AS OF JANUARY 13, 2023 FIVE HUNDRED MUSICAL ARTISTS HAVE BEEN FEATURED IN THE SOUND PROJECTIONS MAGAZINE THAT BEGAN ITS ONLINE PUBLICATION ON NOVEMBER 1, 2014.
THE
500th AND FINAL MUSICAL ARTIST ENTRY IN THIS NOW COMPLETED EIGHT YEAR
SERIES WAS POSTED ON THIS SITE ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2023.
BEGINNING
JANUARY 14, 2023 THIS SITE WILL CONTINUE TO FUNCTION AS AN ONGOING
PUBLIC ARCHIVE AND SCHOLARLY RESEARCH AND REFERENCE RESOURCE FOR THOSE
WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PURSUING THEIR LOVE OF AND INTEREST IN WHAT THE
VARIOUS MUSICAL ARTISTS ON THIS SITE PROVIDES IN TERMS OF BACKGROUND
INFORMATION AND VARIOUS CRITICAL ANALYSES AND COMMENTARY OFFERED ON
BEHALF OF EACH ARTIST ENTRY SINCE NOVEMBER 1, 2014.
ACCESS TO EACH ARTIST CAN BE FOUND IN THE 'BLOG ARCHIVE' (ARTISTS LISTED IN WEEKLY CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER) AND IN THE ‘LABELS’ SECTION (ARTIST NAMES, TOPICS, ETC.) ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE HOME PAGE. CLICK ON THESE RESPECTIVE LINKS TO ACCESS THEIR CONTENT:
https://soundprojections.blogspot.com
https://soundprojections.blogspot.com/2016/01/terri-lyne-carrington-b-august-4-1965.html
PHOTO: TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON (b. August 4, 1965)
Terri Lyne Carrington
(b. August 4, 1965)
Biography by Thom Jurek
Terri Lyne Carrington is a Grammy-winning drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, and producer. Her signature and often-emulated funky drumming style has been applied to many different settings, from jazz and soul to rock, blues, and crossover classical music. She is among the first significant female drummers in jazz. After beginning her recording career with bassist Rufus Reid's trio, she released Real Life Story, her Grammy-nominated leader debut, in 1989. She spent the next 12 years as one of jazz's most in-demand drummers. After leading 2002's Jazz Is a Spirit, she began working regularly in that capacity. In 2011, she issued the Grammy-winning The Mosaic Project that straddled jazz and R&B with an all-star band of women players and singers. The following year she won a Grammy for Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. In 2015, she issued Mosaic Project: Love and Soul, and in 2019, with new band Social Science and a dozen guests, she released the politically themed The Waiting Game. Showcasing songs by women composers, Carrington earned yet another Grammy Award for 2022's New Standards, Vol. 1.
Born in 1965, Carrington grew up in Medford, Massachusetts in a musical family with a mom who played piano and a dad who played jazz saxophone. Her grandfather was also a jazz drummer. It was his drum kit that Carrington began playing at seven-years-old, quickly developing into a musical prodigy. Gigs followed, including a notable appearance alongside Clark Terry at the Wichita Jazz Festival when she was just ten years old. Around the same time, she earned a full scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music, studying with drummer Alan Dawson and impressing many veteran jazz players. It was during this period that she recorded an unofficial debut, TLC & Friends, which featured her father, Sonny Carrington, as well as Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, and George Coleman.
Moving to New York City in the early 1980s, she began to get gigs with local musicians before gaining enough attention to warrant another move, this time to California, where she was seen by millions on a nightly basis as a member of the band on The Arsenio Hall Show and worked with Wayne Shorter's late-'80s band. She released her debut recording as a leader, Real Life Story, on Verve Forecast in 1989, picking up a Grammy nomination in the process. Into the '90s, Carrington continued working steadily, playing and recording with luminaries like Patrice Rushen, Dianne Reeves, Mulgrew Miller, and Herbie Hancock, among many others.
At the turn of the century, her second solo album began to take shape and was eventually released in 2002 as Jazz Is a Spirit. Two years later, she delivered Structure, featuring the similarly funk- and post-bop-inclined saxophonist Greg Osby. In 2007 she accepted a professor's appointment at her alma mater, the Berklee College of Music.
Carrington returned in 2009 with More to Say...Real Life Story; it featured an all-star lineup of guests including George Duke, Everette Harp, Kirk Whalum, and Walter Beasley, and then up-and-coming trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. In 2011, she released The Mosaic Project, which spotlighted several vocalists -- including Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, among others -- and was played by an all-female band. She won a Grammy for the set in 2012 for Best Jazz Vocal album.
After years of being haunted by the 1963 album Money Jungle, from the trio of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, Carrington decided to record her own radically reworked version with bassist Christian McBride and pianist Gerald Clayton. Her album also featured guest performances from trumpeter Clark Terry, trombonist Robin Eubanks, saxophonists Tia Fuller and Antonio Hart, and vocalist Lizz Wright. In addition to the original set's tracks, Carrington added some of her own tunes to the mix. Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue was released by Concord in February 2013.
She circled back to her ever-evolving Mosaic Project for 2015's Love & Soul. The 12-song set showcased an entirely new female band, as well as a large host of vocalists who included Ledisi, Wright, Chaka Khan, Chante Moore, and Valerie Simpson. Carrington spent three years working with a new band to realize her next project for Motema Music.
For the 2018 opening celebration of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, Carrington asked her students to select and perform songs from the famed jazz Real Book -- a compilation of lead sheets or scores of jazz standards -- written solely by women composers. She was shocked to discover it included only one. As an activist as well as an educator and musician, she has continually advocated for inclusivity in order to raise the profiles and voices of women, trans, and non-binary people in jazz. Over the next four years Carrington assembled New Standards (published by Hal Leonard, September 2022) a book of 101 jazz compositions written by women.
She also founded Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science. The band was comprised of pianist/keyboardist Aaron Parks, guitarist Matthew Stevens, multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin, vocalist Debo Ray, and MC/DJ Kassa Overall. The large ensemble recorded the double length set entitled The Waiting Game. Released in November 2019, its compositions confronted a wide spectrum of social justice issues.
In September 2022, the Candid label released Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival, an archival date from the 2017 event. Led by Wayne Shorter (that year's artist in residence) the quartet included Carrington, Esperanza Spalding, and pianist Leo Genovese. A week later, Candid issued New Standards, Vol. 1, which found the drummer interpreting 11 woman-composed tunes from her New Standards book. Along with her core band, featuring pianist Kris Davis, bassist Linda May Han Oh, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and guitarist Matthew Stevens, the album featured a star-studded guest list that included Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos, and Somi. New Standards, Vol. 1 was named Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023. That same year, she re-released her rarely heard 1981 debut, TLC & Friends, recorded just after her 16th birthday.
Terri Lyne Carrington
Celebrating 40 years in music, NEA Jazz Master and three-time
GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, producer, and educator, Terri Lyne
Carrington started her professional career in Massachusetts at 10 years
old when she became the youngest person to receive a union card in
Boston. She was featured as a “kid wonder” in many publications and on
local and national TV shows. After studying under a full scholarship at
Berklee College of Music, Carrington worked as an in-demand musician in
New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she gained
recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio
Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show, hosted by Sinbad.
While still in her 20’s, Ms. Carrington toured extensively with Wayne
Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among others and in 1989 released a
GRAMMY®-nominated debut CD on Verve Forecast, Real Life Story. In 2011
she released the GRAMMY®Award-winning album, The Mosaic Project,
featuring a cast of all-star women instrumentalists and vocalists, and
in 2013 she released, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, which also
earned a GRAMMY®Award, establishing her as the first woman ever to win
in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.
To date
Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has been a role
model and advocate for young women and men internationally through her
teaching and touring careers. She has toured or recorded with luminary
artists such as Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Diana
Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets,
Esperanza Spalding, and many more. Ms. Carrington’s 2015 release, The
Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL, featured performances of iconic vocalists
Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, and Nancy Wilson.
In 2003, Ms.
Carrington received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music
and was appointed professor at the college in 2005, where she currently
serves as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of
Jazz and Gender Justice, which recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates
for musicians seeking to study jazz with racial justice and gender
justice as a guiding principles. She also serves as Artistic Director
for The Carr Center, Detroit, MI. and for Berklee’s Summer Jazz
Workshop.
In 2019 Ms. Carrington was granted The Doris
Duke Artist Award, a prestigious acknowledgment in recognition of her
past and ongoing contributions to jazz music. Her current collaborative
project, Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science (formed with Aaron
Parks and Matthew Stevens), released their debut album, Waiting Game, in
November, 2019 on Motema Music, inspired by the seismic changes in the
ever-evolving social and political landscape. The double album expresses
an unflinching, inclusive, and compassionate view of humanity’s breaks
and bonds through an eclectic program melding jazz, R&B, indie rock,
contemporary improvisation, and hip-hop.
Both Waiting Game and
the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice point to Carrington’s
drive to combine her musical talents with her passion for social
justice. The subjects addressed on Waiting Game run the gamut of social
concerns: mass incarceration, police brutality, homophobia, Native
American injustice, political imprisonment, and gender justice.
“In previous projects I’ve hinted at my concerns for the society and
the community that I live in,” Carrington says. “But everything has been
pointing in this direction. At some point you have to figure out your
purpose in life. There are a lot of drummers deemed ‘great.’ For me,
that’s not as important as the legacy you leave behind.”
Waiting Game was nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY® award and has been celebrated as one of the best jazz releases of 2019 by Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Boston Globe and Popmatters. Downbeat describes the album as, “a two-disc masterstroke on par with Kendrick Lamar's 2015 hip-hop classic, 'To Pimp a Butterfly'..." Ms. Carrington was named as JazzTimes Critics Polls’ Artist of the Year, Jazz Artist of the Year by Boston Globe, and Jazz Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.
http://www.terrilynecarrington.com/#!bio/cbu0
TERRI LYNN CARRINGTON
BIOGRAPHY
http://jazztimes.com/articles/13692-jazz-is-a-spirit-terri-lyne-carrington
After a hiatus from the U.S. recording scene as a solo recording
artist, in 2008 Terri Lyne will be returning with "More To Say... (Real
Life Story: NextGen)." She performs with friends and
colleagues with whom she has been working with in her 20-year-plus
career. Joining Carrington for the meticulously produced More to Say is
an impressive all-star cast of jazz and
contemporary jazz instrumentalists, including George Duke, Everette
Harp, Kirk Whalum, Jimmy Haslip, Greg Phillingaines, Gregoire Maret,
Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Patrice Rushen, Robert Irving III (who
also serves as co-producer), Chuck Loeb, Tineke Postma, Ray Fuller,
Dwight Sills, Anthony Wilson, and a special appearance by her dad, Sonny
Carrington, on tenor. In addition, Carrington collaborates with
esteemed vocalist Nancy Wilson for the song, “Imagine
This.”
http://jazztimes.com/articles/65234-terri-lyne-carrington-to-release-new-ellington-tribute-album-in-feb
http://www.npr.org/2015/08/02/428137449/terri-lyne-carrington-makes-a-musical-mosaic-with-a-focus-on-women
Percussionist Terri Lyne Carrington's resume is impressive. She trained with Stan Getz and Pharoah Sanders; she's won Grammy Awards; she's collaborated with superstars like Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; and — maybe her most high-profile gig — she was the drummer for The Arsenio Hall Show.
Lately, Carrington's been working on something called The Mosaic Project. Her first iteration of the project, back in 2011, featured female jazz singers backed by an all-woman band. That album won a Grammy.
The second installment, subtitled Love and Soul, comes out Aug. 7, and while it includes another all-star group of female musicians, she says it has a "different flavor" and a stronger R&B influence. The star-studded list of featured performers includes Valerie Simpson, Nancy Wilson, Lizz Wright — and, on the song "I'm a Fool to Want You," Chaka Khan.
"I wrote that arrangement with Chaka in mind," she says. "I was a
little nervous to send it to her, because I thought she might be too
busy, and I didn't have a lot of money, and all those things." Khan
ended up agreeing, and the recording came together at just the right
time: Frank Sinatra who co-wrote the song, and Billie Holiday, who performed one of the best-known versions, would both have been 100 this year.
Hear the rest of Carrington's conversation with NPR's Arun Rath, as well as music from The Mosaic Project: Love and Soul, at the audio link.
Historically, female artists have not gotten the props they've deserved in jazz's male-dominated environment. Though imperfect, things have improved, thanks in part to the efforts of Billie Holiday, Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, and other matriarchs who helped pave the way for a current generation of stellar voices as assembled in drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington's exceptional The Mosaic Project.
Carrington's world-class drumming equals anyone in the music business, enriching recordings and performances from the great Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to the eclectic sounds of guitarist Nguyen Le, while finding time to lead her own bands and music. Without a doubt, this project is her most ambitious work to date, an arduous yet rewarding labor of love that's elevated by her leadership of an all-star cast of female musicians and singers.
The opening "Transformation" sets the vibe, with its groove intellect and smoky vocals from legendary soul singer Nona Hendryx. It's followed with more funky goodness, a very unique take on Irving Berlin's "I Get Lost in His Arms," sung by one of jazz's new stars, Gretchen Parlato. There's even more to enjoy with the up-tempo remake of The Beatles' ballad "Michelle," as hard-swinging jazz melds with urban funkiness, pumped by riveting solos from pianist Geri Allen, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and saxophonist Tineke Postma.
Like a mosaic the fourteen tracks are smaller pictures of Carrington's broader image, one that knows jazz's ancestry but speaks fluently of haunting social issues in "Echo," via spoken words from activist Angela Davis, along with Dianne Reeves adding her always classy singing. Add the heartfelt longing of "Show Me a Sign" (written by singer Carmen Lundy) and the hip hop swagger of "On The Rise (A Transformation)," featuring up-and-coming singer Shea Rose, and the set represents a continuum of sound and voice from the past, present and future.
With a roster that includes the star power of percussionist Sheila E and pianist Patrice Rushen, the talent is exhaustive and varied with memorable tracks such as Cassandra Wilson's sensual ruminations of Al Green's 1972 hit, "Simply Beautiful," the whimsical antics of "Crayola," written and performed by Grammy Award-winning bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding and featuring Helen Sung's lissome keyboards, and Carrington's own complex rock/jazz piece, "Mosaic Triad." The Mosaic Project has no ulterior motive to show that women can do the jazz gig as well as men. That's already been proven time and again. Instead, it is a joyous celebration of outstanding female artists; a clear view of what currently exists and a hint of what's on the horizon.
Track Listing: Transformation; I Got Lost In His Arms; Michelle; Magic And Music; Echo; Simply Beautiful; Unconditional Love; Wistful; Crayola; Soul Talk; Mosaic Triad; Insomniac; Show Me A Sign; Sisters On The Rise (A Transformation).
