Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Regina Carter: Paganini: After a Dream
Regina Carter: Paganini: After a Dream
ByMs. 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 Cannon to be placed in the hands of a player of jazz. The Carter/Paganini fling might have ended with the one meeting but for a second overture, by Regina Carter this time. She wanted to record on The Cannon.
It took a good deal of determination and tenacity on the American violinist's partwith an assist from the mayor's office of the city of Genoabut it was arranged. The fruit of the Paganini/Carter love affair is Paganini: After a Dream.
From the very opening notes, it is obvious that Paganini's violin is an extraordinary instrument in the gentle hands of a passionate lover. The tone is full-bodied and rich, like a dark honey laced with chocolate; and Carter, though reverent, is also playful and inventive at times.
The repertoire, in a nod of respect to the keepers of The Cannon, leans toward the classical side, with four of the tunes coming from the French Impressionist composers, Debussy, Ravel, and Faure. Another comes from Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla, along with a tune form Carter's long time pianist Werner Gierig, and one of Regina's own compositions, an excerpt from "Alexandra."
Gierig's piano on his "Healing in Foreign Lands" is delicately gorgeous, with unfathomable depths, his lightness in perfect counterpoint to the solidity Carter draws from the strings. And "Reverie": Claude Debussywith Regina and Quintet at the helmswings!
Paganini: After a Dream won't appeal to those who don't go for strings in their jazz (unless they can be convinced to give it a fair listen), but it is an undeniably important and deeply beautiful set of sounds.
visit: www.vervemusicgroup.com
Track Listing
Pavane pour une defunte, Black Orpheus, Pavane, Oblivion, Reverie, Healing in Foreign Lands, Apres un reve, excerpt from Alexandra, Cinema Paradiso
Personnel
Regina Carter
violinRegina Carter, violin; Werner "Vana" Gierig, piano; Chris Lightcap, bass; Alvester Garnett, drums; Mayra Casales, percussion. And Borislav Strulev, cello on 2&7; and orchestra on 1, 4, 9
Album information
Title: Paganini: After a Dream | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Verve Music Group