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Regina Carter has been nothing if not adventurous in her solo work. Previous albums have paid tribute to the music of her hometown, Detroit, beloved classical melodies and Great American Songbook standards (a set she dedicated to her late mother). This time, Carter applies her virtuosic violin to African folk songs, incorporating the 21-stringed African kora and accordion as well as the standard guitar, bass and drums. The core African melodies and rhythms – much of it based on field recordings that Carter studied – meld seamlessly with her natural jazz instincts, slipping easily from the steamy, dreamy minimalism of “Day Dreaming on the Niger” and the mysterious, airy “Kothbiro” to the jumpy, festive “Artistiya” and “Kanou,” the latter akin to the newgrass of a Béla Fleck or David Grisman.