Style: Beyond Jazz
http://jazztimes.com/articles/169037-the-mosaic-project-love-and-soul-terri-lyne-carrington
Originally published in October 2015
AUDIO:http://www.npr.org/player/embed/177758885/226415528 
Carrington currently serves as a professor at Berklee College of Music, her alma mater in her native, Boston, where she received a full scholarship at age 11. Carrington shares Duke Ellington’s philosophy that jazz is “freedom of expression.” She adds that jazz musicians have to be disciplined and focused. “You definitely gotta have a certain set of vocabulary and a certain skill level to play it. Once you have that, it’s freedom. Jazz means freedom,” she says.
At the close of the town hall-styled clinic, Carrington performed with another young drummer. As Carrington performs her improvised set, she talks directly to the student and gives her full eye contact. The performer believes her experience serves as effective advice for the young students. “We have to give back or the music won’t continue,” Carrington says. “I’ve been there and done that. No one explained it to me. It’s trial and error especially when you’re dealing with the old school jazz cats. You just watch and listen. I tend to try and explain as much as I can just to see if I can help them a little quicker to their destination. I won’t say skip a beat but skip a step and maybe cut some of their journey a little bit shorter if they listen.”
The Arsenio Hall Show’s former house drummer later performed as part of Jazz Roots’“Ladies of Jazz” series, where she opens for Grammy-winning bassist Esperanza Spalding. Along with pianist Geri Allen, the jazz instrumentalists play in a trio, Allen Carrington Spalding (ACS). Carrington believes she and Spalding are kindred spirits. “We both think the same things are hip,” she says. “I always say we’re like minded. We tend to break up the time in similar ways. When we play together, I feel very much at home immediately. That’s a hard thing especially with a bass player. It’s kinda magical.”
Carrington sets a fine example to young performers. It marks yet another instance in which jazz musicians believe it is their duty to use their wisdom and gifts to guide the next generation into a brighter future. “Do whatever you can to really have a voice,” she says. “Try to be a part of your community. Try to be a part of your political scene. Do your share. We all enjoy and reap the benefits of work that so many other people have done, so it’s up to us to do something.”
Christopher A. Daniel is a pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine.
Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter
Like The Burton Wire on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.com.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/terri-lyne-carrington-the-long-road-terri-lyne-carrington-by-rj-deluke.php
Terri Lyne Carrington: The Long Road
by R.J. DELUKE
April 22, 2013
AllAboutJazz
"Better Git It in Your Soul," a perspicacious jazz man once communicated in a song title more than half a century ago. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington wasn't even born yet, but she sure did have it in her soul upon arrival. Long before she was even aware of bassist Charles Mingus, the author of those words, she had "it." It was rhythm and she exuded it and fostered it at a very early age.
She played a show with trumpeter Clark Terry when she was 10. By the time she was 11 she had a Berklee scholarship. Having Jack DeJohnette as a mentor is monstrous, but in order to get to that position, the great drummer had to have seen something special.
For years now, she's been an in-demand drummer playing with all kinds of musicians, including pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. In more recent years, she's coming more into her own, developing strong recordings and getting high marks for producing as well; her 2011 Mosaic Project (Concord) won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Carrington is one of the finest drummers on the scene, full of fire and invention, with the flexibility to fit just about any situation. It appears she was born to do it.
"There are a lot of really strong young players now," she says, looking back to her beginnings. "My father always kids me, 'It's a good thing you came along when you did,' meaning there are so many young players that are great at a young age. But the thing that I say back is, 'If I came along now I would be better.' Better at 10 now than I was at 10 then. Because there's so much more information. Times have changed and people are assimilating things a lot faster. It's the way society's moving. Just the invention of the internet, everything is faster. People learn faster."
She's pursued music her whole life, with formal education and the inevitable lessons acquired from other musicians, many of them masters. She's in an important place where she not only instills something special into other people's bands and other recording projects when she chooses to do so, but stands on her own as a serious artist—not just drummer—who has a lot to say.
"My whole life, I haven't really done anything else [but music] and I have no desire to do anything else," Carrington says. "What's interesting to me is sometimes it takes that kind of lifelong dedication to something. Which most strong musicians have. It takes that lifelong dedication and perseverance to come into your own and for things to come into fruition. It's what I felt like with The Mosaic Project and Money Jungle (Concord, 2013). Finally, all the things that I've done are coming together. I'm able to make sense of it all in some way."
Terri Lyne Carrington—Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue
The latter reference is her album released this year, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. It's a superlative record that revisits the renowned album made 50 years ago, Money Jungle (United Artists, 1963), when the beyond-category pianist Duke Ellington joined Mingus and drummer Max Roach, younger men who were playing bop and beyond, for a trio recording laced with blues and inherent swing. She chose, for her project, the indomitable Christian McBride on bass and the artistic and adroit Gerald Clayton on piano. Other artists appear here and there, but it's essentially a reinterpretation of many of the songs from the 1963 record. Not an imitation. More like inspiration.
Carrington first came upon the Ellington-Mingus-Roach record about 12 years ago in a record bin. She had never heard of it, even though it was among hundreds and hundreds of record her father had in his collection. "It was one that slipped past me," she notes. "Something about it. There was some magic about it that compelled me from the first time I heard it."
Some of the songs struck her as interesting enough to play, and she would incorporate the title track into set lists from time to time. Then, "One day I decided I wanted to cover this record. I don't know why, other than there was something magical and mystical that jumped out of that recording for me. I started hearing arrangements and things that I felt I could do with it." That included the feeling of the blues it exuded.
"To me, the blues thread is a big thread throughout all of that record, except maybe a couple songs. I'm talking about the newer songs. The ones [Ellington] recorded for that date, not 'Caravan' or 'Warm Valley.' I felt like that theme was important. I felt like [Ellington] was speaking to the people. The blues form is always a way to relay messages, traditionally. I won't say grassroots-based, but to me it was a record for the people. Max and Mingus were definitely radical guys. Guys that had no problem talking about what was going on during those times. To me, it was making a statement reflective of the times."
The approach she took to making her record was similar—for today, not a regurgitation. And it's successful. It has fresh sounds, intriguing interpretations. Bluesy and soulful and expertly carried out. Some tunes, like "Very Special," have a similar vibe to the original, though the individuality of the players carries the day. But Ellington's "Backward Country Boy Blues," introduced in 1963 by Mingus' resounding bass before Duke's heavy block chords, is a rumbling blues. On Provocative in Blue, Nir Felder's acoustic guitar and Lizz Wright's exotic voice open it with a backyard country feel before it moves into a contemporary, funky groove, where the voice serenely floats over a gorgeous pocket formed by Clayton, McBride and Carrington. There are also a couple Carrington originals, like the blues and sophisticated funk of "Grass Roots," and one from Clayton's pen.
Interspersed here and there are voice-over snippets of people like Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton and others commenting on the role of money in society—basically how there are still too many have-nots and not much is being done about it. But it is a subtle part of the record. The outstanding music is what it's all about.
Carrington says that kind of money-struggle theme "goes through every time period. It's as relevant now as it was then. It will be as relevant another 50 years from now. I wasn't trying to belabor a point. I think in general the people, that are listening to Money Jungle, are people that feel that way. I didn't want to feel preachy, or preaching to the choir. It's really just a statement of things the way they are and what we all probably know and believe anyway."
Listeners will also believe in what is being put down by this outstanding band. "Christian [McBride] was always the person that popped in my head when I thought about doing it," says the drummer. "To me, he has that sound and delivery that works. He's also a contemporary musician. Interestingly too, he really enjoyed doing the date and the variety of music that is on there. He doesn't like to be in a box, thought about as just one kind of musician. He grew up playing all styles and has demonstrated that over the course of his career."
"Gerald Clayton, to me, is a young pianist that is so steeped in tradition. I don't know who else, young or old, could have played 'Switch Blade' like Gerald, paying tribute to the original and how Duke played it, but putting his own thing in there and quoting some of the lines Duke played. It's really an amazing performance. I don't know anyone who could have done that any better, as well as playing a more contemporary sounding thing. He's very modern and at the same time steeped in tradition."
They all met the goal of keeping it fresh and being themselves. "That's how I hear things," says Carrington. "I don't see the real point in trying to do something like it was done [in the past], To me, it's not a challenge, it's the way I naturally do it. The challenge is taking something that Duke Ellington wrote, putting your spin on it and feeling OK about it."
As a follow-up to a Grammy, it's a strong statement from a musician entering her prime years, as a player, composer and producer. (She's currently producing a new recording for singer Dianne Reeves). She is proud of the Grammy, but her eyes and ears are pointed forward. "Over the course of my career it was nice to feel recognized in some way," she says of the award. "It helped me to feel validated, in a sense, as far as feeling like, 'OK. My ideas are good.' And just trying to make good art. It's encouraging."
Born in Medford, Mass., she played the drums for about two years before starting to take lessons at about age 9. Around the house, her father was playing blues and jazz like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff organ trios, saxophonist Gene Ammons, and James Brown, Aretha Franklin and other rhythm and blues singers. When she got the Berklee scholarship at age 11, she continued going to regular school, but once a week would go to classes at Berklee until she graduated high school.
But it wasn't all study. Her father, a saxophonist whose credits included playing with pianist Fats Waller, knew some of the musicians on the scene over the years, among them Clark Terry. The trumpeter heard the young girl play drums and invited her to play with him at an event in Kansas. "It was the Wichita Jazz Festival. He brought me and Dianne Reeves. That's where I met her. He brought us there as special guests with his band. He had a band with Louie Bellson [drums], George Duvivier [bass], Jimmy Rowles [piano],
After high school, Carrington went off to Berklee full time, then moved to New York City and started right in playing with Terry, who also appears briefly on the new Money Jungle recording, doing his Mumbles act, wordless vocalizing, on "Fleurette Africain." Adds Carrington, "He was the highlight for me [on the album]. It kind of brought my career full circle. My first professional gig was with Clark when I was 10. My first touring was with Clark when I was 18. For him to be on this CD was very special for me."
It was with the encouragement DeJohnette that she moved to New York in 1983. In the ensuing years, she worked with the likes of saxophonist James Moody and trumpeter Lester Bowie, among others. "He was my mentor," she says of the iconic drummer. "I started going to visit with him around 17. I would drive four hours from Boston and hang out there. When I moved to New York, I would still continue to go visit with him and his family. It was like a home away from home. He didn't really ever sit down and show me something on the drums. But he'd hear me play and give me pointers. He opened me up musically to a lot of things. A lot of times, we would play together. He would play piano and I would play drums. People would come by the house and we'd jam sometimes."
In the Big Apple, "I was playing around town. I started playing with the New York Jazz Quartet, [pianist] Sir Roland Hanna, [saxophonist] Frank Wess. [Saxophonist] Pharoah Sanders sometimes. A little bit with Lester Bowie. And my peers, a little bit older than me, like [saxophonist] Greg Osby, [pianist] Geri Allen, people like that. [Saxophonists] Steve Coleman and Gary Thomas, [trombonist] Robin Eubanks, [singer] Cassandra Wilson. We were all cutting our teeth in New York at the same time. Just gigging," she recalls. "The big change happened when I auditioned for Wayne Shorter. I got that job when I was 21. That was a pretty major change for me. It was great. It changed my life ... he's still a pioneer."
Herbie Hancock is another major influence. She first met him by going back stage after seeing him in concert. "Then sometime around 18 or 19, somebody called me and told me to call him. He said, '[trumpeter] Eddie Henderson told me you're bad.' We were talking a little bit. Nothing ever really came out of that other than he was aware of me and it was nice. Then, when I was with Wayne, I met him again and played with him a few times on odd gigs with Wayne," says Carrington.
The drummer played a fundraiser with Hancock, Shorter and [bassist] Stanley Clarke. Someone who heard the band booked them for a date in St. Lucia, "that felt like the biggest gig of my life," she said with a laugh. Around then, her Real Life Story album (Polygram, 1989) had come out and would be Grammy-nominated. She had also done a short stint with the house band on television's Arsenio Hall Show.
"So things were very good at the time," she says. "From there, I just started playing with Herbie.
Just prior to her job with Hancock, she was playing with saxophonist Stan Getz. A summer tour was planned, but Getz died. Carrington had turned down Natalie Cole's Unforgettable tour for that summer to play with the sax legend, and now found herself without work for the summer months. "Then Herbie asked if I could recommend any drummers for the summer. He was doing his hip-hop stuff. The budget wasn't very big at all. He's like, 'I have to take 12 people out and I'm still getting paid as if it was a trio.' He said, 'I don't want to ask you to do it, but if you know any young people, somebody that wants to do it that isn't expensive.' I was like, 'Man, I'm not working.'"
She did the gig anticipating it could grow into something more, which it did. After that, "We did Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998), which was a Grammy winner. Things were different. That started my longer association with him. I've played with him off and on for the better part of 10 years."
Of her tenure on Arsenio, she says, "It was great. It gave me national exposure. I was only on the show for four months, but most people think it was a lot longer. It was really a good thing for me. The thing is, you have to really like all styles. I played with Whitney Houston and Little Richard. People like that. New Kids on the Block; they were hot at the time. I enjoyed all that. When I did The Vibe TV show, a Quincy Jones production, I played with James Brown, Rick James, a lot of people I grew up listening to and loving their music. For me, all of those experiences were great. I don't look at them the same as playing with Herbie or Wayne, of course. It's just different. Stylistically different. I enjoy it. I love those styles too. I'm not looking at it as the most creative experience in the world."
She says, "I'm 47 years young, so I'm looking to have more experiences. It's interesting for me. It's great to play with someone like Esperanza [Spalding], the next generation. I'm on her last two CDs. Those are important ventures for me as well. I like to stay current and I like to encourage younger artists and be a part of it. It helps me to grow."
And she is still growing as a drummer, influenced by everything around her. "Jack [DeJohnette] was definitely my biggest influence," she says of her approach to her instrument. "All the masters. All of them. But the one I keep returning to now, especially now that I'm teaching, is Roy Haynes. To me, he really changed things. Without Roy, there would be no Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette, who are people that also changed things. He's still out there. He's just a modern, modern, modern thinker. I still want to think like Roy Haynes. When I try to analyze what he's doing, he's really encompassed everything in his style. Analyzing him is a great teaching tool."
Carrington is at a point where she's always being called upon for her drumming abilities. But also, she has done production and songwriting collaborations with artists such as singers Gino Vannelli, Peabo Bryson, Reeves and others, including the song commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, "Always Reach for Your Dreams," that featured Bryson. This past April 19, she was musical director for a benefit concert at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., honoring Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick and Valerie Simpson.
