Stellar women
New York jazz drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington made history with her latest project New Standards for jazz compositions written by women. She compiled a book of sheet music, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers. This also led to the album New Standards Vol. 1, on which Carrington brought a new arrangement to eleven pieces, performed exceptio-nally with a band that included pianist Kris Davis and bassist Linda May Han Oh. Carrington did put forward one condition for her arrival at NN North Sea Jazz, and one that the festival is happy to meet, namely that she will return over the course of the next two years to once again present work from the New Standards collection.
This year’s Hudson stint will see her surrounded by performances from other female composers in this series: Maria Schneider will perform music from her amazing Data Lords album for the first time in the Netherlands with the Oslo Jazz Ensemble, while esperanza spalding will give her first festival performance as Artist in Residence with pianist Fred Hersch, and Kris Davis will not only play with Carrington, but also in bass player Dave Holland’s band.
Spread over multiple days and stages, there are many more jazz women to see and enjoy, such as trumpet players Laura Jurd and Lakecia Benjamin, harpist Brandee Younger and the saxophonists Kika Sprangers and Mette Rasmussen, the latter making her festival debut. There is also the promising new singer Samara Joy, who will show us why she was awarded with two Grammys.
There are also a number of unique female artists this year from the worlds of pop, soul and hip-hop, such as Jill Scott,and Little Simz, whose genre-breaking music has emphasized the diversity of timbres across the stages in recent years. Sunday draws to a close with the lively singer Lizzo, who brings together R&B, soul and hip-hop in a fabulously festive spectacle.
