This is just a suggestion but maybe you want to try this with your well-informed jazz friends. Put this disc on without revealing who the artist is. They may well be able to identify tenor titan George Coleman, pianist Kenny Barron, and bassist Buster Williams. Tell them the album was recorded in 1981 and ask them to identify the drummer. Odds are very strong that Terri Lyne Carrington’s name won’t come up as she was only 16 years old when she was the fourth quartet member for “TLC & Friends,” a session arranged mostly by her saxophone-playing dad, Sonny Carrington, who plays on one of the tracks. Candid Records has arranged for the first-ever wide release of this session, for which Sonny says that his daughter hasn’t released a legitimate ‘blowing session” since. As such, these are mostly highly recognizable jazz standards save Terri Lyne’s original, “La Bonita.”
Even at 16, Carrington was practically a veteran jazz musician in a family that not only boasted her dad but her drumming grandfather Matt Carrington who performed with Chu Berry and Fats Waller. Terri Lyne first appeared on stage with Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the age of five and was playing in Clark Terry’s band at the age of ten. She had sat in with a host of greats including drummers Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, and Elvin Jones before recording this session. Still, she confesses to nervousness on the way to the studio along with the resolve “to play my heart out.” That she did. Her chops were up big time, prompting Illinois Jacquet to remark upon hearing her on “Sonnymoon For Two,” “She’s just not supposed to be able to play like that.” For evidence, besides her remarkable timing and steering, this elite group that now includes four NEA Jazz Masters, Carrington included, listen to her solo on “Seven Steps to Heaven.”
Besides its historical significance, though this is just a terrific post-bop jazz album as you’d expect in a classic ‘blowing session’ and the likes of this talent. Buster Williams’ bass solo sets up Rollins’ classic “St. Thomas” beautifully, leading to a sparkling piano turn from Barron, those indelible inspired tenor lines from Coleman, and Carrington’s on-the-money calypso beats as well as astonishing solo. An interesting choice among the fare that naturally includes Cole Porter, Miles, and Rollins is Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are,” taken here at mid-tempo with Coleman and Barron improvising inventively off the familiar melody while Carrington applies a more subtle touch, similar to her highly compatible pairing with Williams on her original, “La Bonita,” which later evolves into a fervid burner, marked by another Williams’ sturdy solo mid-piece, followed by Carrington’s kinetic work on the kit.
Fittingly she closes with her dad in the tenor chair for another Rollins tune, the aforementioned “Sonnymoon for Two.” Stylistically you’ll of course note a difference between the elder Carrington and Coleman, the latter more firmly rooted in the blues but the former more than a capable hard swinger himself. In classic jazz fashion, they trade with the young drummer on the eights. The tune is obviously designed for at least two lead instruments but has rarely been recorded by two saxophonists with a few exceptions notably including a slightly slower tempo version from Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman on Road Shows” vol.2 (2011) with Christian McBride (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). That can be viewed on YouTube as a means of comparison and further evidence of how well-versed in mainstream jazz language Carrington was even before graduating from high school.
Carrington was apparently long reluctant to have this album receive broad distribution, but she doesn’t have a thing to be ashamed of. And, besides, you’ll hear Coleman, Williams, and Barron in their primes too.
