Born: August 4, 1965 Primary Instrument: Drums
World-renowned drummer, composer, producer and clinician, Terri Lyne Carrington, has maintained her status in the industry as a person to watch for over 25 years.
Born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1965, Terri developed a reputation as a child prodigy, jamming with jazz veterans Dizzy Gillespie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Oscar Peterson, Joe Williams, and many more. At 7, she was given her first set of drums, which had belonged to her grandfather, Matt Carrington, who had played with Fats Waller and Chu Berry. After studying privately for three years, she played her first major performance at the Wichita Jazz Festival with Clark Terry. Shortly afterward she received a full scholarship at age 11 to Berklee College of Music where she started playing with such people as Kevin Eubanks, Mike Stern, Branford Marsalis, Greg Osby and others. She also studied under master drum instructor Alan Dawson and made a private recording entitled, “TLC and Friends,” with Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, George Coleman and her dad, Sonny Carrington, before turning 17.
Throughout high school Terri traveled across the country doing clinics at schools and colleges and in 1983, encouraged by her mentor, Jack DeJohnette, moved to New York and started working with Stan Getz, James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, and David Sanborn.
In 1989, Terri moved to Los Angeles where she became the drummer for the “Arsenio Hall Show”. She has also toured the globe with Mike Stern, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock and spiritual mentor, Wayne Shorter. Her debut release on Polygram, “Real Life Story,” was nominated for a Grammy Award and featured Carlos Santana, Patrice Rushen, John Scofield, Grover Washington, Jr., and Gerald Albright.
After a hiatus from the U.S. recording scene as a solo recording artist, Terri Lyne returned in 2008 with “More To Say... (Real Life Story: NextGen).” She performs with friends and colleagues with whom she has been working with in her 20-year-plus career. Joining Carrington on More to Say is an impressive all-star cast of jazz and contemporary jazz instrumentalists, including George Duke, Everette Harp, Kirk Whalum, Jimmy Haslip, Greg Phillingaines, Gregoire Maret, Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Patrice Rushen, Robert Irving III (who also serves as co-producer), Chuck Loeb, Tineke Postma, Ray Fuller, Dwight Sills, Anthony Wilson, Les McCann and a special appearance by her dad, Sonny Carrington, on tenor. In addition, Terri Lyne collaborates with esteemed vocalist Nancy Wilson for the song, “Imagine This.”
In July 2011, Terry Lyne releases The Mosaic Project, her fifth recording overall and first on Concord Jazz. Her new album once again gathers a myriad of voices and crystallizes them into a multi-faceted whole that far outweighs the sum of its parts. She produced the 14-song set which features some of the most prominent female jazz artists of the last few decades: Esperanza Spalding, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila E., Nona Hendryx, Cassandra Wilson, Geri Allen and several others. Terri Lyne says the emergence of so many greatTerri Lyne says the emergence of so many great female jazz artists is what finally makes an album like The Mosaic Project possible, more so now than in decades past.
