Terri Lyne Carrington’s 2009 CD More to Say …(Real Life Story: NextGen) is a vibrant and grooving album that encompasses a broad range of musical styles, including fusion, funk, silky smooth R&B, Latin, African percussion, and straight-down-the-middle classic jazz. The CD was released in U.S., Canada and Japan.

The genesis of More to Say came when Carrington and her business partner: Robert Hebert came together in 2007 to develop a music and digital media company, HEBERT-CARRINGTON MEDIA (with label brands GrooveJazz Media, HCM Digital and Sonic Portraits Entertainment). They collaborated on the release of Robert Irving III’s 2007 "New Momentum" release on Sonic Portraits. Carrington recalls: "We also decided to give it a go to see if I myself could do a CD that returned to the mind space of my 1989 "Real Life Story" (Verve Forecast) record. This time, we wanted to make an adult-oriented contemporary album, with jazz overtones but definitely danceable.” 
 


Most of the 13 tracks on the More to Day CD were written or co-written by the leader. “On this CD I wanted to create a sophisticated listening experience that cuts across musical categories,” says Carrington, the renowned drummer, vocalist, composer, bandleader and educator who burst onto the jazz recording scene in 1989 with the critically acclaimed (and Grammy-nominated) "Real Life Story" debut album. “I’m following up on the first CD, with more liberty to try some new music with one consistent quality: that the music feels good, that you can tap your foot to it, that it’s danceable. It’s a groove record.”
 


Joining Carrington for the meticulously produced More to Say is an impressive all-star cast of jazz and contemporary jazz instrumentalists. The CD also features Terri Lyne’s saxophone-blowing father, Sonny Carrington, on her original, “Papa-san.” “This is one of the more special moments for me,” she says. “My goal was to write a modern-sounding song but with the space in it for my Dad to do his thing in a bluesy kind of way with his soulful tenor reminiscent of Gene Ammons, Stanley Turrentine and Red Holloway.”
 


In addition, Carrington enlists esteemed vocalists Nancy Wilson and Les McCann. Ms. Wilson collaborates with Carrington on the instant classic: “Imagine This,” which she calls a “dream come true” session. “If someone had said to me that Nancy Wilson would sing a lyric I wrote on my next CD, I probably wouldn’t have believed them,” says Carrington. “Eddie del Barrio and I wrote this song a few years back and were waiting for the right situation for it to come alive. Miss Nancy Wilson definitely brought life to this song.” Carrington says that she’s known Wilson since she was a youngster. She adds, “She’s one of the great jazz singers left. I respect her for her art.”

The Les McCann duet on “Hold Me Again” is another highlight of the CD. “I have known Les since I was very young. He is a real American treasure … and, I am deeply honored he made such a special contribution,” says Carrington.

While many recordings in recent years have featured noteworthy side personnel handpicked by a record label to boost a CD’s profile, on More to Say, Carrington performs with friends and colleagues with whom she has been working with in her 25-year-plus career. Since her funky drumming style turned heads when she was enrolled at the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship at the age of 10, Carrington quickly ascended in the upper echelon of the jazz world as one of the first and foremost female jazz drummers. She performed with Clark Terry, Stan Getz, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, David Sanborn, Herbie Hancock and was mentored by Jack DeJohnette. She was a member of Arsenio Hall’s TV-show band, gigged in Wayne Shorter’s group in the late ‘80s and worked with Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder.
 


For More to Say, Carrington says she brought onboard the likes of Duke, Sills and Rushen to bring their “smooth, funky voices. I wanted that sound for this album.” But she also wanted to “add in some twists and turns” to the mix, which is why she asked Anthony Wilson to join the crew after she heard him playing with Diana Krall.
 Carrington says she wanted to bring all parts of her musical personality to the CD. “The jazz legacy is so important to me, but I’m also in the groove tradition, where R&B, funk and hip-hop are so important,” she says. “Back when I did my first album, bringing all that together wasn’t very common. Today, it’s more so. Look at what someone like Roy Hargrove is doing. He does both. As a drummer, I can walk that line too.”
 


Carrington recalls working on a project with tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas and guitarist Pat Metheny, where the latter told her, “You do so many things, so many styles, that you should put all that into one album.” Carrington says, “That’s what I’m doing here. I wanted to incorporate all of who I am. When I recorded Real Life Story, I was 23 and we had one week to finish the project. For this CD, I spent a lot more time—in fact, more time editing and getting it right than the recording sessions themselves.”
 


Carrington sums up More to Say in the liner notes: “This is an honest and current depiction of the NextGen TLC—the ‘me’ that’s grown (and sexy), and ready to explore all the possibilities of the new communications frontier, as this is what can level the playing field globally, bringing the world closer together.”