a day ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘We Insist 2025!' Review: Terri Lyne Carrington's Reimagining
At Manhattan's Smoke jazz club in March, Terri Lyne Carrington looked up from her drum set. She described for the audience her relationship to the late, great drummer Max Roach, which began in her childhood through her father, the Boston-based saxophonist Matt 'Sonny' Carrington. 'Whenever Max came through Boston, he'd let me sit in,' she said. 'Through his music he told stories, putting the drum at the center of each one.'
Ms. Carrington then led her ensemble through 'Driva'man,' which had opened Roach's most enduring recording, his boldest story—1960's 'We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite.' Ms. Carrington's 'Driva'man,' like Roach's original, rode a 5/4 rhythm. Yet his version swung slowly. Hers moved to a brisk pulse, closer to Afropop than jazz. Her Smoke engagement previewed the music of 'We Insist 2025!' (out now on Candid, the same label that released Roach's classic). With it, in collaboration with vocalist Christie Dashiell, Ms. Carrington distills Roach's repertoire and message for a new moment.
It's impossible to overstate the depth and singularity of influence that Roach, who died in 2007 at 83 years old, exerted on American culture. Beginning with seminal bebop recordings alongside saxophonist Charlie Parker in the 1940s, through his innovative 1950s quintet with trumpeter Clifford Brown and on, Roach established the foundations of modern jazz drumming while simultaneously rewriting the drummer's role. His 'We Insist!' arrived during the civil-rights movement with a photo of a lunch-counter sit-in on its cover. It was a potent statement about black history, from enslavement through emancipation and beyond, in the form of a brilliantly conceived musical suite.
As did Roach, Ms. Carrington—who, at age 59, is a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master—has had a career characterized by restless forward motion, embracing several musical styles. And, like Roach, her prodigious talent has long supported a focus on activism. She's back at her alma mater, Berklee College of Music (where she earned a full scholarship at 11 years old), now as founder and artistic director of its Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
