Customer Reviews

Reverse Thread

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overview:
This is hands down my favorite Regina Carter CD ... ever. On this CD Regina weaves a tapestry of world music, inspired primarily by African music, but also by tango. Two of my favorite non-traditional jazz instruments, the accordion and kora are featured on this album. I wouldn't have thought they could work together, but amazingly they do. The violin actually forms the perfect bridge between the two. If you are not familiar with the kora it is a 21 string African harp. The kora player can play a bass line, melody, and solo all at the same time on it. Regina has assembled an all star case of musicians on this album they are:

Regina Carter - violin
Yacouba Sissoko - kora (tracks 2,3,6,7,11)
Will Holshouser - accordion (1,7,8,10,11,12)
Gary Vesace - accordion (2,3,4,5,9)
Adam Rogers - guitar (1,5,8,10)
Mamadou Ba - electric bass (2,3,9)
Chris Lightcap - accoustic bass (1,4,5,7,8,10,11,12)
Alvester Garnett - drums, percussion

The CD also features songs by legendary African musicians, including songs by Ayub Ogada, Bassekou Kouyate, and Boubacar Traore.

Song Highlights:

Kothbiro - Many people will recognize this Ayub Ogada song as the theme song for the recent movie "The Constant Gardner". While tragically sad, the tune is so pretty and one of my favorite songs by African World artists. This rendition isn't quite as powerful as the version by Kenny Werner, Chris Potter, and Dave Douglas, on Werner's Lawn Chair Society, but it comes very close. Sissoko opens the tune with a kora solo, and plays brilliantly throughout. Carter plays the sad melody to perfection.

N'Teri - This track written by Habib Koite is beautiful sad song. It is similar in style to Kothbiro. It opens with some plucking by Carter and Kora playing by Sissoko. After a real nice kora solo, Carter and accordion player Versace trade of short bars of soloing in classic call and answer fashion.

Artistya - This track opens with a rapid fire jumping bass line by Chris Lightcap and wild percussion by Garnett. Carter comes in over the top with monster violin solo that is absolutely ferocious. It is my favorite solo on the CD.

Day Dreaming on the Nile - The title of this track is perfect. Every time I listen to it, my mind starts to wander off in a day dream. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the electric bass, but it really works well here. The walking/ wandering bass line is the center point of the song. There is a lot of nice accordion work and texture provided by Gary Versace.

Kanou - Fans of Bill Frisell are probably very familiar with the composer of this song, Boubacar Traore. He was the inspiration of Frisell's "The Intercontinental" CD. Boubacar is a great artist and this is a great song choice by Carter. This song also features Sissoko's best Kora solo of the CD.

Un Aguinaldo Pa Regina - A great modern tango song written by Papo Vasquez. Great interplay between guitarist Adam Rogers, Accoridanist Gary Versace, and Regina Carter.

If you are a fan of Roswell Rudd's Malicool, Bela Fleck's "Throw Down your Heart", Frisell's Intercontintels, you better run down to the store and pick this up. As far as modern African music fused with jazz goes, this is as good as it gets.

If you're like me, the short audio excerpts that often accompany an Amazon musical offering (not available here) seldom give you a good idea of what the product is really like, so reviews by owners of a particular disc can be the most valuable critique you'll get.

Regina Carter is an extremely skillful violinist. On 'Reverse Thread' she's gathered a very unusual group of instrumentalists, who give the overall sound a very original character. Although they may be virtuosos in their own right, they mostly perform as accompanist's here.

The sound is overall light and pleasant, but never in a trite way: this group of recordings certainly bear continual replaying, revealing a complexity perhaps not apparent on the first listening. As an astute reviewer has previously written here, think mainly 'African', with 'Tango' on at least one track.

It's so refreshing to finally have a few musicians coming out of the 'jazz' tradition (Regina and Bill Frissell) who are willing to stretch the envelope instead of trying to top the masters of yesterday (think Wynton Marsalis).

For those who seek a blend of joyfulness and beauty--this album is a must!

