Be Seeing You ( Verve Music Group, 2006)? She directs her interests and passion towards African folk music in Reverse Thread, a significant work in her already diverse discography. A 2006 MacArthur Fellow, Carter took full advantage of the very generous ...

Regina Carter: Experimenting with Time

by Franz A. Matzner
February 21, 2008

Regina CarterKennedy CenterWashington, D.C.January 2008 Sentimental explorations can backfire quickly, often devolving into the saccharine or stumbling into the too intentional. Trust Regina Carter to navigate the tricky terrain of nostalgia with aplomb, mixing just the right amounts of heart-on-her-sleeve honesty, wit, and artistic experimentation to make her recent Kennedy Center performance “I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey" both memorable and thought provoking. Framing her always stellar violin with ...

Regina Carter: I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey

by Troy Collins
June 6, 2006

Regina Carter dedicated I'll Be Seeing You to her mother, who recently passed away. In the process of recording this disc as both loving tribute and musical therapy, Carter followed the advice of arranger John Clayton, working through a set of tunes culled from her mother's youth. The results are wistfully nostalgic and viable in their commemoration.

The violinist has recorded in a number of configurations and styles, from duets with pianist Kenny Barron on Freefall (Verve, 2001) ...

Regina Carter: Improvising a Life in Jazz

by AAJ Staff
February 18, 2006

Regina Carter's mother had everything planned out. Her precocious daughter, whose violin teacher was so impressed with Regina's musical potential that she was placed in an accelerated Suzuki program at age 4, would become a classical violinist. Regina would play in a respected symphony orchestra -- preferably in her hometown of Detroit. She would earn a fine salary with a pension and health benefits that would provide her with plenty of security for the future.

Thankfully for jazz fans, things ...

Regina Carter: Paganini: After a Dream

by Dan McClenaghan
April 22, 2003

Nicolo Paganini's ghost made the first overture when the city of Genoa, Italy--the legendary violinist's birthplace--invited the American jazz musician Regina Carter to play a concert on the master's priceless two hundred and fifty year old violin, “The Cannon"--so named for its huge sound and sonorous tone. Ms. Carter came, she played; the concert was a brilliant success, though not without its detractors. There are some classical fans who considered it a debasement, a near sacrilege for The ...