Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort
Monday, April 21
Kuumbwa Jazz Center
“… pioneering new possibilities for the violin and for jazz – The MacArthur Foundation
Violinist Regina Carter is considered the foremost jazz violinist of her generation, having
re-invigorated the jazz violin with a new spirit of exploration. As a result of her curiosity, passion, and quest for beauty brought to every stop taken on her full musical journey, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (a “genius grant”). This achievement is more apparent than ever on her brand new release Southern Comfort (Sony Music Masterworks: Released March 4th, 2014), in which she explores the folk music of the South.
Southern Comfort thematically connects Carter’s earlier albums I’ll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (2006), which features her mother’s favorite early jazz standards; and Reverse Thread (2010) which celebrates the tradition of African music re-imagined for violin, accordion, bass, drums and kora. On her new album she explores the folk tunes her paternal grandfather, a coalminer, would have heard as he toiled in Alabama – and the project expanded to include other folk tunes of the region.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Regina Carter demonstrated a musical precociousness well beyond her two years of age when she plunked out a melody on the family piano. At four, she began violin lessons using the Suzuki method. By her teens, she was playing in Detroit’s youth symphony and taking lessons with two giants of the violin, Itzhak Perlman and Yehudi Menuhin. In college, when she realized that playing jazz would be her future artistic path, Regina left Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music to enroll in the jazz studies program at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Marcus Belgrave became her mentor, and she immersed herself in the Detroit jazz scene. After graduating, in1985, she taught string instruments in the Detroit school system for a short time before heading off to Europe for a couple of years. Upon her return to the U.S., Carter joined Straight Ahead, an all-female pop/jazz group, with whom she toured and recorded for five years. In 1991 she left the group to start her solo career.
Carter soon moved to New York City to work as a freelance musician and, before long, found herself working with drum legend Max Roach and avant gardist Oliver Lake, as well as a number of major pop stars. She also became a member of the String Trio of New York and recorded three albums with the group. Carter’s solo career was ‘officially’ launched with the release of her eponymous-titled CD, Regina Carter, in 1995. Her second release, Something for Grace, came out two years later, in 1997, the same year she toured with Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields. In 1999, Regina’s career experienced a creative shot-in-the-arm with the release of Rhythms of the Heart. A number of inspired recordings followed, ranging from classical and swing era standards to Motown and the music of Africa. With her latest recording, Southern Comfort, Carter delves into the music of her grandfather’s time. Many of the songs were drawn from the Alan Lomax and John Work III field recordings of Appalachian folk music, then rearranged for Regina’s quintet. The result is a stunning tour de force of centuries old melodies re-imagined through the artistry of 21st century jazz musicians.
CALENDAR INFO
Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort
DATE: Monday, April 21, 2014
VENUE: Kuumbwa Jazz Center
ADDRESS: 320 Cedar St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
TIMES: 7:00 and 9:00 PM
PRICE: $26/Adv $31/Door, No Comps; 9:00 PM: ½ Price Night for Students
TICKETS: Logos Books & Records, 1117 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz (831) 427-5100 and online at: http://www.kuumbwajazz.org
MORE INFO: http://www.kuumbwajazz.org or 831-427-2227
Media contact:
Jim Walsh
Big Hassle
212.619.1360
walsh@bighassle.com
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