Terri Lyne Carrington is the curator of The Carr Center and Midtown Detroit’s Jazz Crawl on October 14-28th. The New Standards Jazz Crawl, Shifting The Narrative: Jazz and Gender Justice kicks off its inaugural series of free concerts at eight of the city’s cultural and educational institutions this month. Carrington, who is also a Grammy-winning jazz drummer and composer is among the list of performers that includes vocalists Lisa Fischer, Carmen Lundy, Jazzmeia Horn, Lizz Wright, Daryn Dean, and Charenée Wade, saxophonists Tia Fuller, Nicole Glover, and Camille Thurman, bassists Linda May Han Oh and Marian Hayden, pianists Andy Milne and Paul Cornish, drummers Susie Ibarra and Savannah Harris, flutist Nicole Mitchell, percussionist JoVia Armstrong, guitarist Matthew Stevens, and The Gathering Orchestra Nonet. 

The Jazz Crawl is part of The Carr Center’s yearlong 30th-anniversary celebration and the opening of the new Carr Center performance studio. Oliver Ragsdale Jr. President and CEO of The Carr Center says, “The opening of the Performance Studio is the pinnacle of our anniversary celebration. As we move closer to the opening, we are honored to work closely with partners Midtown Detroit Inc., and our Artistic Director Terri Lyne Carrington, who is not only expanding her artistry with compelling publications, visual arts, and film, but she continues to provide high-level and innovating programming and is a great collaborator for the Carr Center.” 

The New Standards Installation opens on October 14th and is a four-part interdisciplinary look at jazz through the lens of gender equality. There are works created by jazz artists Cécile McCLorin Salvant, Carmen Lundy and Jazzmeia Horn and contributions from visual artists Monica Haslip, Joe Diggs, Yesmin Tosuner and Ramsess. Sherry Rubel has a portrait of 30 influential women instrumentalists and Lizz Wright will present a recipe inspired by the New Standards theme. 

Carrington’s first-ever children’s book Three Of A Kind will be introduced. The story revolves around the musical partnership of comprised of Carrington, the late Geri Allen, and Esperanza Spalding (ACS Trio). The book is written by Carrington, illustrated by Ramsess and designed to inspire young women to play instruments. The installation also includes a New Standards film documenting the creators, and the purpose of the book and album. 

On Friday, October 14th the Carr Center will present a panel discussion, “Jazz and Gender: Forging a New Legacy” with scholar and cultural icon Angela Davis; and educators and authors Gina Dent and Robin D.G. Kelly, along with Carrington at the Carr Center Performance Studio.

On Saturday, October 15, the Carr Center will present a Professional Development Master Class with Carrington for band directors and band leaders to engage with her and other composers featured in her new book.

Carrington has promoted equality in the arts since founding the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice in 2018. Last month the Berklee Press debuted her book New Standard: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers. The book brings light to compositions not usually thought of as jazz standards from composers like Lil’ Hardin Armstrong, Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, Dianne Reeves, Geri Allen, Cécile McClorin Salvant, Maria Schneider, Cassandra Wilson, Nubya Garcia, Esperanza Spalding, Mary Halvorson, Nicole Mitchell and the recently departed Jamie Branch. 

In addition to the book, Carrington’s new STANDARDS vol.1 album was just released. 

For more information about the Jazz Crawl check out The Carr Center site. 

Tune in tonight at 8 PM ET to meet the women of TWIST (Tuff Women In Strange Times) during a live stream. Patti Austin created the group of women artists to remind voters, especially women of the power they have to make a difference. Chaka Khan, Lisa Fischer, Lalah Hathaway,Dee Dee Bridgewater, India.Arie, Brenda Russell, Ledisi and Siedah Garrett have all made videos to share who the women are that inspired them to vote. Sheila E. and Terri Lyne Carrington provided music for the vignettes that have been airing daily. Tanika Ray will host the live stream tonight and there will be a special appearance from Angela Davis. Viewers are encouraged to use #WeAreTWIST2020 on social media. 

Streaming Sources:

Chaka Khan, Ledisi, Sheila E., Lisa Fischer, Dee Dee Bridgewater, India.Arie, Lalah Hathaway, Patti Austin, Terri Lyne Carrington, Siedah Garrett and Brenda Russell have formed TWIST(Tuff Women In Strange Times) a supergroup of women artists to rally voter participation for the 2020 election. Activist, author and professor Angela Davis will appear in a series of videos encouraging voting under the TWIST2020 banner. The campaign has started with a video of the late Maya Angelou and it can be viewed at www.twist2020.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There will be a live event on October 20th titled This Is Why I Vote at 8PM ET that can be viewed on www.twist2020.com, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Viewers are encouraged to use #WeAreTWIST2020 on social media. 

TWIST2020 will feature daily portraits from each artist regarding the theme “This Is Why I Vote?” referencing the women who inspired them to take political action. Sheila E. and Terri Lyne Carrington created music for each video in the series. There will also be an all-star video version of the song “L.O.V.E.(Let One Voice Emerge)” previously composed and recorded by Austin, Garrett and others for the Voter Participation Center voter registration campaign in 2013.   

Austin, who is the brainchild behind TWIST, says the campaign is to remind voters particularly women of the historic power they have to make a difference especially in light of September 18, 2020, passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She says, “We’ve all got incredible stories about a school teacher, our mother, or her mother, or just other powerful women that influence our lives. We’ve got this election coming up. We have the power of the world in our hands, given to us by the women who came before us.”

Patti Austin, Tammy McCrary, Julie Bergman and Gwendolyn Quinn are the producers of TWIST2020. 

Terri Lyne Carrington made a lot of musical dreams come true on her Mosaic Project: Love And Soul album by collaborating with some of her favorite songstresses including Chaka Khan. Carrington sent Khan a demo of her singing the pop and jazz standard  “I’m A Fool To Want You” co-written by Frank Sinatra and initially recorded by him and then covered by others including Billie Holiday. Khan heard the demo and decided  to contribute her legendary voice to the album and she was already a fan of Holiday’s version. The end result is a contemporary version of the song that creates a comfortable bridge between R&B and jazz.