New Standards Vol. 1 Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Nicholas Payton, Matthew Stevens

• 1 Wind Flower 04:27
• 2 Circling 06:02
• 3 Uplifted Heart 06:47
• 4 Moments 04:41
• 5 Continental Cliff 04:48
• 6 Throw It Away 05:50
• 7 Respected Destroyer 05:29
• 8 Two Hearts (Lawns) 04:41
• 9 Unchanged 04:19
• 10 Ima 05:30
• 11 Rounds (Live) 08:03
• Total Runtime 01:00:37

Info for New Standards Vol. 1

The drummer's female-focused album is the antithesis of angry protest: great tunes, instinctive arrangements, harmonic richness, stellar input.

Interdisciplinary artist, activist and educator Terri Lyne Carrington releases New Standards, an ambitious new endeavor created to uplift the voices of women composers. New Standards arrives in the form of a groundbreaking lead sheet book of jazz compositions published by Berklee Press/Hal Leonard, a newly recorded album of 11 selections from the songbook featuring an all-star band and superb line-up of special guests.

The album new STANDARDS – vol. 1 is out today on the relaunched Candid Records label, featuring recordings of 11 selections from the New Standards lead sheets book. Carrington (on drums) is joined by a core band of Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), and Matthew Stevens (guitar and co-producer) and welcomes special guests Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos and Somi.

Curated by Carrington, the New Standards lead sheets book features 101 compositions from a remarkable range of acknowledged titans, young visionaries and unsung heroes in jazz: Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, esperanza spalding, Geri Allen, Maria Schneider, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Dorothy Ashby, Nubya Garcia, Nicole Mitchell — plus many composers from the global world of jazz, including Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, Japanese American pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, and many more.

New Standards is a continuation of Terri Lyne’s tireless work to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of gender minorities in jazz. The project is the first initiative for Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice — which Carrington formed in 2018 — and a new chapter for the larger Jazz Without Patriarchy Project. New Standards was born out of necessity, after Carrington was prompted to search for women composers in the infamous Real Book of jazz charts, and to her dismay, found virtually none. The project offers an alternative to the accepted jazz standards canon that has served students, teachers and professionals for decades.

Following the release of the album and book this September, Detroit’s Carr Center will host New Standards as the first part of the forthcoming larger exhibition Shifting the Narrative: Jazz and Gender Justice, from October 13 to November 27. Curated by Carrington, it will feature live performances, panel discussions, a photo exhibit, archival material and artwork created by many contemporary jazz artists on the theme of “new standards” as well as the installation’s three other sections: The Female and Non-binary Gaze, Invisible Labor, and Geri Allen and Mary Lou Williams In Conversation.

Terri Lyne Carrington, drums
Kris Davis, piano
Linda May Han Oh, bass
Nicholas Payton, trumpet
Matthew Stevens, guitar
Guests:
Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet (track 11)
Melanie Charles, vocals (track 6)
Ravi Coltrane, saxophone (track 3)
Val Jeanty, electronics (track 3)
Samara Joy, vocals (track 8)
Julian Lage, guitar (tracks 1, 2, 10)
Michael Mayo, vocals (track 2)
Elena Pinderhughes, flute (tracks 1, 3, 7)
Dianne Reeves, vocals (track 4)
Negah Santos, percussion (tracks 2, 3, 6, 10)
Somi, vocals (track 6)

Terri Lyne Carrinton
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.

This album contains no booklet.