"The way I do it is kind of crazy," she said about wearing the hat of producer. "I'm in that world with Dianne [Reeves] right now. It's a different kind of record for her. I love it. It's like directing. Creating a vision that you share with the artist, and making all the right calls to try to make it happen. I think drummers make good producers. At least it seems like they have. Narada Michael Walden, Phil Collins, Lenny White. Different drummers have produced a lot of great music over the years. I think we have a natural instinct for it, somehow. You're controlling the arc and the shape of a band and a song. A song and a band are only as good as the drummer, in most cases. We're used to being in the driver's seat."
Carrington is in the driver's seat for a career that involves improvised music and segues into other styles that she enjoys. As for jazz, she says it's a music "that is ever evolving. I like all the different elements people are blending with it. When I go back and listen to [trumpeter] Miles Davis' classic quintet, to me, that style of music is never going to get better than that. I don't feel the need to do it, or listen to some of the young people trying to do that. I appreciate it when people do pay homage to the past like that. But I think it's beautiful how musicians have grown and evolved and developed with the influences of other styles. There's good and bad in everything. You just choose what you like. There's a lot more to choose from. I'm not stuck on any particular way it should or shouldn't be."
A life in music is a road that's always changing. It's a road that is not without its quick turns, accidents and maybe a bridge that might be temporarily impassable. Carrington continues to meet the challenges.
"It's funny, because I'm a teacher," she reflects. "My students, in their 20s, don't quite understand. I see it in some of them. But I want to look at them and say, 'It's a long road. You have at least another 20 years before you may even know who you are. Everybody's not like that, but a lot of us are."
Selected Discography:
Terri Lyne Carrington, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (Concord Music Group, 2013)
Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society (Heads Up International, 2012)
Terri Lyne Carrington, The Mosaic Project (Concord Music Group, 2011)
Terri Lyne Carrington, More to Say (Real Life Story: Next Gen) (Koch Records, 2009)
Grace Kelly, Mood Changes (PAZZ Productions, 2009)
George Duke, In A Mellow Tone (Bizarre Planet Entertainment, 2006)
John Patitucci, Sketchbook (GRP, 2006)
Tineke Postma, For the Rhythm (215 Record, 2005)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Structure (ACT Music, 2004)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Jazz is a Spirit (ACT Music, 2004)
Wayne Shorter, Alegria (Verve, 2003)
Cassandra Wilson, Glamoured (Blue Note, 2003)
Greg Osby, Invisible Hand (Blue Note, 2000)
Michele Rosewoman, Quintessence (Enja, 2000)
Herbie Hancock, Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998)
Danilo Perez, Panamonk (GRP, 1996)
Dianne Reeves, Quiet After the Storm, (Blue Note, 1995)
James Moody, Moody's Party (Telarc, 1995)
Robin Eubanks, Different Perspectives (Polygram 1991)
John Scofield, Flat Out (Gramavision, 1989)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Real Life Story (Polygram, 1989)
Wayne Shorter, Joy Ryder (Columbia, 1988)
Teri Lynn Carrington--Drums
Composition and arrangement by Herbie Hancock
TERRI LYNN CARRINGTON
BIOGRAPHY
GRAMMY® award-winning
drummer, composer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington was born in 1965
in Medford, Massachusetts. After an extensive touring career of over 20
years with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau,
Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry,
Dianne Reeves and more, she returned to her hometown where she was
appointed professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Terri
Lyne also received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music
in 2003.
After
studying under full scholarship at Berklee, with the encouragement of
her mentor, Jack DeJohnette, Carrington moved to New York in 1983. For 5
years she was a much in-demand musician, working with James Moody,
Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, and others. In the late ‘80s she
relocated to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV
as the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall Show, then again in the late
‘90s as the drummer on the Quincy Jones late night TV show, VIBE, hosted
by Sinbad.
In
1989, Carrington released a GRAMMY®-nominated debut CD on Verve
entitled Real Life Story, which featured Carlos Santana, Grover
Washington Jr., Wayne Shorter, Patrice Rushen, Gerald Albright, John
Scofield, Greg Osby, and Hiram Bullock. Other solo CDs include 2002’s
Jazz is a Spirit, which features Herbie Hancock, Gary Thomas, Wallace
Roney, Terence Blanchard, Kevin Eubanks, and Bob Hurst, and 2004’s
Structure, a cooperative group which features Adam Rogers, Jimmy Haslip
and Greg Osby. Both CDs were released on the Europe-based ACT Music
label and enjoyed considerable media attention and critical acclaim in
the European and Japanese markets.
Carrington’s
production and songwriting collaborations with artists such as Gino
Vannelli, Peabo Bryson, Dianne Reeves, Siedah Garrett, Marilyn Scott
have produced notable works as well, including her production of the
Dianne Reeves GRAMMY®-nominated CD, That Day, as well as Dianne Reeves
GRAMMY® Award-winning CD, Beautiful Life, in 2014.
Carrington
has performed on many recordings throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s thru
today. Notable examples of her work include Herbie Hancock’s GRAMMY®
Award-winning CD Gershwin’s World, where she played alongside Joni
Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. She has toured in many of Hancock’s musical
configurations (from electric to acoustic) and is featured on his
Future2Future DVD.
After
a hiatus from the U.S. recording scene as a solo recording artist,
Carrington returned in 2008 with More To Say... (Real Life Story:
NextGen). Joining her was an impressive all-star cast of jazz and
contemporary jazz instrumentalists, including George Duke, Everette
Harp, Kirk Whalum, Jimmy Haslip, Greg Phillinganes, Gregoire Maret,
Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Patrice Rushen, Robert Irving III (who
also serves as co-producer), Chuck Loeb, Dwight Sills, and legendary
vocalists Les McCann and Nancy Wilson.
Carrington
released The Mosaic Project in 2011, her fifth recording overall and
first on Concord Jazz. The critically acclaimed CD, which won a GRAMMY®
Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, gathered a myriad of voices and
crystallized them into a multi-faceted whole that far outweighed the sum
of its parts. She produced the 14-song set which included some of the
most prominent female jazz artists of the last few decades: Esperanza
Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila E., Nona Hendryx,
Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen and several others. Carrington said the
emergence of so many great female jazz instrumentalists over the last
couple of decades is what made an album like The Mosaic Project
possible.
In
2013, Carrington released Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, her much
anticipated homage to Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, to
coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of their iconic
1963 Money Jungle album. The recording featured Gerald Clayton and
Christian McBride, with guests Clark Terry, Lizz Wright, Herbie Hancock
and others. Carrington made history when she became the first woman to
win a GRAMMY® Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
On
August 7, 2015, Carrington releases The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL.
Like its predecessor, the album presents Carrington leading a rotating
cast of superb female instrumentalists and vocalists that includes Oleta
Adams, Natalie Cole, Paula Cole, Lalah Hathaway, Chaka Khan, Chanté
Moore, Valerie Simpson, Nancy Wilson, Jaguar Wright and Lizz Wright, as
well as saxophonist Tia Fuller, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen; bassists
Meshell Ndegoecello and Linda Oh; and keyboardists Geri Allen, Patrice
Rushen and Rachel Z.
On
The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL, Carrington juxtaposes her salute to
female artists by paying homage to various male artists who have either
influenced her professionally and/or informed her musicality, such as
Nick Ashford, George Duke, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Luther
Vandross and Bill Withers. “Whenever I do something that celebrates
women, I never want it to feel like it’s something that excludes men,”
she explains. “On this record, I consciously wanted to celebrate the
various relationships women have with men either through original songs
of mine or cover songs by male composers and song writers.” The male
presence and perspective on The Mosaic Project: LOVE and SOUL is even
more realized by Billy Dee Williams, who contributes insightful
spoken-word interludes through the disc.
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-02-19/entertainment/ca-541_1_terri-lyne-carrington
Los Angeles Times
Carrington's
own singing, though not spectacular, is at least functionally agreeable
in introducing some of her own material. "I've been singing off and on
ever since I started making demo records of my songs," she said. "I
never studied singing, but after starting to realize I liked the way I
sounded, I kept it up. On one cut, 'More Than Woman,' I sing two vocal
tracks and Dianne overdubbed another."
"Real Life Story" will no doubt make its way into the various radio formats, from contemporary jazz and adult alternative to album-oriented-rock and alternative rock. How much Carrington can promote it depends on her television schedule.
"I'm doing the (Arsenio Hall) show Mondays through Fridays, so I can't go too far out in the promotion; however, maybe we'll have a hiatus," she said. "I'm committed to staying with the show indefinitely, and I'm enjoying it."
Moving to the West Coast was not the result of Hall's offer--she had planned it all along. "I had come out here to look for an apartment and buy a car," Carrington said. "I like it out here; it's closer to the environment I grew up with in Medford--that was suburban, and this is kind of suburban and relaxed. New York is so hard core, and I was getting very tired of that."
After all her success, the gigs and sit-ins with Betty Carter and Stan Getz and Joe Williams and Oscar Peterson, Carrington is eager to continue learning, to meet new challenges.
Listening to a recent record by the drummer Dave Weckl, with Chick Corea's trio, she said: "That represents an awesome kind of modern-day technique--makes me feel I should lock myself up in a closet and practice eight hours a day until I can play like that.
"I don't like the way I played five years ago. Some people possibly liked me better when I was 17 or 18--that's their taste. But if I kept on playing the same way, I would just be stagnant."
http://jazztimes.com/articles/26680-terri-lyne-carrington-analytic-listening
November 2, 2010
1. The Great Jazz Trio
“Rhythm-A-Ning” (from Autumn Leaves, 441). Hank Jones, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums. Recorded in 2002.
BEFORE: That’s beautiful. If it wasn’t Elvin Jones it’s somebody who’s listened to a lot of Elvin. His vocabulary and soloing with the left hand is so loose. Elvin approached the drums with urgency and a raw sensibility. Because I produce and I’m into the sound of things, it didn’t sound like the old Elvin Jones. On this recording, the snare was a lot louder the way it was mic’d. It’s not warm like those classic recordings from the ’60s, so it was throwing me off a little. Certain microphones pick up more of the detail of the snare, so if you have a busy left hand, which sounds great live, and if you have a certain kind of mic on it, you’ll hear certain details which can be distracting. So that’s what I was hearing, and I’m not used to hearing that sound from Elvin. I noticed the hi-hat was right on the 2 and the 4, which is uncharacteristic of Elvin, but his left hand was pulling back to produce a kind of tension. I enjoyed that. I tend to listen analytically, which can be a curse if you just want to sit back and enjoy. So if I just want to feel it, I like to listen to a good singer or some hip-hop, where I don’t have to analyze. The swing was cool. The pianist was nice, traditional. I could really feel the love of that idiom, and when I listen to that style, that’s what I like to listen for.
AFTER: It’s funny, I was thinking it might be that trio. I love Hank Jones, the ease of how he plays; it’s steeped in the tradition. Hank and Tommy Flanagan both seemed timeless. You can almost play anything, and if the feeling and the sound are right it always sounds good.
2. Stefon Harris and Blackout
“Gone” (from Urbanus, Concord). Harris: vibraphone, marimba, arranger; Marc Cary: piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards; Casey Benjamin: alto saxophone, vocoder; Ben Williams, bass; Terreon Gully, drums; Y.C. Laws, percussion; Anna Webber, flute; Anne Drummond, alto flute; Mark Vinci: clarinet, bass clarinet; Jay Rattman, bass clarinet. Released in 2009.
BEFORE: Uh oh. “Gone,” from Porgy and Bess. I love it. Woo! I never heard this. That’s cool. Wow, that’s way cool. They don’t like Herbie at all [laughs]. That’s bad. I love it. That was so enjoyable. The cowbell and the groove are go-go all the way. I love that go-go beat. It’s an amazing production arrangement. The clavinet was killing me. After playing with Herbie as long as I have—he plays great clavinet, so funky and soulful—if I was producing a track like that my first instinct would be to put a guitar on there to add that funk. But that clavinet was so in the pocket, so perfect, that it served the same purpose. I love the choice of clavinet there. People aren’t using it much today. Drumming was great. I have no idea who it was, but it was perfect.
I love where music is right now. I like the mixture of styles. I was talking with Billy Taylor yesterday, and he said one of the things he thought screwed up jazz was when radio separated jazz from R&B. I feel that way, too, and I feel it’s returning to that in a different way. A lot of the younger musicians are not being boxed in.
AFTER: I was gonna say Stefon. Marc Cary? Killin’ arrangement. Who’s playing drums? I really enjoyed that. I’m gonna get it.
3. Jack DeJohnette
“White” (from Music We Are, Golden Beams). DeJohnette, drums; John Patitucci, bass; Danilo Perez, piano. Recorded in 2008.
BEFORE: [listens straight through with periodic laughter] This is great. It’s so nice to hear the drums improvising throughout the whole piece. The language in the drumming is so Jack D. I recognized things that I play, and it made me think immediately how influenced I am by him. There’s a connection you have with certain artists and the way you play, like soul-to-soul. What you think is hip, they think is hip—you know what I mean? So it’s his fluidity on the drum set that he brought to the table. He has such an original voice. And nobody can imitate his touch on the ride. There are certain things that I learned from him: dynamics within a phrase, like going over bar lines, or starting in an odd place but being so fluid that it doesn’t matter because you’re not locked into a feeling of where 1 should be. It’s like water, like the ocean, like waves, like breath. It’s a constant sound, but it never becomes boring to your ear because it has constant motion in it. A lot of people have obvious dynamics, playing loud then soft. But I’m talking about moving dynamics constantly within your phrases.
You laughed while you were listening. What was so funny?
Little things that he played that I know influenced me; just the timing of it, the looseness of it. But precise looseness—that’s a very hard thing to do.
AFTER: That was Danilo? Wow! That intro was great. It made your eyes cross a little, but in a good way. Cool. I’m going to see Jack in a couple of days and I’ll ask him to play this recording for me. He’s my guy. That’s why I was laughing, because I forget sometimes how much he influenced me. It’s nice to be reminded.
4. Joe Chambers
“Asiatic Raes” (from Horace to Max, Savant). Chambers, drums; Eric Alexander, tenor saxophone; Xavier Davis, piano; Dwayne Burno, bass; Steve Berrios, percussion. Recorded in 2009.
BEFORE: It sounds so familiar. The drummer relaxed me; the sound of that 6/8 thing, and then the time came in and it was amazing how relaxed it was. I wish I could play like that.
How do you relax at uptempo?
It depends who you’re playing with. I tell my students to think in half-time. The old cats tap their foot on 1 and 3, and I totally get that because that’s where the time is. But when you’re playing fast and when you think in half-time, you automatically relax and it’s not as frantic. And that adds a little funkiness to it. This ride was very broken and relaxed. Roy Haynes is one of my favorites for breaking up the time; he’ll break up the hi-hat and other things more. Here, the hi-hat was still keeping the time on 2 and 4, but it was so solid and relaxed and the ride [cymbal] was painting. It just seemed like a seasoned professional who’s seen it all. And the clarity of the ideas in the solo is how I want to play one day.
