Terri Lyne Carrington Shines Bright Light On Women Composers With Historic New Standards Project

new STANDARDS vol. 1 Album Recorded with Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Matthew Stevens, Nicholas Payton Out September 16 on Candid Records

First-Of-Its-Kind New Standards Lead Sheet Songbook Featuring 101 Songs By Women Composers Including Alice Coltrane, Mary Lou Williams, Maria Schneider, esperanza spalding, Geri Allen, Cecile McClorin Salvant, Dorothy Ashby, Nubya Garcia, Mary Halvorson, Nicole Mitchell, Jaimie Branch, Cassandra Wilson And Many More To Be Published September 15 by Hal Leonard

Multimedia Exhibit at The Carr Center in Detroit Set for October-November Featuring Performances, Art, Film & More

Listen to “Respected Destroyer” from new STANDARDS vol. 1 https://bit.ly/RespectedDestroyer 

July 18, 2022 – Inter-disciplinary artist, activist and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington has worked tirelessly over the last decade to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in jazz.  New Standards, her ambitious new endeavor, was created to shine a light on women composers in historic new ways.  New Standards will arrive this fall in the form of a groundbreaking lead sheet book of jazz compositions dedicated entirely to women composers, a newly recorded album of 11 selections from the songbook featuring an all-star band and superb line-up of special guests, and a dynamic multi-media exhibition at Detroit’s Carr Center.  

On September 16 Carrington will release new STANDARDS vol. 1 on the relaunched Candid Records label, featuring recordings of 11 selections from the New Standards lead sheets book (see below for more info).  Carrington on drums, is joined by a core band of Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), and Matthew Stevens (guitar and co-producer) and welcomes special guests Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos and Somi.  The selections include harpist Brandee Younger’s “Respected Destroyer,” clarinetist Anat Cohen’s “Ima,” vocalist Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw It Away” as well as pieces by Gretchen Parlato, Carla Bley and more.  The recordings - which range from vocal ballads to contemporary creative music - are inspired and adventurous and explore the limitless universe of jazz. 

Listen to “Respected Destroyer” here (composed by harpist Brandee Younger): https://bit.ly/RespectedDestroyer

Watch album teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUheNM_dHkA 

New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers will be published by Hal Leonard on September 15.  Curated by Carrington, it features 101 compositions from a remarkable range of acknowledged titans, young visionaries and unsung heroes in jazz: Mary Lou Williams, Alice Coltrane, esperanza spalding, Geri Allen, Maria Schneider, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Dorothy Ashby, Nubya Garcia, Nicole Mitchell and many others.  The book includes a 1922 piece by the influential Lil Hardin Armstrong and songs written in 2021 by emerging artists from Carrington’s Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. New Standards also celebrates the global world of jazz, from Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana to Japanese American pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and other international composers.   

Says Carrington, “This endeavor in part serves as the kind of corrective work that needs to be done to make sure women’s voices as creators and intellectual thinkers in jazz are amplified, as well to make sure they–we–are not left to be rendered invisible in the future.”

New Standards is the first initiative for Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which Carrington formed in 2018, and a new chapter for the larger Jazz Without Patriarchy Project.  New Standards was born out of necessity, after Carrington was prompted to search for women composers in the infamous Real Book of jazz charts, and to her dismay, found virtually none.  The project offers an alternative to the accepted jazz standards canon that has served students, teachers and professionals for decades.  Other revised editions and additional recordings will be released in the future.  

Following the release of the album and book in September, Detroit’s Carr Center will host New Standards, as the first part of the forthcoming larger exhibition Shifting the Narrative: Jazz and Gender Justice, from October 13 to November 27.  Curated by Carrington, it will feature live performances, panel discussions, a photo exhibit, archival material and artwork created by many contemporary jazz artists on the theme of “new standards” as well as the installation’s three other sections: The Female and Non-binary Gaze, Invisible Labor, and Geri Allen and Mary Lou Williams In Conversation. Programs will be designed to engage with the residents and students of Detroit and its surrounding areas.

Carrington also produced a live album that will be released on September 9 (Candid Records), titled Live From The Detroit Jazz Festival. Recorded in 2017, it features Wayne Shorter (saxophone), esperanza spalding (bass, vocals), Leo Genovese (piano) and Carrington (drums).  
Carrington’s most recent album release was 2019’s Waiting Game, featuring the band Social Science.  Waiting Game earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Album and led to a New York Times profile and an NPR Tiny Desk performance.  Last year she launched the Next Jazz Legacy apprenticeship program in partnership with New Music USA and the Mellon Foundation, which strives for a more inclusive jazz future. 

Track list:

1. Wind Flower (Sara Cassey)
2. Circling (Gretchen Parlato)
3. Uplifted Heart (Shamie Royston)
4. Moments (Eliane Elias)
5. Continental Cliff (Patricia Perez)
6. Throw It Away (Abbey Lincoln)
7. Respected Destroyer (Brandee Younger)
8. Two Hearts (Lawns) (Carla Bley)
9. Unchanged (Marta Sanchez)
10. Ima (Anat Cohen)
11. Rounds (Live) (Marilyn Crispell)

About The Carr Center

The Carr Center, located in the historic cultural center of midtown Detroit, is one of the leading multidisciplinary Black arts presenters in the country. Celebrating 30 years of artistic excellence, the Center’s core programs include: The Carr Center Artists’ Hub, home to local and regional artists as well as special guest artist residencies, Carr Center Presents...a series of live, live stream and on demand performances, film, and visual arts programs, the Carr Virtual Center, which includes interactive galleries and a digital theater, extending all our presentations to a global audience, and The Carr Center Arts Academy, our educational umbrella with classroom instruction, summer intensive studies and early career professional development programs. Through the years, the Carr Center has created and presented a variety of innovative programs and initiatives for artists and audiences in collaboration with partners like Comcast, the City of Detroit, the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, University Musical Society of the University of Michigan, Detroit Opera House, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. For more information about the Carr Center, click here.

