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Speaking Jazz The language of music was a large part of Regina Carter's "Evening of Jazz and Conversation," held at Albion College on April 27. With her quintet, Carter appeared as the inaugural Joseph S. Calvaruso Keynote Lecturer for the College's Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium. Along with playing music, Carter and her quintet members spoke at length about the creative process and the deliberative aspects of creating their complex art. The group drew numerous analogies between verbal communication and music.
"Children learn to speak by imitating … it’s the same thing with jazz," Carter explained. To illustrate her point, she launched into an irresistible "call and response" session, playing blues lines which the audience sang back to her. "I started playing jazz by listening to records and transcribing solos," said Carter, who was an accomplished, classically-trained violinist when she first began in jazz. "[Learning other people's solos] was one way of collecting [jazz] grammar and words. Everyone I listened to, I would collect some of their words, and my vocabulary would grow, the same way you learn a language." In keeping with their next point, all the band members worked together in asserting that learning the language of jazz was not simply learning "vocabulary," but also speaking and conversing. "If you learn Spanish out of a book and then go to Spain and use it, people will laugh at you," stated pianist Xavier Davis. "You have to live and feel the rhythm of the culture [before you can really speak]." "There’s a lot of trust here too, that if you do something, the group will follow and respond," Carter added, citing a specific rhythm that her bassist had just played, and how she had responded to it. "Working with the same musicians all the time, I have to learn to be inspired by these guys, and I hope I can inspire them too." Internationally acclaimed jazz violinist Carter has performed around the globe and played with musicians from Wynton Marsalis to Itzak Perlman to the Boston Pops. In 2001, Carter became the first jazz musician and first African American to play Nicolo Paganini’s famed violin, a national treature of Italy. The Detroit native has released six albums and earlier this month, performed an original commissioned work at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Albion College’s Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium honors alumnus “Ike” Isaac, ’48, who served for 25 years at Albion as a coach, professor and athletic director. The Symposium, was established in 1991 by hundreds of Isaac’s former students and team members, and is a two-day long celebration and recognition of academic life at Albion College. The Joseph S. Calvaruso Keynote Address invites exceptional artists, scientists and social scientists to present and discuss their current work and research with the Albion community. The 2006 Elkin R. Isaac Student Research Symposium Alumni Lecture |
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Albion College ◦ Albion, Michigan
◦ 517/629-1000
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