Terri Lyne Carrington to Perform Grammy Award-Winning Album in Bowker Auditorium

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2019 Doris Duke Award recipient Terri Lyne Carrington will perform her Grammy Award-winning album “Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue” on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium in Stockbridge Hall. The concert is the culmination of a series of events honoring the innovative spirit of drummer and UMass legacy Max Roach.

With technical wizardry and profound creativity, Carrington has become one of the giants of today’s jazz music. A three-time GRAMMY Award-winning drummer, composer and producer, she began her professional career at only 10 years old and received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at the age of 11. She is the first female artist to ever win the GRAMMY Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, which she received for her 2013 release, “Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue.” Over the course of her 40-year career, she has played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Lester Bowie, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, John Scofield, Pharoah Sanders and Esperanza Spalding, among countless other jazz luminaries.

Carrington was appointed professor at her alma mater in 2005 and is currently the founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, whose mission is to recruit, teach, mentor and advocate for young musicians seeking to study jazz with gender equity as a guiding principle. She is also the artistic director for the Berklee Summer Jazz Workshop, and co-artistic director of The Carr Center in Detroit.

The original “Money Jungle” from 1963 showcased a rare collaboration of three of the most crucial artists in jazz history – Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Duke Ellington – addressing the pressing socio-political concerns of the day. In “Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue,” Carrington reimagines these threats for the 21st century, incorporating speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama along with other guest voices. The BBC proclaimed of the album, “Ellington, Mingus and Roach would be proud.” Poet Sonia Sanchez will be part of the performance on October 24 in Bowker.

 

Max Roach was an exceptional musician as well as a dedicated civil rights leader. He was a member of the UMass Amherst faculty from 1972 until his retirement in 1994. One of the first jazz musicians to teach full-time at the college level, Roach joined the UMass Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies faculty as a tenured professor, and was one of the founders of the Jazz in July Summer Program along with Billy Taylor and Frederick Tillis.

Prior to the concert on Thursday, the Fine Arts Center, Valley Jazz Network and W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies have collaborated on a series of free events honoring the innovative spirit of Max Roach. On Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. in the New Africa House Theater, there will be a conversation titled “Drummers as Trendsetters,” wherein drummers discuss the legacy of Max Roach and how they themselves fulfill a role as trendsetters in the industry. The panelists include Carrington, Makaya McCraven, and Royal Hartigan, and will be moderated by the chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, Stephanie Shonekan.

On Thursday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. in New Africa House Theater, there will be a conversation titled “The Life and Legacy of Max Roach” with a special opening performance by Terry Jenoure. Panelists include poet Sonia Sanchez, Roach’s daughter Maxine Roach, biographist Herb Boyd, and visual artist and colleague Nelson Stevens, and will be moderated by John Bracey, faculty member in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies.

Tickets for Terri Lyne Carrington’s “Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue” are $35, $20 for Five College Students, and $10 for youth 17 and under. For tickets call the Box Office at 545-2511, toll-free at 800-999-UMAS, or purchase online at fineartscenter.com/carrington.