I’m not trying to be funny, but there’s a quality to an older man and the way they play the drums that I want to have. You know what I mean? [laughs] It’s like, here it is: You all do what you’re doing, but here it is. There’s wisdom and a peace about that. That was beautiful.
AFTER: Really? He’s on so many great records. Most of us drummers could listen to that and really learn something.
5. Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble
“Ayiko, Ayiko” (from The African Beat, Blue Note). Blakey: drums, percussion; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass; Yusef Lateef, tenor saxophone; Solomon G. Ilori, Chief Bey, Montego Joe, Garvin Masseaux, James Ola Folami, Robert Crowder, Curtis Fuller: drums, percussion. Recorded in 1962.
BEFORE: I feel like my father will say, “You don’t know who this is?” That’s very, very cool. The African thing was cool, and then I heard all those Art Blakey-style bombs. But I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him play the hi-hat on 1 and 3, so that was interesting. It’s almost a mambo kind of thing that Blakey would do. Nobody could really hit a 1 like Art Blakey, but the hi-hat is really throwing me. It’s back to the tribal thing we were talking about earlier.
AFTER: Yusef sounded great. I love the sound of it. That’s very hip. I gotta get that record.
6. Ed Thigpen
“Heritage” (from Out of the Storm, Verve). Thigpen: drums, vocals; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Clark Terry, trumpet. Recorded in 1966.
BEFORE: That was great. I have no idea who was playing that tuned drum. The first thing I noticed is that the drummer was doing some double-timed phrases on top of the ostinato, but then it jelled back together. It sounded a little like Clark Terry, and then he played some things in the upper register that sounded like Dizzy.
AFTER: Really? That was Ed? Damn! That blows me away. I loved Ed, his brushwork, and the stuff he did with Oscar Peterson was swinging so hard. I loved him as a man; he was such a gentleman. I used to go to his house in Denmark for dinner. I’ve got to go back and listen to this record. Holy macaroni.
“Moment’s Notice” (from Quartet, HighNote). Hart, drums; Mark Turner, tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson, piano; Ben Street, bass. Recorded in 2005.
BEFORE: [laughs during the coda] I really liked that, especially that first chorus and the fact that they took a song with so many changes and opened it up. I love that approach to standards. I don’t normally listen to drummers—that’s why I’m nervous about trying to identify drummers. I listen to the overall sound. I love drums as colors and textures. I always like to find that balance of having drums up front but also supportive. When he first started it reminded me of Tony Williams, then I heard a Roy Haynes thing in certain places. I usually have a pet peeve about the high register on tenor. Michael Brecker did it and sounded great—so did Charles Lloyd. But this person didn’t bother me at all. I liked it. It was open, with a sense of freedom where you’re not afraid to play anything. You don’t even have to play the changes because you’ve studied and done all that already. I’ve played with Wayne Shorter over the years and he plays over the changes all the time. He doesn’t even have to know the changes or the song. He hears the whole thing and he’s able to put his voice on moving changes. Whatever he plays is going to work, and that’s what I heard here—that sense of freedom. I love that. That first note woke me up.
AFTER: [laughs] Interesting. I’ve never heard Mark play over standards. The bassist was playing traditional but it didn’t sound totally old school. A lot of young bass players cut their notes off and it sounds thumpy, but a drummer can’t dance on top of it if it’s thumpy. I was listening to this and noticed that the length of the bass notes is perfect for this sort of thing. It reminded me of old Ron Carter. Billy’s great because he has all the traditional stuff and he dances on top. He’s not afraid to try things in weird places, which I like. I liked his phrasing on this. He listens to everybody and he’s so humble. He’s always going out and checking out musicians. He’s always been supportive. He’s extremely generous and that comes out in his playing. He always sounds fresh to me, like a kid. Wayne [Shorter] sounds like that to me: a childlike spirit but with all the wisdom and depth. And Billy’s like that. I know he’s excited by what he’s doing, and that spirit comes through.
8. Dan Weiss Trio
“Always Be Closing” (from Timshel, Sunnyside). Weiss, drums; Jacob Sacks, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; voices of Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino from the film Glengarry Glen Ross. Recorded in 2008.
BEFORE: Wow. That’s great. That sounds like Jack Lemmon. Amazing. As a teacher I think it’s a great tool. It’s talking, and that’s what we try to do when we play. To learn a verbal dialogue you’re learning a kind of phrasing not based on the language of drum phrasing, and that’s so important. Even when you play open and free, even without the constraints of a metric thing, people have trouble doing that. And that’s a perfect tool to learn how to phrase more naturally, not in time. I’m going to try and do that myself. I wouldn’t write this phrasing out: You have to learn it, memorize it. I guess you could put this to a click and write it out, but that would be a tedious and academic approach. It’s like learning bebop phrasing. I tell my students, I can’t teach you phrasing, you’ve got to listen to the records over and over and listen to great phrasing, not just from the drummers but from the pianists, the way they comp; to horn players, the way they breathe. And that’s how you learn how to play jazz, because you have to learn the language. Nobody can teach it to you. We can give you a few short-cuts.
AFTER: That was clever as hell. I’d like to ask him how long it took him to memorize that. That’s hip. Thanks for turning me on to that. You played some cool stuff for me.
Name three records that changed your life.
Two immediately come to mind. Chick Corea, Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. “Matrix” still slays me. Jack DeJohnette with Charles Lloyd, Forest Flower. I heard that and said, “That’s how I want to play.” And then so much of the Tony Williams stuff with Miles, but it wasn’t just Tony, it was the whole band and the whole sound. And like everyone, I liked Elvin Jones with Coltrane.
Terri Lyne Carrington Beats Her Own Drums
Everything seems to be coming together for Terri Lyne Carrington.
She has played with the giants of the jazz and contemporary music worlds. Some of them--Wayne Shorter, Grover Washington, Patrice Rushen, John Scofield, Gerald Albright--are guests on her debut album for Verve/Forecast Records, "Real Life Story," due out this week. She has a steady job five nights a week in the Hollywood-based band on Arsenio Hall's TV talk show.
For the 23-year-old drummer-singer-composer it's a rewarding list of credits in a career that began before she reached her teens.
Soft of voice, cool of manner, Terri Lyne (rhymes with win) talked the other day about the curious accident that led her to the drums.
"I started on saxophone," she said, "playing my father's horn, but then my teeth fell out, so I switched to drums. I was 7."
She has played with the giants of the jazz and contemporary music worlds. Some of them--Wayne Shorter, Grover Washington, Patrice Rushen, John Scofield, Gerald Albright--are guests on her debut album for Verve/Forecast Records, "Real Life Story," due out this week. She has a steady job five nights a week in the Hollywood-based band on Arsenio Hall's TV talk show.
For the 23-year-old drummer-singer-composer it's a rewarding list of credits in a career that began before she reached her teens.
Soft of voice, cool of manner, Terri Lyne (rhymes with win) talked the other day about the curious accident that led her to the drums.
"I started on saxophone," she said, "playing my father's horn, but then my teeth fell out, so I switched to drums. I was 7."
The
drums, inherited from a grandfather, were in the Carrington home in
Medford, Mass., the Boston suburb where she was born Aug. 4, 1965. "My
father could play drums too, and he was my first teacher. Then I had
private lessons with Keith Copland and Alan Dawson, who were both also
teachers at the Berklee College of Music."
Sitting in with visiting notables became a life style: she shook a tambourine with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, sat in on drums with Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry.
"Clark was a great help. When I was 10 he took me to the Wichita Jazz Festival as his special guest. When I was 12, Buddy Rich heard me and got me on the 'To Tell the Truth' show. All through high school, I was playing gigs on the side with people like Kenny Barron, Frank Foster, George Coleman."
Graduating from high school a year early, she promptly enrolled at Berklee College of Music, expanding her horizons with the study of composing and arranging.
Restless and eager to take on bigger challenges than she could find in Boston, Carrington left Berklee after 18 months, headed for New York and found a ready market for her services. She worked off and on with Terry for a year, playing mainstream jazz; but she had arrived equipped for all contingencies.
"Straight-ahead music is a strong foundation for whatever you want to do, but I had been listening to a lot of contemporary stuff too, and wound up playing it. Wayne Shorter is contemporary--I was with him for a year or so, including three European tours--and so is David Sanborn; I worked with him all last summer."
How does a teen-age wonder develop so much maturity and versatility? Carrington went through a series of listening stages: "I liked Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, but I never tried to play like any of them.
"One of my big influences was (drummer-pianist-composer) Jack de Johnette, who's a good friend of the family. He was never actually my teacher, but I used to go to his house a lot to just sit around and talk about music; I learned a lot from him. Today I'm listening to the contemporary drummers who are playing today's music."
Today's music is clearly what Carrington had in mind when she recorded her album, co-produced with Robert Irving III, well known for his Miles Davis associations. "Real Life Story" introduces her in three roles: as drummer, composer or co-composer of all but two of the songs, and lead vocalist.
The basic performing group includes Patrice Rushen on keyboards, Keith Jones on bass and Don Alias on percussion; however, along the way, four guest saxophonists are heard from, as well as the guitarists Hiram Bullock and John Scofield. Carlos Santana plays lead guitar on "Human Revolution," for which Dianne Reeves added some of the backup singing.
Sitting in with visiting notables became a life style: she shook a tambourine with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, sat in on drums with Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry.
"Clark was a great help. When I was 10 he took me to the Wichita Jazz Festival as his special guest. When I was 12, Buddy Rich heard me and got me on the 'To Tell the Truth' show. All through high school, I was playing gigs on the side with people like Kenny Barron, Frank Foster, George Coleman."
Graduating from high school a year early, she promptly enrolled at Berklee College of Music, expanding her horizons with the study of composing and arranging.
Restless and eager to take on bigger challenges than she could find in Boston, Carrington left Berklee after 18 months, headed for New York and found a ready market for her services. She worked off and on with Terry for a year, playing mainstream jazz; but she had arrived equipped for all contingencies.
"Straight-ahead music is a strong foundation for whatever you want to do, but I had been listening to a lot of contemporary stuff too, and wound up playing it. Wayne Shorter is contemporary--I was with him for a year or so, including three European tours--and so is David Sanborn; I worked with him all last summer."
How does a teen-age wonder develop so much maturity and versatility? Carrington went through a series of listening stages: "I liked Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, but I never tried to play like any of them.
"One of my big influences was (drummer-pianist-composer) Jack de Johnette, who's a good friend of the family. He was never actually my teacher, but I used to go to his house a lot to just sit around and talk about music; I learned a lot from him. Today I'm listening to the contemporary drummers who are playing today's music."
Today's music is clearly what Carrington had in mind when she recorded her album, co-produced with Robert Irving III, well known for his Miles Davis associations. "Real Life Story" introduces her in three roles: as drummer, composer or co-composer of all but two of the songs, and lead vocalist.
The basic performing group includes Patrice Rushen on keyboards, Keith Jones on bass and Don Alias on percussion; however, along the way, four guest saxophonists are heard from, as well as the guitarists Hiram Bullock and John Scofield. Carlos Santana plays lead guitar on "Human Revolution," for which Dianne Reeves added some of the backup singing.
"Real Life Story" will no doubt make its way into the various radio formats, from contemporary jazz and adult alternative to album-oriented-rock and alternative rock. How much Carrington can promote it depends on her television schedule.
"I'm doing the (Arsenio Hall) show Mondays through Fridays, so I can't go too far out in the promotion; however, maybe we'll have a hiatus," she said. "I'm committed to staying with the show indefinitely, and I'm enjoying it."
Moving to the West Coast was not the result of Hall's offer--she had planned it all along. "I had come out here to look for an apartment and buy a car," Carrington said. "I like it out here; it's closer to the environment I grew up with in Medford--that was suburban, and this is kind of suburban and relaxed. New York is so hard core, and I was getting very tired of that."
After all her success, the gigs and sit-ins with Betty Carter and Stan Getz and Joe Williams and Oscar Peterson, Carrington is eager to continue learning, to meet new challenges.
Listening to a recent record by the drummer Dave Weckl, with Chick Corea's trio, she said: "That represents an awesome kind of modern-day technique--makes me feel I should lock myself up in a closet and practice eight hours a day until I can play like that.
"I don't like the way I played five years ago. Some people possibly liked me better when I was 17 or 18--that's their taste. But if I kept on playing the same way, I would just be stagnant."
http://jazztimes.com/articles/26680-terri-lyne-carrington-analytic-listening
Terri Lyne Carrington: Analytic Listening
Listening session with the noted drummer and educator
Drummer, composer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington
established her reputation as a pre-teen prodigy, jamming with giants
and receiving a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music at age 11.
She has since collaborated on the road and in studios with Herbie
Hancock, Al Jarreau, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry and many other
luminaries, and she received mainstream attention on television as the
house drummer on the Arsenio Hall Show and the short-lived late-night talk show Vibe.
In addition to her various projects and production credits, Carrington
is the artistic director of the Beantown Jazz Festival in Boston and a
professor at Berklee. Her latest recording is More to Say (Real Life Story: Next Gen) on Koch. She joined JT for this interview in May, just three days after legendary pianist Hank Jones had passed.
Terri Lyne Carrington
“Rhythm-A-Ning” (from Autumn Leaves, 441). Hank Jones, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums. Recorded in 2002.
BEFORE: That’s beautiful. If it wasn’t Elvin Jones it’s somebody who’s listened to a lot of Elvin. His vocabulary and soloing with the left hand is so loose. Elvin approached the drums with urgency and a raw sensibility. Because I produce and I’m into the sound of things, it didn’t sound like the old Elvin Jones. On this recording, the snare was a lot louder the way it was mic’d. It’s not warm like those classic recordings from the ’60s, so it was throwing me off a little. Certain microphones pick up more of the detail of the snare, so if you have a busy left hand, which sounds great live, and if you have a certain kind of mic on it, you’ll hear certain details which can be distracting. So that’s what I was hearing, and I’m not used to hearing that sound from Elvin. I noticed the hi-hat was right on the 2 and the 4, which is uncharacteristic of Elvin, but his left hand was pulling back to produce a kind of tension. I enjoyed that. I tend to listen analytically, which can be a curse if you just want to sit back and enjoy. So if I just want to feel it, I like to listen to a good singer or some hip-hop, where I don’t have to analyze. The swing was cool. The pianist was nice, traditional. I could really feel the love of that idiom, and when I listen to that style, that’s what I like to listen for.
AFTER: It’s funny, I was thinking it might be that trio. I love Hank Jones, the ease of how he plays; it’s steeped in the tradition. Hank and Tommy Flanagan both seemed timeless. You can almost play anything, and if the feeling and the sound are right it always sounds good.
