WATCH: At The Center ~ Regina Carter on jazz education

Violinist Regina Carter reflects on her work with Bay Area public school students and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars while being a 2013-14 SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director.

Song credit:

"Miner's Child"
Regina Carter
'Southern Comfort' (Sony Masterworks)

Check out Regina's Southern Comfort project. Watch more videos of artists who create at the SFJAZZ Center.

WATCH: At The Center ~ Violinist Regina Carter reflects

Violinist Regina Carter reflects on her time as 2013-14 Resident Artistic Director (RAD) at the SFJAZZ Center, from Grand Opening collaborations with fellow RADs Jason Moran and Bill Frisell, to bringing her mentors John Blake and Kenny Barron to the Center, to working with her childhood friend, vocalist Carla Cook, and the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars! 

Song credit:

"See See Rider"

Regina Carter

Southern Comfort (2014)

Sony Masterworks

Check out Regina's Southern Comfort project. Watch more videos of artists who create at the SFJAZZ Center.

PHOTO: Resident Artistic Director Regina Carter at the SFJAZZ Center

Violinist and Resident Artistic Director Regina Carter capped her first residency of Season 2 at the SFJAZZ Center last night. Carter brought four diverse groups to Miner Auditorium over the weekend, from Thursday night's Violin Summit with fellow violinists Sara Caswell and Jenny Scheinman, to Friday's Tango Meets Jazz with the Pablo Ziegler Quartet. On Saturday evening, Carter joined the great pianist Kenny Barron in an intimate duo performance, before closing on Sunday with singer Carla Cook and the award-winning SFJAZZ High School All-Stars. Below are two photos from Carter's performance with Kenny Barron, which included a Pre-Concert Talk with Director of Education Rebeca Mauleón.

Regina Carter & Kenny Barron in conversation with Director of Education Rebeca Mauleón

Regina Carter performs with the great Kenny Barron

All photos courtesy of Ronald Davis. As always, you can find more photos at SFJAZZ Flickr.

If you missed out on Regina Carter's Residency, or want more, Carter returns to SFJAZZ with Southern Comfort on May 1st, 2014!

SPOTLIGHT: Pablo Ziegler - Tango Meets Jazz

This week, Resident Artistic Director and violinist Regina Carter presents Argentinian-pianist Pablo Ziegler and his Nuevo Tango Quartet. Ziegler toured and performed with the great tango maestro Astor Piazzolla in the composer’s last working decade. With Piazzolla, Ziegler helped spearhead the contemporary nuevo tango movement, which revitalized the traditional Argentinian music with elements of jazz and classical music.

Since Piazzolla's retirement in 1989, Ziegler has continued to push nuevo tango forward, implementing more and more from the jazz idiom into his own compositions and performances. Ziegler's efforts have certainly not gone unnoticed. His 2005 acclaimed album, Bajo Cero, earned a Latin Grammy Award. Splitting his time between Argentina and the U.S., Ziegler typically headlines the Tango Meets Jazz Festival in New York, where Regina Carter has joined as a featured guest. Carter remarked, “I really love playing with his group. It's very different stylistically for me. I'm not completely out of my element, but it's a challenge for me…and I always like to have a challenge. I always like to try something new.” Evident in Pablo Ziegler's jazzed arrangement of Piazzolla's iconic Libertango (below), both written parts and solos for violin in nuevo tango are indeed no easy task!

The challenge is well worth it, as Ziegler and Carter hone in on common ground between two sounds--between tango and jazz. Carter, speaking on her upcoming SFJAZZ residency, perhaps says it best: “My theme for the week is ‘Continuous Thread.’ We are all connected." As Ziegler and Carter will undoubtedly demonstrate on stage, this thread is as much between music as people.

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The Pablo Ziegler Quartet featuring Regina Carter perform this Friday in Miner Auditorium at the SFJAZZ Center. For more information on Pablo Ziegler and Regina Carter's Residency, visit sfjazz.org.

**The SPOTLIGHT Series probes into the careers and unique, lesser-known aspects of the artists featured at the SFJAZZ Center.