泰莉．萊恩．卡林頓 / 金錢叢林 – 挑戰藍調 Terri Lyne Carrington / Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue

  鼓手兼歌手泰莉．萊恩．卡林頓是位當代鼓手當中少數以女姓之姿展現即興爆發力，又以各種不同形式挑戰爵士樂創新模式的藝人。2011年她先以『Mosaic Project』專輯贏得首座葛萊美獎，緊接著2013年再以『金錢叢林 – 挑戰藍調』再度獲得葛萊美大獎肯定。

  1963年由艾靈頓公爵、鼓手馬克斯•羅契與貝斯手查爾斯•明格斯以三重奏錄製名盤『金錢叢林』。這張專輯是爵士樂迷必聽的經典，同時也是泰莉多年來深深著迷的精彩錄音。其中一個原因是馬克斯•羅契不僅是她的老師，除了演奏技巧傳授，更以精譬的努力追求自我精神，而影響到泰莉的音樂生涯發展。

  現實當中有很多令人意想不到的難題，能反應出各種不同型態則非爵士樂莫屬這張專輯以原本『金錢叢林』再版CD當中的八首樂曲，重新詮釋各種不同音樂類型。「Wige Wise」最後一段以以個鑼聲過門，吉他奏出類似西塔琴的樂聲。或是「Fleurette Africain」以現代語彙編曲，配上小號大師Clark Terry的說唱式歌聲；或是鋼琴大師Herbie Hancock為「REM Blues」最後模仿艾靈頓公爵的說話聲，傳達了從來不變的音樂生生不息道理。此外，泰莉本人也譜寫兩首首作品，自己挑戰新時代的即興顏色與樂聲。

GRAMMY® WINNER TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON PAYS HOMAGE TO DUKE ELLINGTON'S MONEY JUNGLE

Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue marks 50th anniversary of release of historic Ellington-Mingus-Roach recording

Featuring Gerald Clayton and Christian McBride, with guests Clark Terry, Lizz Wright, Herbie Hancock and others

In 1962, Duke Ellington recorded a trio date with bassist Charlie Mingus and drummer Max Roach that is today considered one of the pivotal jazz recordings of the 1960s. Money Jungle, the 1963 album that emerged from the session, was – among other things – a commentary on the perennial tug-of-war between art and commerce. In some ways, the album's 11 tracks were intended as a sort of counterbalance to the capitalist bent of the Mad Men generation.

Fifty years later, this precarious balance in the world of jazz – or in any art form, for that matter – hasn't changed much. Enter GRAMMY® Award-winning drummer, composer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington, who enlists the aid of two high-profile collaborators – keyboardist Gerald Clayton and bassist Christian McBride – to pay tribute to Duke, his trio and his creative vision with a cover of this historic recording. Carrington's Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue is set for release on Concord Jazz on February 5, 2013 (international release dates may vary).

Duke's original recording is something that has haunted Carrington since she first heard it about a decade ago. "I had bought it on CD, from the discount bin in a music store," she recalls. "I put it on in my car, and I immediately just felt something mysterious about it. There was just an energy that moved through the tracks. Duke and Charles and Max had a chemistry about them. There was this tension that you could hear, and yet they fit together like a hand in a glove."

In preparation for the project, Carrington read up on Duke's biography. "I felt like a method actor, she says. "I just dug as deep as I could in the time that I had to get a glimpse of his perspective on things. When you start rearranging music by someone like Duke Ellington, you better feel really good about what you're doing. In the end, I felt confident that I didn't do him a disservice, because he was a very open-minded artist, and he was very much about moving forward."

 Carrington considers her Money Jungle – like its predecessor – primarily a trio album, but she's not averse to some enhancement and additional textures along the way. Helping out with the rearrangements and reinterpretations is an impressive list of guest artists: trumpeter Clark Terry, trombonist Robin Eubanks, reed players Tia Fuller and Antonio Hart, guitarist Nir Felder, percussionist Arturo Stabile and vocalists Shea Rose and Lizz Wright. Herbie Hancock appears in a spoken word segment as the voice of Duke Ellington.

 The set opens with the driving title track, which opens with the simple but unsettling spoken-word observation about a capitalist society: "You have to create problems to create profit." Despite the ominous message, the music that follows is surprisingly bouyant, thanks to an elastic rhythm set up by Carrington in support of her collaborators' exploratory piano and bass interplay. All of it is peppered with clips from speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and others.

The pace slows down a bit with "Fleurette Africain," a track that features Robin Eubanks on trombone, and Tia Fuller and Antonio Hart on flutes, as well as the iconic Clark Terry on trumpet. Terry also delivers a stream-of-conscious vocal line that's part spoken-word part scatting. "Getting Clark Terry on this track was one of the most special parts of the record, because he's someone who is really connected to Duke Ellington," says Carrington. "My first gig was with Clark at 10 years old then I joined his band when I was 18, after I had left home and moved to New York. His vocals really bring it home for me, and this track kind of brings my career full circle."
Vocalist Lizz Wright – who has participated in numerous live performances in support of Carrington's all-female, GRAMMY®-Award winning recording, The Mosaic Project – steps up to the mic for "Backward Country Boy Blues." The track begins in the spirit of deep Delta gospel, then morphs into something much more contemporary and orchestrated. All the while, Wright's atmospheric vocals bring an element of mystery to the track.

Carrington inserts two of her own compositions into the set – the syncopated yet melodic "Grass Roots" and the ominous-turned-lively "No Boxes (Nor Words)" – along with "Cut Off," a delicate piece written by Clayton. The three tracks replace "Warm Valley," "Caravan" and "Solitude," which appear on Duke's original Money Jungle but were not written specifically for the date. In tribute to Ellington and his original work, Clayton's "Cut Off" does include numerous melodic references to "Solitude."

The set ends on the quiet notes of "Rem Blues/Music," which features the voices of Shea Rose and Herbie Hancock. Rose works her way through the song with a spoken-word recitation of the poem, "Music," which compares the art form to a multi-faceted and irresistibly seductive woman. Hancock closes the track quoting Duke Ellington, with observations about the role of music in society and the popularity of money versus the popularity of art.

The music of Duke's Money Jungle may have first emerged a half-century ago, but "there's nothing old about great music and great musicians," says Carrington, who sees her own Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue as addressing some of the same issues as its 1963 predecessor. "There's always something that's new, if you know how to listen to it. You have to be able to appreciate the past if you want to have a future. I think that's a big part of our job as artists and entertainers and educators – to keep reminding the younger musicians how important our predecessors were – especially the people who made the music what it is today. So it was my goal to bring some fresh light and fresh energy to some of Duke's music in general and this recording in particular."