Southern Comfort (Sony Music)

Regina Carter

Released March 4, 2014

AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2014

YouTube:

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Spotify:

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About:

Violinist Regina Carter is considered the foremost jazz violinist of her generation – a designation which doesn’t quite paint the picture.  As a result of her curiosity, passion, and quest for beauty brought to every stop taken on her full musical journey, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (a “genius grant”). Those are more apparent than ever on her upcoming debut Southern Comfort (Sony Music Masterworks), in which she explores the folk music of the South.  The album will be released on March 4, 2014 and coincide with an international tour.

Southern Comfort thematically connects Carter’s earlier albums I’ll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (2006), which features her mother’s favorite early jazz standards; and Reverse Thread (2010) which celebrates the tradition of African music re-imagined for violin, accordion, bass, drams and kora. On her new album she explores the folk tunes her paternal grandfather, a coalminer, would have heard as he toiled in Alabama – and the project expanded to include other folk tunes of the region. 

Intent on making the past, present, Regina sought out distant relatives and books about the era in which her grandfather lived.  From there, she went to the Library of Congress and the renowned collections of folklorists such as Alan Lomax and John Work III digging deep into their collected field recordings from Appalachia.  On Southern Comfort, Regina 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,” said Carter.  “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 Southern Comfort 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 to pay homage to my family,” said Carter, “but it turned out to be so much more.”

The musicians on this recording bring a different mixture of backgrounds to the project, including guitarists Adam Rogers and Marvin Sewell, bassists Chris Lightcap and Jesse Murphy, accordionist Will Holshouser and drummer Alvester Garnett, who also provided arrangements.  Stefon Harris, Xavier Davis and Nate Smith also contributed arrangements, about which Carter expressed, “Each arranger brings out something musically that’s unique to them which speaks to me.”

On being signed to Sony Music Masterworks, Carter adds, “I’m so excited to work with a label that has such history; it’s the perfect place for this project. Moreover, it’s wonderful to be reunited with U.S. label head Chuck Mitchell. I’ve provided Southern Comfort – the nurturance and comfort Chuck and SONY have provided covers a realm far greater.”

Track Listing:

1. Miner’s Child (Traditional) 05:01

2. Trampin’ (Traditional) 02:11

3. Hickory Wind (Bob Buchanan / Gram Parsons) 04:36

4. Shoo-Rye (Traditional) 07:21

5. Blues de Basile (Dennis McGee) 04:39

6. I’m Going Home (Traditional) 07:11

7. Honky Tonkin’ (Hank Williams) 03:52

8. Cornbread Crumbled in Gravy (Traditional) 04:14

9. See See Rider (Traditional) 05:14

10. I Moaned and I Moaned (Traditional) 03:33

11. Death Have Mercy/Breakaway (Traditional) 08:21

Personnel:

Regina Carter: violin, handclaps, vocals

Gillian Friedman: handclaps

Adam Rogers: guitar

Marvin Sewell: guitar, handclaps

Chris Lightcap: bass, handclaps

Jesse Murphy: bass, sampling

Will Holshouser: accordion

Alvester Garnett: drums, handclaps, vocals

Chris Hinderaker: handclaps, sampling

Luca Madrazo: handclaps, vocals

Myles Weinstein: handclaps

Recorded at Kaleidoscope Sound Studios

Producer: Regina Carter

Recorded and Mixed by Joe Ferla

Assistant Engineer: Ian Cassel

Mixing Assistants: Brett Mayer, Raphael Lee

Mastered by Mark Wilder

Photography by David Katzenstein

Art Direction: Josh Cheuse

Executive-Producer: Chris Hinderaker

Review:

On Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort, her Sony Masterworks debut, the Detroit-born violinist continues the musical journey of self-discovery that began with 2006’s I’ll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey, a collection of her mother’s favorite jazz standards. She followed it with 2010’s Reverse Thread, a brilliant collection of traditional and modern African songs. Southern Comfort traces her father’s side of history through the music of America’s Deep South. Assisted in performing and arranging by her own band and some helpful studio aces, Carter delivers a program that weds the America’s Southern heritage in folks songs — gospel, spirituals, child ballads, blues — through to its cultural evolution in the mid-20th century’s country music, jazz, and R&B. She and her collaborators spent months researching material from the Smithsonian collections to more mercurial and familial sources. Opener “Miner’s Child” (adapted from Dock Boggs’ “Prayer of a Miner’s Child,” itself an adaptation) relates directly to her grandfather — a coal miner she never met. Her violin rides atop Will Holhouser’s accordion, Marvin Sewell’s blues- and bluegrass-inflected guitar picking, Alvester Garnett’s rumbling tom-toms, and rolling bassline from Jesse Murphy. The modern arrangement keeps the raw grain of the original in context. Gram Parsons’ “Hickory Wind” is rendered with heartbreaking tenderness as violin and accordion sing directly to one another and the electric guitar functions like a weeping pedal steel. This is Carter at her most economical, though she omits nothing of the song’s melodic power. “Shoo-Rye” is an Appalachian children’s song that reveals its Cajun fiddle roots and further evolves into modern jazz. “I’m Goin’ Home,” a traditional spiritual arranged by guitarist Adam Rogers, is spacious and contemplative as guitar and accordion reflect reverence and longing. Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonkin’ weds jazz, country, and R&B in this Rogers arrangement with stellar soloing by Carter, Holhouser, and the guitarist, with killer breaks by Garnett. “Cornbread Crumbled in Gravy” arranged by Xavier Davis, is rife with classical counterpoint and flamenco cadences yet never loses its root melody. The earthy reading of “See See Rider” here is not inspired by Wayne Cochran’s classic take, but an earlier version by a rural, all-girl school chorus. Stefon Harris arranged the album-closing medley of “Death Have Mercy/Breakaway.” Led by handclaps, and electric and acoustic guitars, they meld blues, singalong work songs, and pre-WWII African gospel, and are infused with highlife-like rhythms, and link directly and effectively to Reverse Thread. “Trampin'” is an old blues tune where the sampled field recording vocal is floated over a greasy, funky, NOLA-inspired second-line rhythm as Carter digs in and bridges the gap with grit and fire. Southern Comfort is classic Carter. She approaches this material with personal and historical curiosity as well as emotional honesty. For her, musical sophistication and lineage traditions are inseparable.

Thom Jurek (AllMusic)