2. Stefon Harris and Blackout
“Gone” (from Urbanus, Concord). Harris: vibraphone, marimba, arranger; Marc Cary: piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards; Casey Benjamin: alto saxophone, vocoder; Ben Williams, bass; Terreon Gully, drums; Y.C. Laws, percussion; Anna Webber, flute; Anne Drummond, alto flute; Mark Vinci: clarinet, bass clarinet; Jay Rattman, bass clarinet. Released in 2009.
BEFORE: Uh oh. “Gone,” from Porgy and Bess. I love it. Woo! I never heard this. That’s cool. Wow, that’s way cool. They don’t like Herbie at all [laughs]. That’s bad. I love it. That was so enjoyable. The cowbell and the groove are go-go all the way. I love that go-go beat. It’s an amazing production arrangement. The clavinet was killing me. After playing with Herbie as long as I have—he plays great clavinet, so funky and soulful—if I was producing a track like that my first instinct would be to put a guitar on there to add that funk. But that clavinet was so in the pocket, so perfect, that it served the same purpose. I love the choice of clavinet there. People aren’t using it much today. Drumming was great. I have no idea who it was, but it was perfect.
I love where music is right now. I like the mixture of styles. I was talking with Billy Taylor yesterday, and he said one of the things he thought screwed up jazz was when radio separated jazz from R&B. I feel that way, too, and I feel it’s returning to that in a different way. A lot of the younger musicians are not being boxed in.
AFTER: I was gonna say Stefon. Marc Cary? Killin’ arrangement. Who’s playing drums? I really enjoyed that. I’m gonna get it.
3. Jack DeJohnette
“White” (from Music We Are, Golden Beams). DeJohnette, drums; John Patitucci, bass; Danilo Perez, piano. Recorded in 2008.
BEFORE: [listens straight through with periodic laughter] This is great. It’s so nice to hear the drums improvising throughout the whole piece. The language in the drumming is so Jack D. I recognized things that I play, and it made me think immediately how influenced I am by him. There’s a connection you have with certain artists and the way you play, like soul-to-soul. What you think is hip, they think is hip—you know what I mean? So it’s his fluidity on the drum set that he brought to the table. He has such an original voice. And nobody can imitate his touch on the ride. There are certain things that I learned from him: dynamics within a phrase, like going over bar lines, or starting in an odd place but being so fluid that it doesn’t matter because you’re not locked into a feeling of where 1 should be. It’s like water, like the ocean, like waves, like breath. It’s a constant sound, but it never becomes boring to your ear because it has constant motion in it. A lot of people have obvious dynamics, playing loud then soft. But I’m talking about moving dynamics constantly within your phrases.
You laughed while you were listening. What was so funny?
Little things that he played that I know influenced me; just the timing of it, the looseness of it. But precise looseness—that’s a very hard thing to do.
AFTER: That was Danilo? Wow! That intro was great. It made your eyes cross a little, but in a good way. Cool. I’m going to see Jack in a couple of days and I’ll ask him to play this recording for me. He’s my guy. That’s why I was laughing, because I forget sometimes how much he influenced me. It’s nice to be reminded.
4. Joe Chambers
“Asiatic Raes” (from Horace to Max, Savant). Chambers, drums; Eric Alexander, tenor saxophone; Xavier Davis, piano; Dwayne Burno, bass; Steve Berrios, percussion. Recorded in 2009.
BEFORE: It sounds so familiar. The drummer relaxed me; the sound of that 6/8 thing, and then the time came in and it was amazing how relaxed it was. I wish I could play like that.
How do you relax at uptempo?
It depends who you’re playing with. I tell my students to think in half-time. The old cats tap their foot on 1 and 3, and I totally get that because that’s where the time is. But when you’re playing fast and when you think in half-time, you automatically relax and it’s not as frantic. And that adds a little funkiness to it. This ride was very broken and relaxed. Roy Haynes is one of my favorites for breaking up the time; he’ll break up the hi-hat and other things more. Here, the hi-hat was still keeping the time on 2 and 4, but it was so solid and relaxed and the ride [cymbal] was painting. It just seemed like a seasoned professional who’s seen it all. And the clarity of the ideas in the solo is how I want to play one day.
I’m not trying to be funny, but there’s a quality to an older man and the way they play the drums that I want to have. You know what I mean? [laughs] It’s like, here it is: You all do what you’re doing, but here it is. There’s wisdom and a peace about that. That was beautiful.
AFTER: Really? He’s on so many great records. Most of us drummers could listen to that and really learn something.
5. Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble
“Ayiko, Ayiko” (from The African Beat, Blue Note). Blakey: drums, percussion; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, bass; Yusef Lateef, tenor saxophone; Solomon G. Ilori, Chief Bey, Montego Joe, Garvin Masseaux, James Ola Folami, Robert Crowder, Curtis Fuller: drums, percussion. Recorded in 1962.
BEFORE: I feel like my father will say, “You don’t know who this is?” That’s very, very cool. The African thing was cool, and then I heard all those Art Blakey-style bombs. But I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him play the hi-hat on 1 and 3, so that was interesting. It’s almost a mambo kind of thing that Blakey would do. Nobody could really hit a 1 like Art Blakey, but the hi-hat is really throwing me. It’s back to the tribal thing we were talking about earlier.
AFTER: Yusef sounded great. I love the sound of it. That’s very hip. I gotta get that record.
6. Ed Thigpen
“Heritage” (from Out of the Storm, Verve). Thigpen: drums, vocals; Herbie Hancock, piano; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Clark Terry, trumpet. Recorded in 1966.
BEFORE: That was great. I have no idea who was playing that tuned drum. The first thing I noticed is that the drummer was doing some double-timed phrases on top of the ostinato, but then it jelled back together. It sounded a little like Clark Terry, and then he played some things in the upper register that sounded like Dizzy.
AFTER: Really? That was Ed? Damn! That blows me away. I loved Ed, his brushwork, and the stuff he did with Oscar Peterson was swinging so hard. I loved him as a man; he was such a gentleman. I used to go to his house in Denmark for dinner. I’ve got to go back and listen to this record. Holy macaroni.
“Moment’s Notice” (from Quartet, HighNote). Hart, drums; Mark Turner, tenor saxophone; Ethan Iverson, piano; Ben Street, bass. Recorded in 2005.
BEFORE: [laughs during the coda] I really liked that, especially that first chorus and the fact that they took a song with so many changes and opened it up. I love that approach to standards. I don’t normally listen to drummers—that’s why I’m nervous about trying to identify drummers. I listen to the overall sound. I love drums as colors and textures. I always like to find that balance of having drums up front but also supportive. When he first started it reminded me of Tony Williams, then I heard a Roy Haynes thing in certain places. I usually have a pet peeve about the high register on tenor. Michael Brecker did it and sounded great—so did Charles Lloyd. But this person didn’t bother me at all. I liked it. It was open, with a sense of freedom where you’re not afraid to play anything. You don’t even have to play the changes because you’ve studied and done all that already. I’ve played with Wayne Shorter over the years and he plays over the changes all the time. He doesn’t even have to know the changes or the song. He hears the whole thing and he’s able to put his voice on moving changes. Whatever he plays is going to work, and that’s what I heard here—that sense of freedom. I love that. That first note woke me up.
AFTER: [laughs] Interesting. I’ve never heard Mark play over standards. The bassist was playing traditional but it didn’t sound totally old school. A lot of young bass players cut their notes off and it sounds thumpy, but a drummer can’t dance on top of it if it’s thumpy. I was listening to this and noticed that the length of the bass notes is perfect for this sort of thing. It reminded me of old Ron Carter. Billy’s great because he has all the traditional stuff and he dances on top. He’s not afraid to try things in weird places, which I like. I liked his phrasing on this. He listens to everybody and he’s so humble. He’s always going out and checking out musicians. He’s always been supportive. He’s extremely generous and that comes out in his playing. He always sounds fresh to me, like a kid. Wayne [Shorter] sounds like that to me: a childlike spirit but with all the wisdom and depth. And Billy’s like that. I know he’s excited by what he’s doing, and that spirit comes through.
8. Dan Weiss Trio
“Always Be Closing” (from Timshel, Sunnyside). Weiss, drums; Jacob Sacks, piano; Thomas Morgan, bass; voices of Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino from the film Glengarry Glen Ross. Recorded in 2008.
BEFORE: Wow. That’s great. That sounds like Jack Lemmon. Amazing. As a teacher I think it’s a great tool. It’s talking, and that’s what we try to do when we play. To learn a verbal dialogue you’re learning a kind of phrasing not based on the language of drum phrasing, and that’s so important. Even when you play open and free, even without the constraints of a metric thing, people have trouble doing that. And that’s a perfect tool to learn how to phrase more naturally, not in time. I’m going to try and do that myself. I wouldn’t write this phrasing out: You have to learn it, memorize it. I guess you could put this to a click and write it out, but that would be a tedious and academic approach. It’s like learning bebop phrasing. I tell my students, I can’t teach you phrasing, you’ve got to listen to the records over and over and listen to great phrasing, not just from the drummers but from the pianists, the way they comp; to horn players, the way they breathe. And that’s how you learn how to play jazz, because you have to learn the language. Nobody can teach it to you. We can give you a few short-cuts.
AFTER: That was clever as hell. I’d like to ask him how long it took him to memorize that. That’s hip. Thanks for turning me on to that. You played some cool stuff for me.
Name three records that changed your life.
Two immediately come to mind. Chick Corea, Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. “Matrix” still slays me. Jack DeJohnette with Charles Lloyd, Forest Flower. I heard that and said, “That’s how I want to play.” And then so much of the Tony Williams stuff with Miles, but it wasn’t just Tony, it was the whole band and the whole sound. And like everyone, I liked Elvin Jones with Coltrane.
http://jazztimes.com/articles/13692-jazz-is-a-spirit-terri-lyne-carrington
May 2003
Jazz Is a Spirit
ACT Music + Vision
The theme and underlying message embodied in drummer Terri Lyne
Carrington's new release is as important as the music, if not more so.
Carrington, a first-rate percussionist who's at home whether backing
Lenny Kravitz or spearheading a hard-bop date, knows that nothing's done
more to kill jazz's viability among younger people than stuffiness, so
she tries to keep things loose without sacrificing improvisational
quality. On the title track and "Jazz Is," her group includes bassist
and spoken-word artist Malcolm-Jamal Warner, whose presence offers a
reference point for those who watched him age on the landmark '80s
sitcom The Cosby Show. While Warner won't remind anyone of Bob Dorough,
he's competent enough in this setting as kind of a musical cheerleader,
elevated on "Jazz Is a Spirit" by Wallace Roney's sparkling trumpet
assistance.
However for straight jazz purposes, the disc's best songs are the
ones featuring robust tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas, someone who should
be far better known. His solos and overall contributions to "Little
Jump," "Journey East From West," "Giggles" and "Lost Star" provide
consistent energy, soulfulness, frequent flamboyance and a strong
presence. Bassist Bob Hurst, Roney, guitarist Kevin Eubanks and, on
three pieces, the great Herbie Hancock, join forces with Carrington to
make solid music, though none of these arrangements are exactly
ground-breaking.
Carrington's employing almost the identical production and writing technique to this album that's commonplace on urban-contemporary records. She mixes and matches personnel to selections, making this a less unified date than usual for a jazz record without turning it into a laid-back smooth session. The insertion of "Papa" Jo Jones' voice on "Mr. Jo Jones," which offers the drum legend's personal encouragement to Carrington from 1984, was a great touch, something that gives the date an instructional/historic quality without sermonizing. Carrington continues to eschew adapting the "star drummer" posture, stepping out front only briefly on "Journey Agent." Fully aware of her abilities, she's more concerned with moving the music ahead and expanding her audience and focus than in reasserting her credentials via a string of frenetic solos.
What Carrington's done with Jazz Is a Spirit is to subtly offer other jazz producers, players and labels a blueprint for making modern records that neither compromises the music's integrity nor needlessly limits its appeal.
Carrington's employing almost the identical production and writing technique to this album that's commonplace on urban-contemporary records. She mixes and matches personnel to selections, making this a less unified date than usual for a jazz record without turning it into a laid-back smooth session. The insertion of "Papa" Jo Jones' voice on "Mr. Jo Jones," which offers the drum legend's personal encouragement to Carrington from 1984, was a great touch, something that gives the date an instructional/historic quality without sermonizing. Carrington continues to eschew adapting the "star drummer" posture, stepping out front only briefly on "Journey Agent." Fully aware of her abilities, she's more concerned with moving the music ahead and expanding her audience and focus than in reasserting her credentials via a string of frenetic solos.
What Carrington's done with Jazz Is a Spirit is to subtly offer other jazz producers, players and labels a blueprint for making modern records that neither compromises the music's integrity nor needlessly limits its appeal.
Terri Lyne Carrington
Drummer, composer, producer and clinician. Terri Lyne
Carrington, was born in 1965 in Medford, Massachusetts. After an
extensive touring career of over 20 years with luminaries like
Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn,
Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves and more, she
recently returned to her hometown where she was appointed professor at
her alma mater, Berklee College of Music. Terri Lyne also received an
honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music in 2003.
After studying under full scholarship at Berklee, with the
encouragement of her mentor, Jack DeJohnette, Terri Lyne moved to New
York in 1983. For 5 years she was a much in-demand musician, working
with James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, and others. In the late
80's she relocated to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late
night TV as the house drummer for the "Arsenio Hall Show," then again
in the late 90's as the drummer on the Quincy Jones late night TV show,
"VIBE," hosted by Sinbad. In 1989, Ms. Carrington released a Grammy
nominated debut CD entitled "Real Life Story," which featured Carlos
Santana, Grover Washington Jr., Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Patrice
Rushen, Gerald Albright, John Scofield, Robert Irving III, Greg Osby,
Don Alias and Hiram Bullock. Other solo CDs include 2002’s "Jazz is a
Spirit," which features Herbie Hancock, Gary Thomas, Wallace Roney,
Terence Blanchard, Kevin Eubanks, and Bob Hurst, and 2004's "Structure,"
a cooperative group which features Adam Rogers, Jimmy Haslip and Greg
Osby. Both CDs were released on the Europe-based ACT Music label, and
enjoyed considerable media attention and critical acclaim in the
European and Japanese markets.
Her production collaborations with artists such as Gino Vannelli,
Peabo Bryson, Dianne Reeves, Siedah Garrett, Marilyn Scott have produced
notable works as well, including a special song commissioned by the
Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, "Always Reach for Your
Dreams," (featuring Peabo Bryson), and her production of the Dianne
Reeves Grammy-nominated CD, “That Day," which hovered at the top of the
music charts for many months.
