Paganini

Product Description:

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Regina Carter (vocals, violin); Jorge Calandrelli (arranger); Ettore Stratta (conductor); Joyce Hammann, Robert Chausow, Natalie Cenovia Cummins, Laura Seaton, Katherine Livolsi-Stern, Karen Milne, Carol Pool, Mary Rowell, Yuri Vodovoz, Mary Whitaker, Belinda Whitney-Barratt (violin); Ralph Farris, Maxine Roach, Debra Shufelt (viola); Borislav Strulev, Dorothy Lawson (cello); Susan Jolles (harp); Werner "Vana" Gierig (piano); Jeffrey Carney, Chris Lightcap (bass); Alvester Garnett (drums); Mayra Casales (percussion).

Recorded at Right Track, Hit Factory Studios, New York, New York and Auditorium E Montale, Genoa, Italy, between November 11 & December 4, 2002. Includes liner notes by Regina Carter.

"Oblivion" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

The story behind the music on PAGANINI: AFTER A DREAM should draw in Regina Carter fans and newcomers alike. As a gesture of solidarity after 9/11, Ms. Carter (a New Yorker by way of Detroit) was invited to be the first jazz musician to play Nicolo Paganini's Il Cannone, the over 250-year-old instrument favored by the legendary maestro and an Italian national treasure. The success of this event led to the second loan of the instrument for these sessions, thereby bestowing the CD with historic significance.

The tune selections show some respectful deference to the classical world, including arrangements of compositions by Faure, Debussy, and Ravel. The interpretations, however, are anything but traditional, with the impulse to swing working its way into many of the numbers. Lyricism abounds as well in the slower, more tender tracks, with Ms. Carter taking full advantage of the vintage instrument's expressive qualities. Highlights include the tip-toeing, improvised pizzicato passage in "Alexandra," Ennio Morricone's theme from "Cinema Paradiso" replete with lush, full string orchestra complement, and Maurice Ravel's ineffably beautiful melody "Pavanne Pour Une Infante Defunte."