Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terri Lyne Carrington was born on August 4, 1965 in Medford, Massachusetts and by age 7 was given a set of drums that 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. At age 11 she received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music and at the ripe age of 12 years old she was profiled on the PBS kids’ biography program “Rebop”.

While attending Berklee College of Music she played with leading musicians such as Kevin Eubanks, Donald Harrison, 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 father, Sonny Carrington, before turning 17. Throughout high school Terri traveled across the country doing clinics at various schools and colleges.

In 1983, her mentor Jack DeJohnette encouraged Carrington to move to New York, where she worked with Stan Getz, James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, David Sanborn and too many others to list. The late 80s saw her moving to Los Angeles where she became the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall show and then again near the close of the century with the Sinbad hosted show “Vibe”.

Carrington is a Grammy nominated musician with several recordings as a leader, and has collaborated with Peabo Bryson on “Always Reach For Your Dreams” commissioned for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. She has toured the U.S. and Europe several times performing her own music and backing other musicians such as numerous configurations of Herbie Hancock’s electric and acoustic groups for a decade beginning in 1997.

In 2003 she received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, was appointed professor in 2007 and serves as Artistic Director of the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival.

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