Terri Lyne Carrington
Encyclopedia
Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz
legends Dizzy Gillespie
, Stan Getz
, Clark Terry
, Herbie Hancock
, Wayne Shorter
, Joe Sample
, Al Jarreau
, Yellowjackets
, and many more. For example, she has toured with each of Hancock's musical configurations (from electric to acoustic) between 1997 and 2007.
In 2007 she was appointed professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music
, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2003.
Carrington also serves as Artistic Director of the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival.
which had belonged to her grandfather, Matt Carrington, who had played with Fats Waller
and Chuck Berry
. After studying privately for three years, she played her first major performance at the Wichita Jazz Festival with Clark Terry
. At age 11 she received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music
. At 12 years old she was profiled on the PBS kids' biography program Rebop.
At Berklee College of Music she played with leading musicians such as Kevin Eubanks
, Donald Harrison
, Greg Osby
and others. She also studied under master drum instructor Alan Dawson and made a private recording entitled, TLC and Friends, with Kenny Barron
, Buster Williams
, George Coleman and her father, Sonny Carrington, before turning 17.
Throughout high school she traveled across the country doing clinics at various schools and colleges.
, Carrington moved to New York, where she worked with Stan Getz
, James Moody
, Lester Bowie
, Pharoah Sanders
, Cassandra Wilson
, David Sanborn
, and others.
In the late 1980s 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 1990s as the drummer on the late night TV show "VIBE
", hosted by Sinbad. In 1996 she collaborated with Peabo Bryson
on "Always Reach For Your Dreams," a song commissioned for the 1996 Olympic Games.
, Wayne Shorter
, Grover Washington, Jr.
, Gerald Albright
, John Scofield
, Hiram Bullock
, Patrice Rushen
, Greg Osby
, and Dianne Reeves
, Jazz is a Spirit, her 2002 European CD featuring Herbie Hancock
, Wallace Roney
, Terence Blanchard
, Kevin Eubanks
and Gary Thomas
, and Structure, her 2004 European CD with Jimmy Haslip
, Greg Osby
and Adam Rogers
. Also, after a 20 year hiatus from U.S. recording, Carrington released the 2009 CD More to Say ... Real Life Story: NextGen, a sequel to her 1989 debut "Real Life Story" CD. The album features legends Nancy Wilson
and Les McCann
, George Duke
, Kirk Whalum
, Everette Harp
, Christian McBride
, Jimmy Haslip
, Greg Phillinganes
, Robert Irving III
, Patrice Rushen
, Chuck Loeb
, Walter Beasley
, Anthony Wilson
, Lawrence Fields, Ray Fuller, Dwight Sills, Lori Perry and Chris Walker ... with a special appearance by Sonny Carrington. Most of the 15 tracks on the CD are written or co-written by Carrington. In 2011, Carrington again brings her 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. The Mosaic Project, Carrington’s fifth album overall and her first on Concord Jazz, is scheduled for release on July 19, 2011.
“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 artists of the last few decades, including: Dianne Reeves
, Dee Dee Bridgewater
, Cassandra Wilson
, Nona Hendryx
, Patrice Rushen
, Sheila E, Geri Allen
, Tineke Postma, Ingrid Jensen
, Helen Sung
, Gretchen Parlato
, and Esperanza Spalding
, who in 2011 won the Award for "Best New Artist" at the 53rd Grammy Awards (making her the first jazz artist to win the award). Carrington says the emergence of so many great female artists is what finally makes an album like The Mosaic Project possible, more so now than in decades past.
“If I had tried to do something like this in the past – like when I started playing 25 years ago – I might have felt limited by the pool of available musicians,” she says. “But now there are so many talented women whom I’ve been playing with anyway – not just because they’re women but because I love the way they play. So it has become easier to do a special project that celebrates the artistry and the musicality of these women.”
