Classically trained jazz violinist Regina Carter wanted to go beyond the boundaries of Western music, but couldn't find a record label willing to partner up on the adventure.
Then came along the MacArthur Foundation, which bestowed on her its prestigious $500,000 fellowship, known as the "genius grant." Carter spent some of the money taking an introductory course on music therapy, and then spent some following her intuition.
The unrestricted grant allowed her to spend three years independently researching and recording African folk songs, combining instruments and melodies she only had a feeling might coalesce into something substantive.I took a chance putting these instruments together for this project, not knowing if it was going to work," says Carter of the resulting 12 tracks on her recently released CD, "Reverse Threads."
Carter talked recently about the album, which features violin, accordion and the traditional West African 21-stringed kora.
The Associated Press: It sounds like there are all kinds of musical influences on this African-influenced CD.
Carter: It's a huge continent first of all, Africa is, and so there's so many different cultures and so many different styles of music. Sometimes I would hear something and say, "Oh wow, that sounds like Irish music" ... I'd started to see within the research how much we influence — you know from traveling — how much the planet and how much we're all influenced through music or art, and how much we're connected all over the planet.
AP: As you were discovering these songs and compositions, which story surprised you the most?
Carter: I think the two tunes I recorded, "Hiwumbe Awumba" and "Mwana Talitambula." Reading that they were from the Ugandan Jews and I had no idea that there were Jewish people in Uganda ... It's pretty amazing what I've started to learn just by researching music, the history that sometimes goes along with some of these pieces.
AP: What was most challenging thing about making this album?
Carter: These melodies when you listen to them, they sound very simple, but when you try to play them, you find that sometimes the simplest sounding things are the most difficult things to play. And having the technique and coming from a jazz world and being so used to improvising and using that language, sometimes it was too much. It was too many decorations, if you will, on the music, so I had to stop myself and really strip it away and let the beauty of these melodies really speak for themselves.
AP: How's working with your husband (percussionist Alvester Garnett)?
Carter: Working with my husband is really great. We figured out how it was going to work for us. I'm the boss of course - all the time. And he always tells me, 'Well, she's the boss two times over.' On the road, we don't share rooms, because when we're working together, he's my drummer and I'm the violinist we're ban mates then. And it helps to keep it so there's no favoritism, we're all on equal footing. There's no weird dynamic. And then when we get home, that dynamic, I had to learn. We both did — how to make that shift into being husband and wife.
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