Terri Lyne Carrington, ‘‘Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue’’ (Concord Jazz)
Producer Terri Lyne Carrington follows up her Grammy-winning, all-female ‘‘The Mosaic Project’’ by offering a fresh take on the classic trio recording ‘‘Money Jungle’’ — the session released 50 years ago that teamed pianist Duke Ellington, bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach.
Some of the strongest tracks — such as ‘‘Wig Wise,’’ which includes Brazilian rhythms and Mideastern motifs, and Clayton’s ballad ‘‘Cut Off’’ that references Ellington’s ‘‘Solitude’’ — spotlight the trio of drummer Carrington, pianist Gerald Clayton and bassist Christian McBride. And Carrington enhances ‘‘Fleurette Africain’’ with ex-Ellingtonian trumpeter Clark Terry’s scat/spoken-word vocals and ‘‘Backward Country Boy Blues’’ with Nir Felder’s earthy slide guitar intro and Lizz Wright’s wordless vocals.
The hard-swinging ‘‘Money Jungle’’ includes sound clips on the state of capitalism from Martin Luther King Jr., Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while the mellow ‘‘Rem Blues/Music’’ has Shea Rose reciting a poem comparing music to a seductive woman and Herbie Hancock quoting Ellington’s observations on the clash between jazz creativity and commerce.