Terri Lyne has played on many recordings throughout the 80's and 90's
thru today. Notable examples of her work include Herbie Hancock's
Grammy winning CD "Gershwin's World" where she played alongside Joni
Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. She has toured with each of Mr. Hancock's
musical configurations (from electric to acoustic) over the last 10
years and is featured on his "Future2Future" DVD.
http://jazztimes.com/articles/65234-terri-lyne-carrington-to-release-new-ellington-tribute-album-in-feb
Terri Lyne Carrington to Release New Ellington Tribute Album in February
‘Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue’ includes Gerald Clayton, Christian McBride, others
Drummer, composer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington will follow her Grammy-winning album The Mosaic Project with Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue
(Concord Jazz), an homage to Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max
Roach. The album is scheduled for release on Feb. 5 and will coincide
with the 50th anniversary of Ellington’s 1963 Money Jungle album.
Keyboardist Gerald Clayton and bassist Christian McBride will perform on the album, which also includes several guests: trumpeter Clark Terry, trombonist Robin Eubanks, reed players Tia Fuller and Antonio Hart, guitarist Nir Felder, percussionist Arturo Stabile and vocalists Shea Rose and Lizz Wright. Herbie Hancock closes the album quoting Ellington.
Keyboardist Gerald Clayton and bassist Christian McBride will perform on the album, which also includes several guests: trumpeter Clark Terry, trombonist Robin Eubanks, reed players Tia Fuller and Antonio Hart, guitarist Nir Felder, percussionist Arturo Stabile and vocalists Shea Rose and Lizz Wright. Herbie Hancock closes the album quoting Ellington.
Music Interviews
Terri Lyne Carrington Makes A Musical 'Mosaic,' With A Focus On Women
Listen to the Story
7:28
Terri Lyne Carrington won a Grammy for her all-female jazz album The Mosaic Project in 2011. Now, she's releasing the second installment, called Love and Soul.
Tracy Love/Courtesy of the artist
Lately, Carrington's been working on something called The Mosaic Project. Her first iteration of the project, back in 2011, featured female jazz singers backed by an all-woman band. That album won a Grammy.
The second installment, subtitled Love and Soul, comes out Aug. 7, and while it includes another all-star group of female musicians, she says it has a "different flavor" and a stronger R&B influence. The star-studded list of featured performers includes Valerie Simpson, Nancy Wilson, Lizz Wright — and, on the song "I'm a Fool to Want You," Chaka Khan.
Hear the rest of Carrington's conversation with NPR's Arun Rath, as well as music from The Mosaic Project: Love and Soul, at the audio link.
Featured Artist
Terri Lyne Carrington: The Mosaic Project
by
Historically, female artists have not gotten the props they've deserved in jazz's male-dominated environment. Though imperfect, things have improved, thanks in part to the efforts of Billie Holiday, Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, and other matriarchs who helped pave the way for a current generation of stellar voices as assembled in drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington's exceptional The Mosaic Project.
Carrington's world-class drumming equals anyone in the music business, enriching recordings and performances from the great Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to the eclectic sounds of guitarist Nguyen Le, while finding time to lead her own bands and music. Without a doubt, this project is her most ambitious work to date, an arduous yet rewarding labor of love that's elevated by her leadership of an all-star cast of female musicians and singers.
The opening "Transformation" sets the vibe, with its groove intellect and smoky vocals from legendary soul singer Nona Hendryx. It's followed with more funky goodness, a very unique take on Irving Berlin's "I Get Lost in His Arms," sung by one of jazz's new stars, Gretchen Parlato. There's even more to enjoy with the up-tempo remake of The Beatles' ballad "Michelle," as hard-swinging jazz melds with urban funkiness, pumped by riveting solos from pianist Geri Allen, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, and saxophonist Tineke Postma.
Like a mosaic the fourteen tracks are smaller pictures of Carrington's broader image, one that knows jazz's ancestry but speaks fluently of haunting social issues in "Echo," via spoken words from activist Angela Davis, along with Dianne Reeves adding her always classy singing. Add the heartfelt longing of "Show Me a Sign" (written by singer Carmen Lundy) and the hip hop swagger of "On The Rise (A Transformation)," featuring up-and-coming singer Shea Rose, and the set represents a continuum of sound and voice from the past, present and future.
With a roster that includes the star power of percussionist Sheila E and pianist Patrice Rushen, the talent is exhaustive and varied with memorable tracks such as Cassandra Wilson's sensual ruminations of Al Green's 1972 hit, "Simply Beautiful," the whimsical antics of "Crayola," written and performed by Grammy Award-winning bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding and featuring Helen Sung's lissome keyboards, and Carrington's own complex rock/jazz piece, "Mosaic Triad." The Mosaic Project has no ulterior motive to show that women can do the jazz gig as well as men. That's already been proven time and again. Instead, it is a joyous celebration of outstanding female artists; a clear view of what currently exists and a hint of what's on the horizon.
Track Listing: Transformation; I Got Lost In His Arms; Michelle; Magic And Music; Echo; Simply Beautiful; Unconditional Love; Wistful; Crayola; Soul Talk; Mosaic Triad; Insomniac; Show Me A Sign; Sisters On The Rise (A Transformation).
Personnel: Terri Lyne Carrington: drums, additional percussion,
voice (2, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14);
Geri Allen: piano keyboards (1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13); Dee Dee
Bridgewater: voice (10);
Anat Cohen: clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax; Angela Davis:
commentary (5);
Sheila E.: percussion (1, 5, 6, 10); Nona Hendryx: voice (1, 14);
Ingrid Jensen: trumpet, flugelhorn, efx; Mimi Jones: bass (4); Carmen
Lundy: voice (13);
Chia-Yin Carol Ma: violin; Hailey Niswanger: flute; Gretchen Parlato:
voice (2, 3);
Tineke Postma: alto sax, soprano sax; Dianne Reeves: voice (5); Shea
Rose: voice (14); Patrice Rushen: piano, keyboards (2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11,
12); Esperanza Spalding: bass, voice (7, 9); Helen Sung: piano,
keyboards (2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12); Linda Taylor: guitars; Cassandra
Wilson: voice (8).
Year Released: 2011
Record Label: Concord Music Group
http://jazztimes.com/articles/169037-the-mosaic-project-love-and-soul-terri-lyne-carrington
The Mosaic Project: Love and Soul
Concord Records
Love and Soul is a natural, if not as satisfying, sequel to The Mosaic Project,
the 2011 release that won drummer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington a
Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy the following year. That maiden entry
found Carrington steering an all-star, all-female cast (Esperanza
Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen, Dianne Reeves and many more)
through 14 tracks that hewed largely to contemporary and traditional
jazz. Love and Soul, as its title suggests, moves significantly
and determinedly into R&B rhythms and vocal styles, although not to
the extent that jazz devotees will feel wholly alienated.
Again, Carrington, who produced and arranged the album, has assembled
a formidable group of women contributors. The twist this time is that
several tracks pay tribute to male artists who’ve inspired Carrington,
and a few feature spoken-word from actor Billy Dee Williams. Frank
Sinatra, George Duke, Nickolas Ashford, Bill Withers and Luther Vandross
are among those Carrington honors here, with an A-list of frontwomen
including Chaka Khan, Nancy Wilson, Ledisi and Lalah Hathaway giving
voice to those tunes and several penned by Carrington herself.
Like many of the tracks here, Natalie Cole’s reading of Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” which leads things off, is built atop a fierce dance rhythm, and Carrington populates the track with dexterous instrumentalists—alto saxophonist Tia Fuller and keyboardist Amy Bellamy turn in particularly robust performances. At the other end of the spectrum, the ambrosial Withers ballad “You Just Can’t Smile It Away,” with Regina Carter on violin, Linda Taylor playing guitar and Linda Oh on bass, features a soaring, affecting vocal lead from Paula Cole.
Several tracks, including those sung by Lizz Wright, Wilson and Carrington herself (her own “Can’t Resist”) straddle stylistic lines easily: Jazz changes meet soul-pop dance beats and vocal performances. But there’s no denying that this second entry in the Mosaic Project franchise offers an acutely different vibe than its predecessor.
Like many of the tracks here, Natalie Cole’s reading of Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” which leads things off, is built atop a fierce dance rhythm, and Carrington populates the track with dexterous instrumentalists—alto saxophonist Tia Fuller and keyboardist Amy Bellamy turn in particularly robust performances. At the other end of the spectrum, the ambrosial Withers ballad “You Just Can’t Smile It Away,” with Regina Carter on violin, Linda Taylor playing guitar and Linda Oh on bass, features a soaring, affecting vocal lead from Paula Cole.
Several tracks, including those sung by Lizz Wright, Wilson and Carrington herself (her own “Can’t Resist”) straddle stylistic lines easily: Jazz changes meet soul-pop dance beats and vocal performances. But there’s no denying that this second entry in the Mosaic Project franchise offers an acutely different vibe than its predecessor.
Originally published in October 2015
Terri Lyne Carrington On JazzSet
AUDIO:http://www.npr.org/player/embed/177758885/226415528
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Money Jungle has a story. One day in 1962, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach
recorded an album and gave it that provocative title. The repertoire
was new blues by Ellington, who was in his 60s, while Roach and Mingus
were each about 40. As George Wein wrote in the liner notes to the LP, they were a triumvirate, not a trio.
Terri Lyne Carrington was born in 1965 into a family of jazz musicians in Boston; drums were her destiny. By her teens, Carrington had played with Clark Terry and Buddy Rich. On the new album, there's a photo of her young self playing drums as Max Roach looks on. Now a Grammy winner working at a creative peak, Carrington is full of ideas, as well as the skill and sophistication to realize them.
So, when she found Money Jungle in a music store's discount bin, her reaction was to think she could do something with this music. It's a heavy dream, as Carrington herself has said: "When you start rearranging Duke Ellington, you better feel good about it."
In her new take on the title tune, "Money Jungle," she inserts spoken word from historical and contemporary sources over a pulsating, unforgettable beat. (Remember that in the late 1920s, people called Ellington's music "jungle music.") She has narrator Shea Rose introduce Ellington's movements for his bandmates — "A Little Max" and "Switch Blade" — with a short biography and quote from each. Guest pianist Gerald Clayton contributes "Cut Off" for Ellington, and Clayton's piano moves this music forward with confidence. (Incidentally, Clayton has his own new album, Life Forum, with vocals and spoken word.)
Duke Ellington's words from various sources conclude Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue with a prophesy:
Terri Lyne Carrington was born in 1965 into a family of jazz musicians in Boston; drums were her destiny. By her teens, Carrington had played with Clark Terry and Buddy Rich. On the new album, there's a photo of her young self playing drums as Max Roach looks on. Now a Grammy winner working at a creative peak, Carrington is full of ideas, as well as the skill and sophistication to realize them.
So, when she found Money Jungle in a music store's discount bin, her reaction was to think she could do something with this music. It's a heavy dream, as Carrington herself has said: "When you start rearranging Duke Ellington, you better feel good about it."
In her new take on the title tune, "Money Jungle," she inserts spoken word from historical and contemporary sources over a pulsating, unforgettable beat. (Remember that in the late 1920s, people called Ellington's music "jungle music.") She has narrator Shea Rose introduce Ellington's movements for his bandmates — "A Little Max" and "Switch Blade" — with a short biography and quote from each. Guest pianist Gerald Clayton contributes "Cut Off" for Ellington, and Clayton's piano moves this music forward with confidence. (Incidentally, Clayton has his own new album, Life Forum, with vocals and spoken word.)
Duke Ellington's words from various sources conclude Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue with a prophesy:
"I think jazz will be listened to by the same people who listen to it now: those who like creative things, whether they understand them or not. If it is accepted as an art, it is the same as any other art. The popularity of it doesn't matter, doesn't mean anything, because when you get into the popularity, then you're talking about money, not music."
Set List:
- "Money Jungle"
- "Fleurette Africain"
- "Backward Country Boy Blues"
- "Very Special"
- "Grass Roots" (Carrington)
- "A Little Max"
- "Switch Blade"
- "Cut Off" (Clayton)
Terri Lyne Carrington
2020-21 and 2021-22 MIT Sounding Series
Under the auspices of CAST’s MIT Sounding series, It Must Be Now!, led by Fred Harris, brings together three leading musicians to collectively compose a large-scale work for MIT musicians on the overall theme of racial justice.
NEA Jazz Master and three-time GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, producer, and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington started her professional career as a “kid wonder” while studying under a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the mid ’80’s she worked as an in-demand drummer in New York before gaining national recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show.
While still in her 20’s, Carrington toured extensively with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among others, and in 1989 released a Grammy-nominated debut CD on Verve Forecast, Real Life Story. In 2011 she released the Grammy award-winning album, The Mosaic Project, featuring a cast of all-star women instrumentalists and vocalists, and in 2013 she released, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, which also earned a Grammy award, establishing her as the first woman ever to win in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.
To date Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has toured or recorded with luminary artists such as Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets, Esperanza Spalding, and many more. Additionally, Carrington is an honorary doctorate recipient from Berklee, and currently serves as Founder and Artistic Director for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
In 2019, Carrington was granted the Doris Duke Artist Award, a prestigious acknowledgement in recognition of her past and ongoing contributions to jazz music. Her current band project, Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science (a collaboration with Aaron Parks and Matthew Stevens), released their debut album, Waiting Game, in November 2019 on Motema Music.
Waiting Game was nominated for a 2021 Grammy award and has been celebrated as one of the best jazz releases of 2019 by Rolling Stone, Downbeat, The Boston Globe, and Popmatters. Downbeat describes the album as, “a two-disc masterstroke on par with Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 hip-hop classic, ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’…” Carrington was named as JazzTimes Critics’ Poll Artist of the Year, Jazz Artist of the Year by The Boston Globe, and Jazz Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.
Website: www.terrilynecarrington.com
Terri Lyne Carrington, drums
Gerald Clayton, piano
Zach Brown, bass
Shea Rose, narrator and vocals
Joanna Teters, vocals
Asher Kurtz, guitar
Edmar Colon, flute and tenor
Eitan Gofman, flute
John Egizi, trombone
Grant Richards, keyboards
Sergio Martinez and Leonardo Osuna Sosa, percussion
Gabriela Jimeno, computers
November 20, 2012
Terri Lyne Carrington takes getting involved and seizing full advantage of all opportunities quite seriously.
The Grammy Award-winning drummer, composer and producer – famous for her all-female concept album, The Mosaic Project — reveals she didn’t realize how powerful her talents were at one point in her career. “I was playing at seven and a professional by age 10, and I didn’t really appreciate the experience,” she says. “Playing with Dizzy [Gillespie]and Ella [Fitzgerald] gives me more gratitude now. Appreciate all of your experiences – especially your teachers and mentors.”
