By April 4, 2013
Jazz violinist Regina Carter is bringing the music from her latest African-inspired album to the Lied Center on 7:30 p.m. Friday. In “Reverse Thread,” an accordion and a kora — West African harp — are added to the mix to showcase Carter’s interpretation of traditional melodies from different areas in Africa. A MacArthur Fellow from Detroit, Carter has performed with several symphony orchestras and artists such as Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Billy Joel, Kenny Barron and Mary J. Blige.
Before her performance, Carter chatted with us about her relationship to the music of Africa.
Nadia Imafidon: What drew you to work on “Reverse Thread,” an album of primarily African folk music?
Regina Carter: I grew up in Detroit and I was exposed to a lot of different ethnic cultures there in the city. One of the largest communities after the African-American population is the Arab-Christian population. I would hear so many different styles of music from around the world right there in Detroit, and I was really attracted by all these sounds.
Right out of high school there was a band put together, Earth Ireland. It was a couple of musicians from Chaldea, a couple of jazz musicians, a rock musician, a woman on sitar and vocalist from India. It was to bring the community together in Detroit musically. They recorded some popular tunes, one of them being “Wild Thing,” where one of the verses was sung in Arabic and the other in English. I was just really attracted to the sound. My thought was to start with Arab-Christian music. For my research, I went to the World Music Institute, and while I was there a woman said, “Have you ever heard this CD?” It was a collection of music from the Ugandan Jews, and I didn’t even know there were Jews in Uganda. It was so mesmerizing and beautiful that I started checking out music from other places in Uganda, and from that I got other information that led me to other places on the continent and other music and musicians and that really took my focus.
Read more: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/apr/04/regina-carter-discovers-roots-while-making-researc/
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