Terri Lyne Carrington, photo by Tracy Love.This week mark’s the Kennedy Center‘s annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. Named for the late pianist, and now in its 17th year, the festival highlights the contribution women have made through the years to this great American art form. Fortunately for the festival, as well as for those who love the music, women are rising through the ranks in ever increasing numbers. One only hopes we’ll reach the point where festivals such as this are viewed as an anachronism.
That said, there’s no reason we can’t celebrate the great shows taking place this week. The festival, which started yesterday, ends tomorrow with a performance by Terri Lyne Carrington and her latest project. One of the finest drummers of her generation, The 46-year old Carrington will lead a band through music from her latest recording, The Mosaic Project, in which she assembled some of the most talented women working in jazz today.
“It was not a really a heavy political statement.,” Carrington said during a recent interview with DCist. “I just thought, ‘Why not celebrate all these incredible women?'”
And the album’s lineup is more than incredible. Geri Allen, Patrice Rushen, Esperanza Spalding, Cassandra Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Gretchen Parlato represent just some of the gifted artists who appear on The Mosaic Project. Carrington aimed for a song list that would mix vocal and entirely instrumental tracks. She wrote many of the tracks, but also invited participants to come into the studio with their own compositions. Part of the challenge was matching a given song with the appropriate artist.
“I chose the songs first. These are songs I was attached to and songs that I loved,” explained Carrington. “It was just about sharing what I had in my head and then building the arrangement around whoever came in.”
As one would expect, it would be impossible to keep artists of this caliber together long enough for a tour, however Carrington has assembled a core band to take The Mosaic Project on the road. Saturday’s performance will feature pianist Helen Sung, a winner of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition, saxophonist Tia Fuller, bassist Mimi Jones, and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen. The set will also feature guest vocalists, though Carrington declined to name them because she wanted to keep the surprise. She also feels that the material itself has taken on a new life through live performance, and is confident that energy will spread to the listener.
“Hopefully it will take them on a journey of some sort,” she said of Saturday’s audience. “They’ll see an energized performance and hopefully they’ll feel energized.”
The Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival continues through Sunday at the Kennedy Center. There are still tickets available for tonight’s program. Saturday’s show is sold out, but it’s always worth contacting the box office for last minute availability. 7 p.m. $38-$45.