The performances are both buoyant and sublime, and I am moved to provide a few words here as this album is such a rare treasure.

As it regards album specifics, I refer you to the earlier review by Scott Williams "SneakyNeighborsDog," which contains an impressively detailed overview.


Enjoy!!!!

Regina draws much of her inspiration from Africa in this her newest
disc. There is also one track that appears Argentina-inspired. Those of you who know Regina Carter may wonder how can a high class fiddle player like Ms Carter interpret African beats. Well, you will have to hear it to believe it. This is truly a refined work. I have always loved her distictive jazz-violin sound. It is influenced by Grapelli and Reinhardt but noticebly her own. If you like her sound as I do, I recommend this album above all others

Ms. Carter is an alumna of the institution where I teach, and we are immensely proud of her. That said, every star of this review is earned. On her album "I'll be seeing you," she gave us a lovely sentimental journey into the music of her mother's generation, and now she's followed the music of her ancestors back to their homeland, with a brilliant series of jazz improvisations on traditional African songs. Her ensemble this time also includes Yacouba Sissoko, a virtuoso on the kora, which is a harp-like instrument, but with a rounded sounding box rather like an oud. The kora is absolutely beautiful, both visually and musically, and has been since about 2000 B.C., when it appeared on ancient Egyptian wall paintings! Speaking of which, although her recordings are delightful, there's no substitute for seeing Ms. Carter and her ensembles perform live, so if you get a chance to go to one of her concerts, grab it.

I can only echo Scott Williams review of Regina's new cd. This is easily her best cd of her career - at times bouyant, others introspective, always thoughtful. The accordion, kora and violin work together amazingly well. Lightcaps acoustic bass is a better fit with this band than Ba's electric bass in my opinion, although one of the lovliest tunes on the cd, N'Teri, has Ba on electric bass.

This is a wonderful lineup that made inspiring music together - hopefully Carter will use this same group for a future cd. The music they have made on this cd is deserving of at least one more.

I wish that I could've uploaded the live performance of this CD. It was Seriously Amazing!!! I LOVE the Intertwine of the KORA.. Although it's an "African Harp" as explained to the audience, it almost has this latin sound to it. the way Regina's music intertwines this kora along with the accordian in her music with Bass leaves you in Ahhhh. I'm still recovering from a Musical Orgasm .. The second half was Esperenza Spaulding. This all of 90lbs of Genious has to be known as the Warhol of Jazz. This woman is truely an Old Soul. Check her out as well .

This is a great new sound from Regina Carter.I like the background,her playing has improved over the yrs.She has matured in the experiences of recording a new sound track.I like the change.

I was listening to African Jamal Davis on KKUP FM, Cupertino, CA. He played Regina Carter and I was riveted by the santur in the jazz piece! We are enjoying the whole album.

'Cause this album ain't her.
Innoccuous smoov jazz feeling stuff. Polite dinner music.
Lacks the passion her playing usually emotes. This album made me sad. I find no reason to listen to this album again when I have plenty of other Regina Carter offerings that I don't have to force myself to try to enjoy. Regina Carter is now off my list of artists that I'd automatically buy each new offering. Going forward I'll sample first, hoping to find again the calibre of music and playing I'd come to expect from this virtuoso.

Edit 8/30:
Listened again, almost two months later. I was sharing this cd with my mom. I turned her on to Regina Carter earlier in her solo career and we even have enjoyed seeing her perform live. For us, her albums are something we enjoy sharing. Regarding this album, I told her she didn't need to rush out and get it. I'd let her experience my copy. So, we had it on in the vehicle the other day. Some of the tracks I can work up an appreciation for, the few that had some swing to them. Overall, I stand by my damning-with-faint-praise catagorization of "polite dinner music". It's more head than heart. Too academic sounding. Too flatline in the recording levels. There's no denying that Ms. Carter and her supporting musicians are extremely proficient, so I easily admit the talent is still there. But what's missing for me is the soulfulness, the spiritedness.