When researching music for an album, I say and I believe that I might have an idea of what I'm going to do, but the music leads me where I need to be.

     In Genoa, Italy, in a temperature‐controlled vault protected by armed guards, sits “The Cannon”—a violin with a dark, powerful tone. Crafted in 1743 for violin virtuoso Niccoló Paganini, who bequeathed it to the city upon his death, it is rarely touched. In December 2001, Regina Carter made history as the first jazz musician and first African American to play it.

      When Regina arrived two days before the concert, not a single ticket had been sold. The mayor of Genoa, a huge jazz fan, was all for the concert, as was the city committee that oversees the violin, but some naysayers thought playing jazz on such a precious instrument would damage it. Regina appreciated their reverence for the instrument but not their biases.

     “This is ignorant,” she said at a press conference. “People who think like this have closed minds. The thought that one culture of music is somehow higher or better than another is to be prejudiced. You have to grow out of that. What do you think I’m going to do? You think I’m going to bash it on the floor?”

So begins our chapter on the life of Grammy nominee and MacArthur "Genius" Grant Awardee Regina Carter, the most acclaimed jazz violinist in music today. Below we provide a photo gallery, videos, and Spotify playlist to connect Music Mavens readers directly with Regina's music.

(Wondering how things went for Regina in Genoa? Read her story in MUSIC MAVENS.)