October 17, 2000 with her quintet at UCSB Summary Facts:
With her latest recording Motor City Moments just released on Verve in September, Detroit-born Regina Carter continues to blaze a trail of jazz violin virtuosity that has critics and fans raving about her inarguable swing, agility and personal sense of humor that make her work so appealing and her improvisation so inclusive. Carter’s dynamism is matched by an impressive technique that includes breathtaking glissandos, dramatic dips and swoops, a sorrowful melisma, fluid hairpin turns-of-phrase and bittersweet overtones. With two new CDs under her belt since her appearance here as the hit of the 4 Generations of Jazz Violin tour just two years ago, Carter returns to Santa Barbara with her own quintet on piano, bass, drums and guitar. The Regina Carter Quintet performs on Sunday, November 19 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. Billboard magazine’s enthusiastic adulation of Carter after her 1999 CD Rhythms of the Heart included comments such as, “If music were a self-ordained life force that could change form and chemistry at whim, crackling like lightning, sobbing like an infant, and then cutting like a broadsword, it might evince the same metaphysical vigor as the impossibly supple jazz violin of Regina Carter.” The same critic, who was “amazed at Carter’s ability to effortlessly elude her instrument’s supposed limitations,” lauded the new sound on Rhythms in comparison to her previous recordings on Atlantic—Regina Carter from 1995 and Something for Grace from 1997—by noting that “if her previous two releases had a lithe but often linear mood, (Rhythms) signals the ascendance of an inspired new performer in the contemporary jazz panorama—because hers is now a mature talent with intuitive dazzle to burn.” Motor City Moments further displays the eclectic influences that mark what TIME refers to as Carter’s “wonderfully listenable, probingly intelligent and at times breathtakingly daring” style. The new CD includes works ranging from Thad Jones’ boppish “Don’t Git Sassy” to the haunting “Love Theme from Spartacus.” Carter’s versions of Marvin Gaye’s “Don’t Mess with Mr. T,” Milt Jackson’s “For Someone I Love” and Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” all appear on the album with a Latin beat. Bop tunes “Fukai Aijo” and Lucky Thompson’s Charlie Parker-inspired “Prey Loot” appear alongside “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and the bluesy “Up South.” Carter makes good use of her meticulous training in classical violin, her education at the New England Conservatory of Music as a double major in European classical and African-American music and then later at Michigan’s Oakland University where she played in the school’s big band. She also benefits from her professional experiences as a member of the Detroit Civic Orchestra, a funk act called Brainstorm, the all-female fusion quintet Straight Ahead, Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz Orchestra of Lincoln Center, and the String Trio of New York. In addition to backing and collaborating with some of the leading names in jazz today, Carter has also performed with Aretha Franklin, Coolio, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton and the charanga band Johnny Almendar Y Los Jóvenes Del Barrio. Such broad musical experience means a Carter set is likely to include jazz standards and bop classics flavored with generous quotes of soul and popular tunes, Latin and African rhythms and funk sounds, as well as works from sources as diverse as those on her last two recordings. This Arts & Lectures’ concert is part of a tour that includes performances at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on Saturday, November 18 and UC Riverside on Thursday, November 16. Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, this event is sponsored by Country Inn by the Sea and KCLU Radio 102.3 FM, and is supported in part with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency. For tickets or more information, Editor: For photos, please call |