The spirit of Ella Fitzgerald will come to life later this month, when the Wharton Center welcomes Grammy Award-nominated jazz violinist Regina Carter. The Detroit native is bringing her new Simply Ella show to East Lansing on Friday, February 22. Carter, considered one of the world’s best jazz violinists, was awarded the prestigious fellowship “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2006.
I spoke with her about her 2019 Grammy nomination, the role of music in her life since childhood, and what she would ask Ella Fitzgerald if she had ever been given the chance.
Stefanie Pohl: Congratulations on your Grammy nomination! Did you get a chance to watch the show?
Regina Carter: I did. I watched it, and I thought it was a really lovely show. I congratulated the gentleman [John Daversa] who won in my category. I thought it was a really beautiful project, his Dreamers project. One of the producers on that project worked on another project with me that I did with Arturo O’Farrill, where he took a bunch of us musicians to the Mexican border and we played on both sides of the border wall. It was pretty heavy. I thought the show was nice. I always wonder why the jazz and classical categories are like the stepchildren of the Grammys. I felt like with Wayne Shorter, he’s such a treasure, I wish that had aired during the Grammys telecast. I wish they could have shown his win.
Pohl: How does it feel to be coming back home to Michigan on this tour?
Carter: I love coming home and playing. There’s something about it. I always tell people, when folks in Michigan come to hear you play, they really appreciate and know the music. You feel the love. A lot of my friends that aren’t from there, when they come, they say there’s a special feeling when [I] play in Michigan. I’m always excited to come home and play.
Pohl: You began playing music at such a young age. What has it meant to you to have music play such an integral part in your life?
Carter: I think for me, because I started so young, I can’t even imagine what my life would have been like without music. I started on piano first at two, and it was an outlet for me. It was something I really fell in love with immediately. Growing up, I was never into sports. I hated gym. Music was always the thing that I loved. With my Suzuki lessons, we would have one private lesson during the week and then on the weekends we would have group lessons. The Saturdays with the other students, those were my friends and that is who I hung out with. We’d spend our days together and then spend the night at each other’s homes. These were other young people that had the same interests that I had. I felt like I had other kids that did things that I liked. Most people would have considered me a nerd, but I had other friends doing the same exact thing. I didn’t feel like an outsider. I really think that it’s such a disservice to our young people that we don’t have the arts in the schools now.
Pohl: My daughter is almost six and has been taking piano lessons for a year. She has gone through some ups and downs as far as wanting to quit at times, but now she’s enjoying it again. Did you ever go through that growing up?
Carter: I hear so many people say, “oh I quit and I wish I hadn’t.” I think there was a time when I was a teenager probably that I thought I didn’t want to do this anymore. I remember I didn’t want to be in the youth orchestra anymore, and my mom said I couldn’t quit in the middle of it. I had to finish it. Her thing was that I wasn’t going to just sit around, so I had to figure out what it was that I wanted to do. It almost felt like when she gave me the option to quit, it made me really think about it. I realized maybe I don’t want to quit.
Pohl: Jazz pianist Xavier Davis, also a professor in the MSU College of Music, will be playing with you at the Wharton Center. What can audiences expect from your Simply Ella show?
Carter: We’re going to play several of the tracks from the record. But I also mix in some tunes that are from other recordings, or ones that we haven’t recorded. I don’t have a set list that I do every night. When I get to the hall and start doing sound check, I get a feel for the hall and how I’m feeling that day. Then I sit right before the set and make a set list. That’s the joke of the band now; when they see the pen and paper come out, they all exit the room. And they say, “why are you making a set list? You know you’re going to change it anyway.” And that’s true. When I come on stage and I start with a tune, depending on the energy that I’m getting from the audience, sometimes I think I should change it around. It really just goes off of a feeling.
Pohl: You’ve spoken many times about the influence Ella Fitzgerald and her music have had on your life. Let’s pretend you could sit down and have a conversation with her. What would you ask her?
Carter: She came up during a time when it wasn’t easy being a woman in this industry. She really helped pave the way for me and many other women. Being an African American during that time, and a woman, and all that was going on, I really would want to hear from her how she dealt with all of that. She had a pretty troubled life growing up, but you don’t hear that in her music. You just hear it is so pure and full of love and joy. I would be interested to know how she dealt with all of that, and where did she put that emotionally. Was the music the vehicle she used to deal with some of that pain?
Don’t miss Regina Carter’s Simply Ella at the Wharton Center on February 22nd. Click here for show and ticket information.
Excellent interview! Thank you for sharing.