The Mosaic Project opens with “Transformation,” a song written and sung by Nona Hendryx that examines the constant state of flux and change that exists throughout nature and the universe. “This is completely different from Nona’s original version,” says Carrington. “Some people wouldn’t even recognize it, but this song resonates with me - so much so that I started hearing other music around her original melody with moments of Wayne Shorter’s influence peeking through.”
Gretchen Parlato
takes the mike on a sensual rendition of Irving Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms,” and follows immediately with setting up the intro on a jazzy and slightly revved up rendition of the McCartney/Lennon’s classic love ballad, “Michelle.” The latter is consistent with Carrington’s recurring tradition of inserting Beatles covers into various albums.
Further in, the shimmering and melodic “Magic and Music” is a track that evolved over time and ultimately came together as a tribute to the late soul legend Teena Marie
. “I had written the music a while ago, but the lyrics are new. I wrote the lyrics as a tribute to Teena, who was a friend of mine. Any real fan of hers – anyone who really knows her music – will recognize that this song is all about her.
The politically and emotionally charged “Echo,” a song by Bernice Johnson Reagon of the all-female, African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, is the powerful centerpiece to the album. Carrington’s arrangement for the song, which came together a couple years ago to celebrate the honorary doctorate that Reagon received from Berklee College of Music in 2009, opens with a thought provoking introduction by civil rights activist Angela Davis
, then moves into a stirring vocal feature by Dianne Reeves. “Bernice was a major influence on my development as a young woman in the late ‘80s, as was Dianne and Angela, and I wanted to pay tribute to them because their music, activism, friendship and humanity were all strong influences on me personally.”
Other noteworthy tracks in the latter half of the sequence include a seductive cover of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful,” with warm and sensual vocals by Cassandra Wilson; the percussive yet soaring “Unconditional Love,” written by Geri Allen
and sung by Esperanza Spalding; and Spalding’s own whimsical and syncopated “Crayola,” which appears just a couple tracks later.
Dee Dee Bridgewater delivers the vocal line on “Soul Talk,” a piece written by Carrington and Hendryx and arranged with an elastic rhythm and a fascinating instrumental mix. The churning “Mosaic Triad,” another Carrington composition, vacillates between bebop and funk, and in the process sets up a rich sonic pallet that forces the listener to engage and take notice. “Show Me a Sign,” written by Carmen Lundy, is the deceptive closer - melodic on one hand, yet infused with a sense of urgency by the persistent rumble of drums that underscores the entire track.
With so many individual voices and perspectives in the mix, the results are often eye-opening and ear-opening. “There’s one part of me that’s kind of a jazz head who likes complex, thought provoking melodies and harmonies,” she says. “And then there’s another part of me that really likes funk and pop and things that are accessible. This record is another chance for me to assemble all of these great musicians to help me combine those different aspects of myself – those different pieces – and create something special in the process."
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
legends Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Joe Sample
Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...
, Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
, Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets
Yellowjackets is an American jazz fusion/smooth jazz quartet.-History:The original group, called The Robben Ford Group, was formed in 1977, and consisted of Robben Ford, Russell Ferrante, Jimmy Haslip and Ricky Lawson, all top-notch L.A. session musicians...
, and many more. For example, she has toured with each of Hancock's musical configurations (from electric to acoustic) between 1997 and 2007.
In 2007 she was appointed professor at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2003.
Carrington also serves as Artistic Director of the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival.
Childhood
At 7, Carrington was given a set of drumsDrum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
which had belonged to her grandfather, Matt Carrington, who had played with Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
and Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
. After studying privately for three years, she played her first major performance at the Wichita Jazz Festival with Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
. At age 11 she received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. At 12 years old she was profiled on the PBS kids' biography program Rebop.
At Berklee College of Music she played with leading musicians such as Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...
, Donald Harrison
Donald Harrison
Donald Harrison, Jr. is an American jazz saxophonist from New Orleans, Louisiana.-Biography:Harrison studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Berklee College of Music. He played with Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Terence Blanchard and Don Pullen in the...