Carrington – whose grandfather accompanied Fats Waller and Chuck Berry – was at Atlanta-area Pebblebrook High School last month curating a jazz clinic before the school’s music program pupils. The workshop was part of Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre’s ArtsBridge initiative. The musician’s immensely polyrhythmic, syncopated and melodic timekeeping stylings have accompanied Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, Cassandra Wilson, David Sanborn, George Duke, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau and Yellowjackets.
Terri Lyne Carrington Makes Music and a Difference
Jazz drummer Teri Lyne Carrington works with students in the community and as a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. (Jina Wilson/Joni Heart Photography)
The Grammy Award-winning drummer, composer and producer – famous for her all-female concept album, The Mosaic Project — reveals she didn’t realize how powerful her talents were at one point in her career. “I was playing at seven and a professional by age 10, and I didn’t really appreciate the experience,” she says. “Playing with Dizzy [Gillespie]and Ella [Fitzgerald] gives me more gratitude now. Appreciate all of your experiences – especially your teachers and mentors.”
Carrington – whose grandfather accompanied Fats Waller and Chuck Berry – was at Atlanta-area Pebblebrook High School last month curating a jazz clinic before the school’s music program pupils. The workshop was part of Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre’s ArtsBridge initiative. The musician’s immensely polyrhythmic, syncopated and melodic timekeeping stylings have accompanied Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, Cassandra Wilson, David Sanborn, George Duke, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau and Yellowjackets.
Carrington currently serves as a professor at Berklee College of Music, her alma mater in her native, Boston, where she received a full scholarship at age 11. Carrington shares Duke Ellington’s philosophy that jazz is “freedom of expression.” She adds that jazz musicians have to be disciplined and focused. “You definitely gotta have a certain set of vocabulary and a certain skill level to play it. Once you have that, it’s freedom. Jazz means freedom,” she says.
At the close of the town hall-styled clinic, Carrington performed with another young drummer. As Carrington performs her improvised set, she talks directly to the student and gives her full eye contact. The performer believes her experience serves as effective advice for the young students. “We have to give back or the music won’t continue,” Carrington says. “I’ve been there and done that. No one explained it to me. It’s trial and error especially when you’re dealing with the old school jazz cats. You just watch and listen. I tend to try and explain as much as I can just to see if I can help them a little quicker to their destination. I won’t say skip a beat but skip a step and maybe cut some of their journey a little bit shorter if they listen.”
The Arsenio Hall Show’s former house drummer later performed as part of Jazz Roots’“Ladies of Jazz” series, where she opens for Grammy-winning bassist Esperanza Spalding. Along with pianist Geri Allen, the jazz instrumentalists play in a trio, Allen Carrington Spalding (ACS). Carrington believes she and Spalding are kindred spirits. “We both think the same things are hip,” she says. “I always say we’re like minded. We tend to break up the time in similar ways. When we play together, I feel very much at home immediately. That’s a hard thing especially with a bass player. It’s kinda magical.”
Carrington sets a fine example to young performers. It marks yet another instance in which jazz musicians believe it is their duty to use their wisdom and gifts to guide the next generation into a brighter future. “Do whatever you can to really have a voice,” she says. “Try to be a part of your community. Try to be a part of your political scene. Do your share. We all enjoy and reap the benefits of work that so many other people have done, so it’s up to us to do something.”
Christopher A. Daniel is a pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine.
Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter
Like The Burton Wire on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @TheBurtonWire.com.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/terri-lyne-carrington-the-long-road-terri-lyne-carrington-by-rj-deluke.php
Terri Lyne Carrington: The Long Road
by R.J. DELUKE
April 22, 2013
AllAboutJazz
"Better Git It in Your Soul," a perspicacious jazz man once communicated in a song title more than half a century ago. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington wasn't even born yet, but she sure did have it in her soul upon arrival. Long before she was even aware of bassist Charles Mingus, the author of those words, she had "it." It was rhythm and she exuded it and fostered it at a very early age.
She played a show with trumpeter Clark Terry when she was 10. By the time she was 11 she had a Berklee scholarship. Having Jack DeJohnette as a mentor is monstrous, but in order to get to that position, the great drummer had to have seen something special.
For years now, she's been an in-demand drummer playing with all kinds of musicians, including pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. In more recent years, she's coming more into her own, developing strong recordings and getting high marks for producing as well; her 2011 Mosaic Project (Concord) won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Carrington is one of the finest drummers on the scene, full of fire and invention, with the flexibility to fit just about any situation. It appears she was born to do it.
"There are a lot of really strong young players now," she says, looking back to her beginnings. "My father always kids me, 'It's a good thing you came along when you did,' meaning there are so many young players that are great at a young age. But the thing that I say back is, 'If I came along now I would be better.' Better at 10 now than I was at 10 then. Because there's so much more information. Times have changed and people are assimilating things a lot faster. It's the way society's moving. Just the invention of the internet, everything is faster. People learn faster."
She's pursued music her whole life, with formal education and the inevitable lessons acquired from other musicians, many of them masters. She's in an important place where she not only instills something special into other people's bands and other recording projects when she chooses to do so, but stands on her own as a serious artist—not just drummer—who has a lot to say.
"My whole life, I haven't really done anything else [but music] and I have no desire to do anything else," Carrington says. "What's interesting to me is sometimes it takes that kind of lifelong dedication to something. Which most strong musicians have. It takes that lifelong dedication and perseverance to come into your own and for things to come into fruition. It's what I felt like with The Mosaic Project and Money Jungle (Concord, 2013). Finally, all the things that I've done are coming together. I'm able to make sense of it all in some way."
Terri Lyne Carrington—Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue
The latter reference is her album released this year, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue. It's a superlative record that revisits the renowned album made 50 years ago, Money Jungle (United Artists, 1963), when the beyond-category pianist Duke Ellington joined Mingus and drummer Max Roach, younger men who were playing bop and beyond, for a trio recording laced with blues and inherent swing. She chose, for her project, the indomitable Christian McBride on bass and the artistic and adroit Gerald Clayton on piano. Other artists appear here and there, but it's essentially a reinterpretation of many of the songs from the 1963 record. Not an imitation. More like inspiration.
Carrington first came upon the Ellington-Mingus-Roach record about 12 years ago in a record bin. She had never heard of it, even though it was among hundreds and hundreds of record her father had in his collection. "It was one that slipped past me," she notes. "Something about it. There was some magic about it that compelled me from the first time I heard it."
Some of the songs struck her as interesting enough to play, and she would incorporate the title track into set lists from time to time. Then, "One day I decided I wanted to cover this record. I don't know why, other than there was something magical and mystical that jumped out of that recording for me. I started hearing arrangements and things that I felt I could do with it." That included the feeling of the blues it exuded.
"To me, the blues thread is a big thread throughout all of that record, except maybe a couple songs. I'm talking about the newer songs. The ones [Ellington] recorded for that date, not 'Caravan' or 'Warm Valley.' I felt like that theme was important. I felt like [Ellington] was speaking to the people. The blues form is always a way to relay messages, traditionally. I won't say grassroots-based, but to me it was a record for the people. Max and Mingus were definitely radical guys. Guys that had no problem talking about what was going on during those times. To me, it was making a statement reflective of the times."
The approach she took to making her record was similar—for today, not a regurgitation. And it's successful. It has fresh sounds, intriguing interpretations. Bluesy and soulful and expertly carried out. Some tunes, like "Very Special," have a similar vibe to the original, though the individuality of the players carries the day. But Ellington's "Backward Country Boy Blues," introduced in 1963 by Mingus' resounding bass before Duke's heavy block chords, is a rumbling blues. On Provocative in Blue, Nir Felder's acoustic guitar and Lizz Wright's exotic voice open it with a backyard country feel before it moves into a contemporary, funky groove, where the voice serenely floats over a gorgeous pocket formed by Clayton, McBride and Carrington. There are also a couple Carrington originals, like the blues and sophisticated funk of "Grass Roots," and one from Clayton's pen.
Interspersed here and there are voice-over snippets of people like Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton and others commenting on the role of money in society—basically how there are still too many have-nots and not much is being done about it. But it is a subtle part of the record. The outstanding music is what it's all about.
Carrington says that kind of money-struggle theme "goes through every time period. It's as relevant now as it was then. It will be as relevant another 50 years from now. I wasn't trying to belabor a point. I think in general the people, that are listening to Money Jungle, are people that feel that way. I didn't want to feel preachy, or preaching to the choir. It's really just a statement of things the way they are and what we all probably know and believe anyway."
Listeners will also believe in what is being put down by this outstanding band. "Christian [McBride] was always the person that popped in my head when I thought about doing it," says the drummer. "To me, he has that sound and delivery that works. He's also a contemporary musician. Interestingly too, he really enjoyed doing the date and the variety of music that is on there. He doesn't like to be in a box, thought about as just one kind of musician. He grew up playing all styles and has demonstrated that over the course of his career."
"Gerald Clayton, to me, is a young pianist that is so steeped in tradition. I don't know who else, young or old, could have played 'Switch Blade' like Gerald, paying tribute to the original and how Duke played it, but putting his own thing in there and quoting some of the lines Duke played. It's really an amazing performance. I don't know anyone who could have done that any better, as well as playing a more contemporary sounding thing. He's very modern and at the same time steeped in tradition."
They all met the goal of keeping it fresh and being themselves. "That's how I hear things," says Carrington. "I don't see the real point in trying to do something like it was done [in the past], To me, it's not a challenge, it's the way I naturally do it. The challenge is taking something that Duke Ellington wrote, putting your spin on it and feeling OK about it."
As a follow-up to a Grammy, it's a strong statement from a musician entering her prime years, as a player, composer and producer. (She's currently producing a new recording for singer Dianne Reeves). She is proud of the Grammy, but her eyes and ears are pointed forward. "Over the course of my career it was nice to feel recognized in some way," she says of the award. "It helped me to feel validated, in a sense, as far as feeling like, 'OK. My ideas are good.' And just trying to make good art. It's encouraging."
Born in Medford, Mass., she played the drums for about two years before starting to take lessons at about age 9. Around the house, her father was playing blues and jazz like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff organ trios, saxophonist Gene Ammons, and James Brown, Aretha Franklin and other rhythm and blues singers. When she got the Berklee scholarship at age 11, she continued going to regular school, but once a week would go to classes at Berklee until she graduated high school.
But it wasn't all study. Her father, a saxophonist whose credits included playing with pianist Fats Waller, knew some of the musicians on the scene over the years, among them Clark Terry. The trumpeter heard the young girl play drums and invited her to play with him at an event in Kansas. "It was the Wichita Jazz Festival. He brought me and Dianne Reeves. That's where I met her. He brought us there as special guests with his band. He had a band with Louie Bellson [drums], George Duvivier [bass], Jimmy Rowles [piano],
After high school, Carrington went off to Berklee full time, then moved to New York City and started right in playing with Terry, who also appears briefly on the new Money Jungle recording, doing his Mumbles act, wordless vocalizing, on "Fleurette Africain." Adds Carrington, "He was the highlight for me [on the album]. It kind of brought my career full circle. My first professional gig was with Clark when I was 10. My first touring was with Clark when I was 18. For him to be on this CD was very special for me."
It was with the encouragement DeJohnette that she moved to New York in 1983. In the ensuing years, she worked with the likes of saxophonist James Moody and trumpeter Lester Bowie, among others. "He was my mentor," she says of the iconic drummer. "I started going to visit with him around 17. I would drive four hours from Boston and hang out there. When I moved to New York, I would still continue to go visit with him and his family. It was like a home away from home. He didn't really ever sit down and show me something on the drums. But he'd hear me play and give me pointers. He opened me up musically to a lot of things. A lot of times, we would play together. He would play piano and I would play drums. People would come by the house and we'd jam sometimes."
In the Big Apple, "I was playing around town. I started playing with the New York Jazz Quartet, [pianist] Sir Roland Hanna, [saxophonist] Frank Wess. [Saxophonist] Pharoah Sanders sometimes. A little bit with Lester Bowie. And my peers, a little bit older than me, like [saxophonist] Greg Osby, [pianist] Geri Allen, people like that. [Saxophonists] Steve Coleman and Gary Thomas, [trombonist] Robin Eubanks, [singer] Cassandra Wilson. We were all cutting our teeth in New York at the same time. Just gigging," she recalls. "The big change happened when I auditioned for Wayne Shorter. I got that job when I was 21. That was a pretty major change for me. It was great. It changed my life ... he's still a pioneer."
Herbie Hancock is another major influence. She first met him by going back stage after seeing him in concert. "Then sometime around 18 or 19, somebody called me and told me to call him. He said, '[trumpeter] Eddie Henderson told me you're bad.' We were talking a little bit. Nothing ever really came out of that other than he was aware of me and it was nice. Then, when I was with Wayne, I met him again and played with him a few times on odd gigs with Wayne," says Carrington.
The drummer played a fundraiser with Hancock, Shorter and [bassist] Stanley Clarke. Someone who heard the band booked them for a date in St. Lucia, "that felt like the biggest gig of my life," she said with a laugh. Around then, her Real Life Story album (Polygram, 1989) had come out and would be Grammy-nominated. She had also done a short stint with the house band on television's Arsenio Hall Show.
"So things were very good at the time," she says. "From there, I just started playing with Herbie.
Just prior to her job with Hancock, she was playing with saxophonist Stan Getz. A summer tour was planned, but Getz died. Carrington had turned down Natalie Cole's Unforgettable tour for that summer to play with the sax legend, and now found herself without work for the summer months. "Then Herbie asked if I could recommend any drummers for the summer. He was doing his hip-hop stuff. The budget wasn't very big at all. He's like, 'I have to take 12 people out and I'm still getting paid as if it was a trio.' He said, 'I don't want to ask you to do it, but if you know any young people, somebody that wants to do it that isn't expensive.' I was like, 'Man, I'm not working.'"
She did the gig anticipating it could grow into something more, which it did. After that, "We did Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998), which was a Grammy winner. Things were different. That started my longer association with him. I've played with him off and on for the better part of 10 years."
Of her tenure on Arsenio, she says, "It was great. It gave me national exposure. I was only on the show for four months, but most people think it was a lot longer. It was really a good thing for me. The thing is, you have to really like all styles. I played with Whitney Houston and Little Richard. People like that. New Kids on the Block; they were hot at the time. I enjoyed all that. When I did The Vibe TV show, a Quincy Jones production, I played with James Brown, Rick James, a lot of people I grew up listening to and loving their music. For me, all of those experiences were great. I don't look at them the same as playing with Herbie or Wayne, of course. It's just different. Stylistically different. I enjoy it. I love those styles too. I'm not looking at it as the most creative experience in the world."
