Drummer, composer, producer and clinician, Terri Lyne Carrington has been at the top of the music industry for almost 25 years, collaborating with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, George Duke, Dianne Reeves, and numerous others. She recently returned to her hometown where she received an honorary doctorate from Berklee in 2003, and was appointed professor at Berklee, her alma mater. Carrington also is Artistic Director of The Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival.
Terri Lyne has recorded an ensemble CD with some of the world's top musicians, performing music that celebrates different aesthetics in music and in life. The Mosaic Project is a celebration of female artists with Terri Lyne being joined by some of today's most celebrated female instrumentalists and vocalists in the world, 'women with voices,' coming together to support and celebrate each other from a musical and social perspective.
Terri Lyne is joined by Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nona Hendryx, Cassandra Wilson, Esperanza Spalding, Helen Sung, Tineke Postma, Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen, Ingrid Jensen, Sheila E., and Gretchen Parlato.
The CD includes music from several of the artists with instrumental and vocal tracks, commenting on historical and current themes/issues with the intent to offer an informative, enjoyable, listening experience, driven by creativity and consciousness. As with the mosaic art technique, the idea was for this project to vibrantly connect colorful pieces together to create something integral, using thoroughly composed song forms, some abstract improvising, and also the human voice - creating 'sharp shapes, with blurred edges.'
The Mosaic Project is a beautiful gathering of great female artists, yet the beauty is also in the fact that you don't hear gender. You hear many strong musical ideas based in jazz, performed on the highest of levels. For me there is magic in every piece because of the incredible line up of players and guest artists. Though it is my project, it is the personalities, the lives, and the talent of all of these women that make this project so special and indeed a group offering and unique statement we made together based on common, yet diverse, points of view.
These are my friends, mostly old friends, and some new friends ... and this is a mosaic of colors, shapes and textures, making a picture that I hope is informative and enjoyable to our fans."
The Mosaic Project is cross generational, cross cultural and 'cross genre' in nature, which is pertinent because jazz has increasingly pollinated, allowing it's language to metamorphose into something one group of people alone cannot claim.