, Greg Osby
Greg Osby
Greg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
and others. She also studied under master drum instructor Alan Dawson and made a private recording entitled, TLC and Friends, with Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...
, Buster Williams
Buster Williams
Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...
, George Coleman and her father, Sonny Carrington, before turning 17.
Throughout high school she traveled across the country doing clinics at various schools and colleges.
Professional career
In 1983, encouraged by her mentor, Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...
, Carrington moved to New York, where she worked with Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
, Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the AACM, and cofounded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.-Biography:...
, Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
, Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
, David Sanborn
David Sanborn
David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
, and others.
In the late 1980s she relocated to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for "The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show
The Arsenio Hall Show is an American variety/talk show that aired late weeknights in syndication from January 3, 1989 to May 27, 1994. The show was created and hosted by comedian/actor Arsenio Hall.- Background :...
", then again in the late 1990s as the drummer on the late night TV show "VIBE
VIBE
Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers...
", hosted by Sinbad. In 1996 she collaborated with Peabo Bryson
Peabo Bryson
Peabo Bryson is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, born in Greenville, South Carolina...
on "Always Reach For Your Dreams," a song commissioned for the 1996 Olympic Games.
Bandleader
As a bandleader, for more than two decades, Carrington has crafted an eclectic brand of jazz that incorporates elements of bebop, soul, funk and much more. She 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. She has toured the United States, Europe and Japan performing her own music. Notably, in recent years, she has included Esperanza Spalding, Geri Allen, Helen Sung, James Genus, Bob Hurst, Patrice Rushen, Tineke Postma, Ingrid Jensen, Nona Hendryx, Chihiro, Everette Harp, Greg Phillinganes, Lori Perry, Robert Irving III, Dwight Sills, Lawrence Fields, Randy Runyon, Gary Thomas, Aruan Ortiz, and Munyungo Jackson in her band configurations. In Summer 2011, she appeared with Wayne Shorter (with John Pattituci and Danilo Perez) in South America, and is the Musical Director of the international "Sing The Truth" Tour ... featuring Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo (with Romero Lubambo, Geri Allen, James Genus and Munyungo Jackson).Recording artist
As a recording artist, in 1988 Carrington started concentrating her efforts on writing and producing her own works ... resulting in Real Life Story, her 1989 Grammy-nominated debut CD featuring Carlos SantanaCarlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
, Gerald Albright
Gerald Albright
Gerald Albright is an American jazz saxophonist.Albright has sold over 1,000,000 albums in the U.S. alone. His self-produced music features him on bass guitar, keyboards, flutes, drum programming, and background vocals.- Biography :...
, John Scofield
John Scofield
John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...
, Hiram Bullock
Hiram Bullock
Hiram Law Bullock was an American jazz funk and jazz fusion guitarist.He was born in Osaka, Japan to African American parents serving in the U.S. Military. At the age of two he returned to Baltimore, Maryland with his parents, and quickly showed a prodigious musical talent...
, Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Greg Osby
Greg Osby
Greg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
, and Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...
, Jazz is a Spirit, her 2002 European CD featuring Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney
Wallace Roney is an American hard bop and post-bop trumpeter.Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis from 1985 until the latter's death in 1991...
, Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
, Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Eubanks
Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...
and Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
, and Structure, her 2004 European CD with Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
, Greg Osby
Greg Osby
Greg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
and Adam Rogers
Adam Rogers
Adam Rogers is an American guitarist specializing in post bop, contemporary jazz, and classical music. Rogers has had a prolific and extensive session history as a recording guitarist having played on over 150 commercially released recordings...
. Also, after a 20 year hiatus from U.S. recording, Carrington released the 2009 CD More to Say ... Real Life Story: NextGen, a sequel to her 1989 debut "Real Life Story" CD. The album features legends Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson may refer to:* Nancy Wilson , American jazz singer and actress* Nancy Wilson , American singer and guitar player, member of the band Heart...
and Les McCann
Les McCann
Les McCann is an American soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul.-Biography:...