And she is still growing as a drummer, influenced by everything around her. "Jack [DeJohnette] was definitely my biggest influence," she says of her approach to her instrument. "All the masters. All of them. But the one I keep returning to now, especially now that I'm teaching, is Roy Haynes. To me, he really changed things. Without Roy, there would be no Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette, who are people that also changed things. He's still out there. He's just a modern, modern, modern thinker. I still want to think like Roy Haynes. When I try to analyze what he's doing, he's really encompassed everything in his style. Analyzing him is a great teaching tool."
Carrington is at a point where she's always being called upon for her drumming abilities. But also, she has done production and songwriting collaborations with artists such as singers Gino Vannelli, Peabo Bryson, Reeves and others, including the song commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games, "Always Reach for Your Dreams," that featured Bryson. This past April 19, she was musical director for a benefit concert at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., honoring Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick and Valerie Simpson.
"The way I do it is kind of crazy," she said about wearing the hat of producer. "I'm in that world with Dianne [Reeves] right now. It's a different kind of record for her. I love it. It's like directing. Creating a vision that you share with the artist, and making all the right calls to try to make it happen. I think drummers make good producers. At least it seems like they have. Narada Michael Walden, Phil Collins, Lenny White. Different drummers have produced a lot of great music over the years. I think we have a natural instinct for it, somehow. You're controlling the arc and the shape of a band and a song. A song and a band are only as good as the drummer, in most cases. We're used to being in the driver's seat."
Carrington is in the driver's seat for a career that involves improvised music and segues into other styles that she enjoys. As for jazz, she says it's a music "that is ever evolving. I like all the different elements people are blending with it. When I go back and listen to [trumpeter] Miles Davis' classic quintet, to me, that style of music is never going to get better than that. I don't feel the need to do it, or listen to some of the young people trying to do that. I appreciate it when people do pay homage to the past like that. But I think it's beautiful how musicians have grown and evolved and developed with the influences of other styles. There's good and bad in everything. You just choose what you like. There's a lot more to choose from. I'm not stuck on any particular way it should or shouldn't be."
A life in music is a road that's always changing. It's a road that is not without its quick turns, accidents and maybe a bridge that might be temporarily impassable. Carrington continues to meet the challenges.
"It's funny, because I'm a teacher," she reflects. "My students, in their 20s, don't quite understand. I see it in some of them. But I want to look at them and say, 'It's a long road. You have at least another 20 years before you may even know who you are. Everybody's not like that, but a lot of us are."
Selected Discography:
Terri Lyne Carrington, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue (Concord Music Group, 2013)
Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society (Heads Up International, 2012)
Terri Lyne Carrington, The Mosaic Project (Concord Music Group, 2011)
Terri Lyne Carrington, More to Say (Real Life Story: Next Gen) (Koch Records, 2009)
Grace Kelly, Mood Changes (PAZZ Productions, 2009)
George Duke, In A Mellow Tone (Bizarre Planet Entertainment, 2006)
John Patitucci, Sketchbook (GRP, 2006)
Tineke Postma, For the Rhythm (215 Record, 2005)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Structure (ACT Music, 2004)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Jazz is a Spirit (ACT Music, 2004)
Wayne Shorter, Alegria (Verve, 2003)
Cassandra Wilson, Glamoured (Blue Note, 2003)
Greg Osby, Invisible Hand (Blue Note, 2000)
Michele Rosewoman, Quintessence (Enja, 2000)
Herbie Hancock, Gershwin's World (Verve, 1998)
Danilo Perez, Panamonk (GRP, 1996)
Dianne Reeves, Quiet After the Storm, (Blue Note, 1995)
James Moody, Moody's Party (Telarc, 1995)
Robin Eubanks, Different Perspectives (Polygram 1991)
John Scofield, Flat Out (Gramavision, 1989)
Terri Lyne Carrington, Real Life Story (Polygram, 1989)
Wayne Shorter, Joy Ryder (Columbia, 1988)
Terri Lyne Carrington - Dianne Reeves: Extended Drum Solo - PART I
Terri Lyne Carrington--Drums
Dianne Reeve--Vocals
Chris Severin--Bass
Renato Neto--Piano
"Love For Sale" (by Cole Porter)
Extended Drum Solo by Terri Lyne Carrington @ Jazz A Vienne in 1997...more Terri Lyne Carrington
Videos: DRUMMERWORLD:https://www.drummerworld.com/drummers...
June 20, 2017 Musicians Institute, in Hollywood, California, offers a comprehensive, hands-on education in contemporary music performance, recording, guitar making and music business. If you're serious about your music, your education, and your career, take a look around the site to see what MI has to offer, then contact us for more information about how we can help you reach your goals.
Teri Lynn Carrington--Drums
Kevin Eubanks--Guitar
Patrice Rushen--Piano
Keith Jones--Bass
Herbie Hancock's "Actual Proof" performed live in 2005 (featuring Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington. and Roy Hargrove)
Composition and arrangement by Herbie Hancock
HERBIE HANCOCK SEPTET:
Wackerhalle, Germany
This performance was part of a longer program documenting the festival that aired on Japanese television, titled "Volume 3 - Mainstream Night". The full program can be watched here:
For more than two decades, drummer, producer and vocalist Terri Lyne Carrington has crafted an eclectic brand of jazz that incorporates elements of bebop, soul, funk and much more. Since her debut in 1989, the GRAMMY®-nominated artist has established a reputation for assembling artists of varying styles and perspectives to create music that adheres to the traditions of jazz yet speaks to a much broader and more diverse audience. Carrington brings this same diverse sensibility to her new recording The Mosaic Project, an album that once again gathers a myriad of voices and crystallizes them into a multi-faceted whole that far outweighs the sum of its parts.
Herbie Hancock--Piano
Roy Hargrove--Trumpet and flugelhorn
Lionel Loueke--Guitar
Marcus Miller--Bass
Terri Lyne Carrington--Drums
Wah Wah Watson--Guitar
Munyungo Jackson--Percussion
Terri Lyne Carrington ''Money Jungle''
Jazzwoche Burghausen 2014
Wackerhalle, Germany
Tracklist:
1. Money Jungle
2. Fleurette Africain
3. Very Special
4. Wig Wise
5. Switch Blade
6. A Little Max
7. No Boxes
8. Come Sunday
9. Grass Root
TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON SEXTET:
Terri Lyne Carrington - drums
Aaron Goldberg - piano
Tia Fuller - soprano sax, alto sax, flute, narration
Antonio Hart - alto sax, flute
Claus Reichstaller - trumpet, flugelhorn
James Genus - bass
Terri Lyne Carrington "Money Jungle"
Live at 45. Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen,
Wackerhalle, Germany, March 27, 2014 ▶ Terri Lyne Carrington
Full Length Concerts - http://bit.ly/1NXQxSV ▶
Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen
Full Length Concerts: http://bit.ly/1BIsmTc
Terri Lyne Carrington's "Mosaic Project" Live in Tokyo:
Here's Terri Lyne Carrington's Mosaic Project performing three great tracks at Tokyo Jazz Festival 2010. This amazing band, and guests, are in brilliant form.
Terri Lyne Carrington: drums Esperanza Spalding: bass / vocals Helen Sung: piano / keys (track 1 & 3) Chihiro Yamanaka: piano / keys (track 2) Ingrid Jensen: trumpet Tineke Postma: sax Patricia Romania: vocals (track 3) Nona Hendryx: vocals (track 3)
1. Mosaic Triad (T. L. Carrington)
2. Forest Star (Chihiro Yamanaka)
3. I Sweat (Going Through the Motions) (Nona Hendryx)
This performance was part of a longer program documenting the festival that aired on Japanese television, titled "Volume 3 - Mainstream Night". The full program can be watched here: 
• Volume 3 "Mainstr...
For more than two decades, drummer, producer and vocalist Terri Lyne Carrington has crafted an eclectic brand of jazz that incorporates elements of bebop, soul, funk and much more. Since her debut in 1989, the GRAMMY®-nominated artist has established a reputation for assembling artists of varying styles and perspectives to create music that adheres to the traditions of jazz yet speaks to a much broader and more diverse audience. Carrington brings this same diverse sensibility to her new recording The Mosaic Project, an album that once again gathers a myriad of voices and crystallizes them into a multi-faceted whole that far outweighs the sum of its parts.
"Everything about this recording is about making a larger picture out of many various elements," says Carrington, who produced the 14-song set. "I assembled several friends - most of whom I've performed with in the past, and all of whom bring their own individual story - to help me create the big picture. For as talented as each of them are as individuals, when I put them all together, I have a much greater musical story - one that can be told in an interesting and compelling way."
Included on that list of friends are some of the most prominent female jazz artists of the last few decades: Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila E., Nona Hendryx, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen and several others. Carrington says the emergence of so many great female jazz artists is what finally makes an album like The Mosaic Project possible, more so now than in decades past.
Terri Lyne Carrington Tineke Postma Helen Sung Esperanza Spalding Ingrid Jensen live 2010:
TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON AND THE MOSAIC PROJECT:
Drums: Terri Lyne Carrington
Bass: Esperanza Spalding
Saxophone: Tineke Postma
Trumpet: Ingrid Jensen
Piano: Helen Sung
Terri Lyne Carrington "The Mosaic Project" y Dianne Reeves -
Jazz San Javier 2012 fragm. 2
September 19, 2012 00:00 - Body and Soul
10:40 - Will You Love Me Tomorrow
Terri Lyne Carrington - drums
Dianne Reeves - vocals
Tineke Postma - alto sax, soprano sax
Tia Fuller - alto sax, flute
Nir Felder - guitar
Helen Sung - piano, Rhodes
Joshua Hari Brozoski - bass
XV Festival Internacional Jazz San Javier July 14th 2012, Auditorio Parque Almansa, San Javier (Murcia)
Terri Lyne Carrington Interview by Monk Rowe - 1/9/2003 - Toronto, Canada
Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington talks about her musical upbringing, her strengths as a percussionist, and the role of practicality and spirituality in her career.
Zildjian American Drummer's Achievement Awards. Tribute to Roy Haynes with Terri Lyne Carrington, Danilo Perez and John Lockwood: PARTS ONE & TWO:
August 22, 2022 #Jazz #TerriLyneCarrington
A look into the creation and inspiration of Terri Lyne Carrington's forthcoming album, New Standards Vol. 1
Pre-order here:
Available on CD, LP, and streaming on September 16th, 2022
For the 2018 opening celebration of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, Terri Lyne Carrington asked her students to select and perform songs from the famed jazz Real Book - a compilation of lead sheets or scores of jazz standards - written by women composers. When she released there was only one in the entire book, Carrington, an NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winning virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, inter-disciplinary artist, activist and educator, who has worked tirelessly over the last decade to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in jazz, set out to shift the narrative.
Over the next several years, Carrington assembled New Standards (Hal Leonard Sept 2022) a book of the 101 jazz compositions written by women. new STANDARDS Vol. 1 captures 11 of these compositions.
This star-studded recording features special guests Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos and Somi, backed by a core section comprised of Carrington (drums), Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), and Matthew Stevens (guitar.) The record gives listeners a sense of this project’s vast range, with contemporary composers like harpist Brandee Younger’s “Respected Destroyer,” clarinetist Anat Cohen’s “Ima,” vocalist Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw It Away” as well as pieces by Gretchen Parlato, Carla Bley and more. The recordings - which range from vocal ballads to contemporary creative music - are inspired and adventurous and explore the limitless universe of jazz.
Terri Lyne Carrington began playing drums when she was seven, performed with pioneering jazz flugel hornist Clark Terry at ten, and was awarded a scholarship to the Berklee College Of Music at age eleven. Her list of credits includes the likes of Lester Bowie, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, David Sanborn, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Herbie Hancock. As a bandleader, Carrington’s triple decade spanning repertoire includes the Grammy award-winning album The Mosaic Project, Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue, and her Grammy-nominated set with Social Science titled Waiting Game. Carrington currently serves as Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington and Matthew Stevens, this album is only “Vol. 1”. Carrington’s goal is to record all 101 pieces from the new songbook that she’s created. #TerriLyneCarrington #Jazz
Premiered January 15, 2021 Women's History Month
The Checkout Live at Berklee presents professors from the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice in concert.
Terri Lyne Carrington (drums), Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Tia Fuller (sax) and more join students onstage for a performance captured on February 5th 2020. The program celebrates “new standards” by women composers.
Set list:
Pisces (Mary Lou Williams) (0:38)
Sympodial Sunflower (Kris Davis) (12:55)
Long Yellow Road (Toshiko Akyoshi) (21:00)
Queen Intuition (Tia Fuller) (30:00)
Choro (Maria Schneider) (40:00)
Higher Ground (Ingrid Jensen) (46:00)
10 Minutes Until Closing (Linda May Han Oh) (57:39)
Samsara (Terri Lyne Carrington) (1:07:26)
If That's True (Esperanza Spalding)
Unconditional Love (Geri Allen) (1:28:00)
BERKLEE ENSEMBLE:
Terri Lyne Carrington, drums
Linda May Han Oh, bass
Kris Davis, piano
Tia Fuller, saxophone
Elena Pinderhughes, flute
Milena Fauquet, flugelhorn
Nadia Washington, vocals
Berklee Student Performers Devon Gates, bass Ivanna Gonzalez, drums Roni Kaspi, drums Francesca Castro, guitar Hatsune Hirakura, piano Camila Cortina Bello, piano Anastassiya Petrova, keyboards Recorded at Cafe 939, The Red Room at Berklee College of Music.
February 4, 2016
Who said girls can't play the drums?
Veteran drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, accompanied by four emerging musicians, highlights her life and performs a musical improvisation in conjunction with an original poem, “I Am the Drums," which alludes to the drums as a metaphor for a more balanced, more harmonious way of living. She asks us to consider the possibility of an inner drummer in everyone.
Terri Lyne Carrington-drums
Mao Sone - trumpet
Andrew Marzotto - guitar
Mats Sandahl - bass
Negah Santos - percussion
Terri Lyne Carrington is a 3-time Grammy Award winning jazz drummer and producer. She received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at age 11, and later became the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate from the college as well. She has performed with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Al Jarreau, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, Stan Getz, Lalah Hathaway, Dianne Reeves and more; she is currently Zildjian Chair in Performance at Berklee College of Music's Global Jazz Institute. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Terri Lyne Carrington has remained a powerhouse drummer in jazz since the 1980s but has also vigorously turned her attention over the last 15 years to empowering the next generation. With outstanding versatility, she excels as a composer, bandleader, producer, and educator. Additionally, she is the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, created to address gender equity in the jazz field and the role that jazz can play in the comprehensive struggle for social justice.More information: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/terr... Visit the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Fellowships section to learn more about the recipients of our nation’s highest honor in jazz: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz
