Pianist Geri Allen, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spalding will perform together on Friday night at the Kennedy Center. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington was just a teenager when she made her first visit to the District. Even at that young age, legendary bassist Keter Betts recognized her talents, invited her to Washington and introduced her to Geri Allen. The now influential pianist was a student at Howard University at the time and the two musicians developed a rapport. Allen and Carrington broke all kinds of barriers when they came up in the 70s and 80s, a time when there were much fewer opportunities for female instrumentalists in jazz. The two have shared stages and studios on and off for 30 years.
One of those performances was a 2007 show in Israel where Carrington was leading the precursor to what would become her Mosaic Project, a large ensemble comprised entirely of women. The bassist on the gig was none other than Esperanza Spalding, the brilliant young talent who has generated more buzz over the past half decade than any other jazz musician of her generation, culminating in a 2011 Grammy for Best New Artist.
“The energy felt right and the chemistry between the three of us was just natural,” Carrington said during a recent interview with DCist. “We all came from the tradition and then we moved away from that to play all kinds of styles. That like mindedness also makes the trio have a cohesion.”
The group, which performs as the ACS Trio, will perform on Friday night at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. All three of these players have prolific careers leading their own groups, so this is a side project that allows for a sharing of the spotlight and a chance to stretch out in some unexpected directions. There might be a few original compositions performed at the concert, but for the most part this trio draws on classic material from across the jazz spectrum. The setlist will include songs from the Great American Songbook to standards by Wayne Shorter and Eric Dolphy. ACS takes these time honored tunes and adds a twist through their own arrangements.
“We can bring our own personalities to these classic works,” Carrington said. “When you have a classic and you are asked to draw from the same soup bowl, every soup bowl is going to be different.”
In addition to being fine technicians on their respective instruments, all three of these women have that intangible quality that separates the good and the great. They all have the ability to communicate true emotion through their music, and Carrington feels that is a jazz musician’s most important role.
“We have a connection with our instruments, a connection with each other and a connection with the audience,” Carrington said of the trio. “Even if they don’t understand all that we’re doing, they’ll feel it somehow.”
The ACS Trio performs 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. sets on Friday, October 11, 2013 at the Kennedy Center. Tickets are sold out but it’s worth contacting the box office for last minute availability.
