For the 2018 opening celebration of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, Terri Lyne Carrington asked her students to select and perform songs from the famed jazz Real Book - a compilation of lead sheets or scores of jazz standards - written by women composers. When Carrington realized there was only one in the entire book, the NEA Jazz Master, Grammy-winning virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, inter-disciplinary artist, activist and educator, who has worked tirelessly over the last decade to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in jazz, set out to shift the narrative.

Over the next several years, Carrington assembled New Standards (Hal Leonard Sept 2022), a book of the 101 jazz compositions written by women. New Standards Vol. 1 captures 11 of these compositions. This star-studded recording features special guests Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos and Somi, backed by a core section comprised of Carrington (drums), Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), and Matthew Stevens (guitar).

The record gives listeners a sense of this project’s vast range, with contemporary composers like harpist Brandee Younger’s “Respected Destroyer,” clarinetist Anat Cohen’s “Ima,” vocalist Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw It Away,” as well as pieces by Gretchen Parlato, Carla Bley and more. The recordings - which range from vocal ballads to contemporary creative music - are inspired and adventurous and explore the limitless universe of jazz.

Terri Lyne Carrington began playing drums when she was seven, performed with pioneering jazz flugel hornist Clark Terry at ten, and was awarded a scholarship to the Berklee College Of Music at age eleven. Her list of credits includes the likes of Lester Bowie, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, David Sanborn, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, and Herbie Hancock. As a bandleader, Carrington’s triple decade-spanning repertoire includes the Grammy-winning album The Mosaic Project, Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue, and her Grammy-nominated set with Social Science titled Waiting Game. Carrington currently serves as Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.

Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington and Matthew Stevens, this album is only the first volume. Carrington’s goal is to record all 101 pieces from the new songbook that she’s created.