, George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
, Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum is an American smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. He toured as Whitney Houston's opening act for several years. Whalum has also recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to R&B to smooth jazz...
, Everette Harp
Everette Harp
Everette Harp , is an African American blues, jazz and gospel saxophonist who has recorded on Blue Note and Capitol Records. Harp's 2006 album, In the Moment, debuted in the number one position of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart.-Biography:Everette Harp started playing piano at two, and began...
, Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
, Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes is an active session keyboardist in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan....
, Robert Irving III
Robert Irving III
Robert Irving III is an American pianist, composer, arranger and music educator.A native of Chicago, Irving was one of a group of young Chicago musicians that in the late '70s and early '80s formed the nucleus of Miles Davis' recording and touring bands...
, Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Chuck Loeb
Chuck Loeb
Chuck Loeb is a guitarist who performs numerous styles of music, most notably jazz. Loeb's own solo projects have generally been commercially successful crossover jazz, which has "contemporary" or "smooth" jazz....
, Walter Beasley
Walter Beasley
Walter Beasley is an American saxophonist, a professor of music at the Berklee College of Music, and founder of Affable Publishing and Affable Records.-Biography:Beasley grew up in El Centro, California...
, Anthony Wilson
Anthony Wilson
Anthony Wilson is a jazz guitarist and composer. He is the son of bandleader Gerald Wilson.- Education and career :Born in Los Angeles on May 9, 1968, Wilson received his degree in music composition from Bennington College. He counts Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Wes Montgomery, and T-Bone Walker...
, Lawrence Fields, Ray Fuller, Dwight Sills, Lori Perry and Chris Walker ... with a special appearance by Sonny Carrington. Most of the 15 tracks on the CD are written or co-written by Carrington. In 2011, Carrington again brings her 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. The Mosaic Project, Carrington’s fifth album overall and her first on Concord Jazz, is scheduled for release on July 19, 2011.
Entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, Carrington is a partner in Hebert-Carrington Media (HCM). Founded in 2007 and based in Atlanta, Boston, New Jersey, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, HCM's origins can be traced to the long-term relationships with company co-founder: Robert A. Hebert, Esq., High Tech entrepreneurs Frank White, Jr. and Dr. Bernard Yaged, and top Media and Communications advisor Don Lucoff of DL Media. HCM is focused on new business models for the communications and media industry, with the mission of exploring the right, flexible combinations of art and commerce to ensure it will thrive in the emerging New Media industry environment. Through its HCM Digital Team, the company can meet its vision of creating, producing, marketing, selling and delivering timeless, entertaining and informative media via all existing communications channels. HCM has relationships with Concord Music, E1 Entertainment, Pony Canyon (Japan), Video Arts Music (Japan), Herbie Hancock, Toninho Horta, Oscar Castro-Neves, Arthur Maia, Romero Lubambo, Robert Irving III, Mitchel Forman, Helen Sung, Darryl Jones, and Vince Wilburn/Miles Davis Properties. Through its label brands, e.g., GrooveJazz Media, over several years HCM has carefully organized the requisite creative, business and technical infrastructure needed to deliver world-class media authored by highly creative artists. The company's mission includes the development of young talent in Brazil and the U.S.The Mosaic Project (2011)
The Mosaic Project assembles an all-female all-star cast.“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 artists of the last few decades, including: Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves
Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...
, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...
, Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
, Nona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx
Nona Hendryx is an American vocalist, producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress.Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Marmalade." Her music has ranged from soul, funk, dance, and R&B to hard rock, art...
, Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen is a Grammy Award-winning African American R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, Sheila E, Geri Allen
Geri Allen
Geri Allen is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette,...
, Tineke Postma, Ingrid Jensen
Ingrid Jensen
Ingrid Jensen is a Canadian jazz trumpet player.Jensen is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and Malaspina University in Nanaimo, British Columbia. She has been nominated for several Juno awards, winning one with her first release, Vernal Fields...