About Candid Records

Between 1960 - 1963 founder, A&R man, and producer Nat Hentoff recorded over 30 extraordinary albums for the new Candid Records label.  One cannot underestimate the breadth of these recordings - From bebop, to the avant-garde, to blues.  Candid sat dormant for years until Black Lion Records founder and producer, Alan Bates, bought the label in 1989.  Picking up where Hentoff left off, Bates recorded, and acquired a wide variety of jazz artists.  He signed American treasures like legendary journey-man pianist Kenny Barron, the great organist Shirley Scott, and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr., and with a keen eye for emerging talent, he helped launch the careers of Jamie Cullum and Stacey Kent.  The next phase of Candid Records is happening now.  Titles from the Hentoff years are being restored and remastered. There’s new music from Stacey Kent (Songs From Other Places), a Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy win for Brazilian pianist (and vocalist) Eliane Elias’ Mirror Mirror album with the legendary Chick Corea and Chucho Valdés, and an album from jazz giant Wayne Shorter with Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding and Leo Genovese (Live At The Detroit Jazz Festival.) Today’s Candid is not only committed to its legacy but looks forward to defining its future with the quality of music that is synonymous with its heritage.  Learn more at www.candidrecords.com

About Hal Leonard 

Founded in 1947, Hal Leonard is the world's largest publisher and distributor of music performance and instructional materials, with a catalog of over one million products in both physical and digital form. Hal Leonard represents many of the world's best-known and most respected publishers, artists, songwriters, and arrangers. The company is also a major distributor of music gear and technology products, selling and marketing the most popular software, hard goods, and accessories available today. Its products are sold in more than 65 countries throughout the world through Hal Leonard offices and a large network of distributors. Hal Leonard is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, and has domestic offices in Winona, MN and Austin, Boston, and San Francisco. It also has offices abroad in Australia, Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, and the Netherlands, as well as in London and Bury St. Edmunds in England.

About the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice

The Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice was founded in 2018 by Terri Lyne Carrington, who serves as its Artistic Director. Its mission is to support and sustain a cultural transformation in jazz, with the commitment to recruit, teach, mentor, and advocate for musicians seeking to study and/or perform jazz, with gender justice and racial justice as guiding principles. The institute fosters creative practice and scholarship in jazz within an integrated and egalitarian setting and seeks to fully engage in the pursuit of jazz without patriarchy, with the intention of making a long-lasting cultural shift in jazz and other music communities.

The institute welcomes students of all identities and works to address gender inequities at the college and in the jazz community through curriculum, recruitment, residencies, performances, research, and public engagement. It also cultivates partnerships with other educational and performing arts institutions to further advance the institute's mission of cultural transformation.

New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers, by last name:

Toshiko Akyoshi

Melissa Aldana

Geri Allen

Lil Hardin Armstrong

Dorothy Ashby

Sheryl Bailey

Simone Baron

Jaime Baum

Camila Cortina Bello

Lakecia Benjamin

Airelle Besson

Cindy Blackman

Carla Bley

Jane Ira Bloom

Jaimie Branch

KarenBriggs

Courtney Bryan

Jane Bunnett

Terri Lyne Carrington

Regina Carter

Sara Cassey

Anat Cohen

Alice Coltrane

Carla Cook

Roxy Coss

Sylvie Courvoisier

Marilyn Crispell

Connie Crothers

Caroline Davis

Kris Davis

Eliane Elias

Sandy Evans

Jean Fineberg

Mimi Fox

Tia Fuller

Nubya Garcia

Devon Gates

Rachel Z Hakim

Mary Halvorson

Miho Hazama

Anke Helfrich

Monika Herzig

Hiromi

Jazzmeia Horn

EJ Hwang

Ayn Inserto

Ingrid Jensen

Christine Jensen

Mimi Jones

Laura Jurd

Grace Kelly

Ingrid Laubrock

Veronica Leahy

Abbey Lincoln

Melba Liston

Carmen Lundy

Sherrie Maricle

René Marie

Marian McPartland

Myra Melford

Allison Miller

Nicole Mitchell

Linda May Han Oh

Gretchen Parlato

Patricia Zárate Pérez

Elena Pinderhughes

Tineke Postma

Dianne Reeves

Tomeka Reid

Emily Remler

Michele Rosewoman

Renee Rosnes

Ada Rovatti

Ellen Rowe

Shamie Royston

Patrice Rushen

Cecile McLorin Salvant

Angelica Sanchez

Marta Sanchez

Arcoiris Sandoval

Maria Schneider

Kate Schutt

Sara Serpa

Bria Skonberg

Cecilia Smith

Luciana Souza

Esperanza Spalding

CarmenStaaf

Leni Stern

Helen Sung

Alexa Tarantino

Camille Thurman

Marianne Trudel

Ariacne Trujillo

Noriko Ueda

Charenée Wade

Mary D. Watkins

Anna Webber

Mary Lou Williams

Cassandra Wilson

Brandee Younger

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