Regina Carter, the foremost jazz violinist of her generation, will be performing at Landmark on Main Street on Sunday, March 6.
On the Southern Comfort tour, as on the 2014 CD of the same name, Carter, a prodigiously gifted musician, pays homage to her grandfather’s roots as a coal miner in Alabama and celebrates the joyous folk music that infused her early childhood. She explores blues, gospel, spirituals, folk and country music as they evolved with jazz, R&B and global influences, and covers traditional southern songs as well as a couple of notable classics.
Carter goes to a deep place which will surprise those who only know her as the swinging jazz violinist from Detroit.
She began the project by researching the folk tunes her paternal grandfather, a coal miner, would have heard as he toiled in Alabama — and the project expanded to include other folk tunes of the region.
Carter sought out distant relatives and books about the era in which her grandfather lived. From there, she dug into the collections of Appalachian field recordings from folklorists such as Alan Lomax and John Work III. On “Southern Comfort,” Carter interprets her own roots through a modern lens.
“When I would hear some of these field recordings, if I heard something that touched me I put it on the list,” Carter said. “I had maybe 50 tunes that I felt strongly about, and I finally forced myself to work more on those to stop myself from collecting more.”
The 11 tracks on the “Southern Comfort” CD include Carter’s interpretations of Cajun fiddle music, early gospel and coal miner’s work songs in addition to some more contemporary tunes.
“In the Appalachians there were Scottish and Irish descendants, slaves and Native Americans. It was a cultural hodgepodge and the music resulting from it is intoxicating.
This disc was intended to pay homage to my family,” Carter said, “but it turned out to be so much more.”
As befits the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” Carter is also active in music education.
Through a grant from Port Washington’s ed. Foundation, she will conduct two master classes for jazz and improv students at Schreiber High School on the Monday following the concert.
Tickets for Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort are on sale through Landmark’s Box Office, 516-767-6444 or online at www.landmarkonmainstreet.org.
Premium $57 (Friends $52), Select $47 (Friends $42), Standard $40 (Friends $35).