, Helen Sung
Helen Sung
- History :Sung is a native of Houston, Texas. Her musical life began with classical piano and violin. She attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and went on to receive undergraduate and master's degrees in classical piano performance at the University of Texas at...
, Gretchen Parlato
Gretchen Parlato
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....
, and Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions...
, who in 2011 won the Award for "Best New Artist" at the 53rd Grammy Awards (making her the first jazz artist to win the award). Carrington says the emergence of so many great female artists is what finally makes an album like The Mosaic Project possible, more so now than in decades past.
“If I had tried to do something like this in the past – like when I started playing 25 years ago – I might have felt limited by the pool of available musicians,” she says. “But now there are so many talented women whom I’ve been playing with anyway – not just because they’re women but because I love the way they play. So it has become easier to do a special project that celebrates the artistry and the musicality of these women.”
The Mosaic Project opens with “Transformation,” a song written and sung by Nona Hendryx that examines the constant state of flux and change that exists throughout nature and the universe. “This is completely different from Nona’s original version,” says Carrington. “Some people wouldn’t even recognize it, but this song resonates with me - so much so that I started hearing other music around her original melody with moments of Wayne Shorter’s influence peeking through.”
Gretchen Parlato
Gretchen Parlato
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....
takes the mike on a sensual rendition of Irving Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms,” and follows immediately with setting up the intro on a jazzy and slightly revved up rendition of the McCartney/Lennon’s classic love ballad, “Michelle.” The latter is consistent with Carrington’s recurring tradition of inserting Beatles covers into various albums.
Further in, the shimmering and melodic “Magic and Music” is a track that evolved over time and ultimately came together as a tribute to the late soul legend Teena Marie
Teena Marie
Mary Christine Brockert, better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer...
. “I had written the music a while ago, but the lyrics are new. I wrote the lyrics as a tribute to Teena, who was a friend of mine. Any real fan of hers – anyone who really knows her music – will recognize that this song is all about her.
The politically and emotionally charged “Echo,” a song by Bernice Johnson Reagon of the all-female, African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, is the powerful centerpiece to the album. Carrington’s arrangement for the song, which came together a couple years ago to celebrate the honorary doctorate that Reagon received from Berklee College of Music in 2009, opens with a thought provoking introduction by civil rights activist Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
, then moves into a stirring vocal feature by Dianne Reeves. “Bernice was a major influence on my development as a young woman in the late ‘80s, as was Dianne and Angela, and I wanted to pay tribute to them because their music, activism, friendship and humanity were all strong influences on me personally.”
Other noteworthy tracks in the latter half of the sequence include a seductive cover of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful,” with warm and sensual vocals by Cassandra Wilson; the percussive yet soaring “Unconditional Love,” written by Geri Allen
Geri Allen
Geri Allen is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette,...
and sung by Esperanza Spalding; and Spalding’s own whimsical and syncopated “Crayola,” which appears just a couple tracks later.
Dee Dee Bridgewater delivers the vocal line on “Soul Talk,” a piece written by Carrington and Hendryx and arranged with an elastic rhythm and a fascinating instrumental mix. The churning “Mosaic Triad,” another Carrington composition, vacillates between bebop and funk, and in the process sets up a rich sonic pallet that forces the listener to engage and take notice. “Show Me a Sign,” written by Carmen Lundy, is the deceptive closer - melodic on one hand, yet infused with a sense of urgency by the persistent rumble of drums that underscores the entire track.
With so many individual voices and perspectives in the mix, the results are often eye-opening and ear-opening. “There’s one part of me that’s kind of a jazz head who likes complex, thought provoking melodies and harmonies,” she says. “And then there’s another part of me that really likes funk and pop and things that are accessible. This record is another chance for me to assemble all of these great musicians to help me combine those different aspects of myself – those different pieces – and create something special in the process."
Partial discography
- Real Life Story (1989)
- Jazz is a Spirit (2002)
- Structure (2004)
- More to Say (2009)
- Mosaic Project (2011)