Anyone who caught american drummer Terri Lyne Carrington's performance at the recent Barbican show featuring Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo and Lizz Wright will want to check out this star-packed session. Like the Barbican gig, its focus is women's jazz-making. Here, however, there is a much bigger cast, including Reeves, pianist Geri Allen, Cassandra Wilson, Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato, Nona Hendryx, saxist Tineke Postma and more. It has a unifying historical and social agenda – but it's a discreet one, and the music is certainly the priority. Hendryx's anthemic Transformation opens the show, with the composer's soulful declarations warmly shaded by Ingrid Jensen's flugelhorn. Parlato's diametrically different and resonantly intimate accounts of I Got Lost in His Arms and the Beatles' Michelle follow. Reeves's rich, gospelly sound rises up over an old Angela Davis speech on the legacy of slavery; Wilson's earthy low tones ease through Allen's Unconditional Love; Jensen and Postma whirl through the postbop swinger Insomniac; and the bonus track Sisters on the Rise makes a slightly tokenistic nod towards hip-hop. This is, by definition, song-rooted and quite pop-angled jazz, but full of eager spontaneity... John Fordham, guardian.co.uk


Historically, female artists have not gotten the props they've deserved in jazz's male-dominated environment. Though imperfect, things have improved, thanks in part to the efforts of Billie Holiday, Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland, and other matriarchs who helped pave the way for a current generation of stellar voices as assembled in drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington's exceptional The Mosaic Project.
Carrington's world-class drumming equals anyone in the music business, enriching recordings and performances from the great Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to the eclectic sounds of guitarist Nguyên Lê, while finding time to lead her own bands and
music. Without a doubt, this project is her most ambitious work to date, an arduous yet rewarding labor of love that's elevated by her leadership of an all-star cast of female musicians and singers....
...The Mosaic Project has no ulterior motive to show that women can do the jazz gig as well as men. That's already been proven time and again. Instead, it is a joyous celebration of outstanding female artists; a clear view of what currently exists and a hint of what's on
the horizon. By MARK F. TURNER, allaboutjazz.com