Terri Lyne Carrington, Christie Dashiell, Riley G

Biography

Terri Lyne Carrington, Christie Dashiell, and Riley G are linked through We Insist 2025!, a landmark 2025 album on Candid Records conceived by drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington and vocalist Christie Dashiell as a bold reimagining of Max Roach's 1961 protest album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite — originally recorded with vocalist Abbey Lincoln — to honor Roach's centennial. The album draws direct lines between the civil rights era and the present moment, featuring Julian Priester, the only surviving musician from the original 1961 recording. Riley G, a South African multi-instrumentalist and producer based in Durban, contributed a remix of the track "Freedom Day" that reframes the original through a contemporary rhythmic lens, bridging generations of resistance.

Terri Lyne Carrington (born August 4, 1965, Medford, Massachusetts) is a drumming prodigy from a jazz dynasty — her grandfather played with Fats Waller. She received her grandfather's drum kit at age 7, earned a Boston Musicians' Association union card at 10, and began studying at Berklee College of Music at 11 on a full scholarship under master drummer Alan Dawson. Mentored early by Clark Terry and later Jack DeJohnette, she built a career performing with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock, and served as house drummer for The Arsenio Hall Show. She became the first woman to win a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album (2013) and is now a four-time Grammy winner. She founded the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and in 2022 published New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers, a landmark anthology. Christie Dashiell (born in Washington, D.C., raised in Greenville, North Carolina) is the daughter of jazz bassist Carroll Dashiell Jr. of Howard University. Trained at Howard — where she sang with the celebrated Afro-Blue ensemble — and at Manhattan School of Music, she works at the crossroads of jazz, gospel, R&B, and soul. Her 2023 album Journey in Black earned a Grammy nomination, and We Insist 2025! earned a second consecutive nomination, a rare achievement for an emerging artist.

The collaborative album received a 2026 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Dashiell deliberately avoided imitating Abbey Lincoln's style, instead bringing her own voice to the material — a choice that critics praised for its honesty. Riley G, whose independent catalog on Riley G Music spans jazz, groove, and African music, found international visibility through his "Freedom Day" remix, which was released as a standalone single and highlighted as a bridge between protest traditions of the 1960s and contemporary sonic language. Together, the three artists represent a project deeply rooted in jazz activism, intergenerational dialogue, and the ongoing relevance of the freedom movement.

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Fun Facts

• Terri Lyne Carrington earned her Boston Musicians' Association union card at age 10, making her the youngest person ever to receive one — her first gig was with jazz legend Clark Terry.
• The original 1961 We Insist! album featured trombonist Julian Priester, who also appears on We Insist 2025!, making him the living bridge between both recordings across more than six decades.
• Christie Dashiell received back-to-back Grammy nominations in 2025 and 2026 for consecutive albums — Journey in Black and We Insist 2025! — a remarkable feat for a still-emerging artist.
• Carrington published both a landmark anthology of 101 jazz lead sheets by women composers and a children's book about herself, pianist Geri Allen, and Esperanza Spalding — both in 2022 — the same year she received an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Max Roach - Carrington's primary artistic and philosophical mentor; Roach demonstrated the connections between jazz and activism and modeled the drummer as composer and conceptualist. We Insist 2025! is a direct tribute to his centennial. [1980s–2007]
• Clark Terry - Carrington's first major mentor; she played her first professional gig with Terry at age 10. [1970s]
• Alan Dawson - Master drummer who taught Carrington at Berklee College of Music on her full scholarship. [Late 1970s]
• Jack DeJohnette - Mentor who encouraged Carrington to move to New York in 1983 to advance her career.
• Carroll Dashiell Jr. - Christie Dashiell's father, a jazz bassist and Howard University Music Department chair who shaped her musical foundation. [1990s–present]
• Abbey Lincoln - Dashiell studied and drew inspiration from Lincoln's vocal work on the original We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, deliberately approaching it in her own voice rather than as an imitation. [2024–2025]

Key Collaborators

• Julian Priester - Trombonist and the only surviving musician from Max Roach's original 1961 We Insist! recording; appeared on We Insist 2025! (We Insist 2025! (2025))
• Herbie Hancock - Carrington toured extensively with Hancock over a decade. [1997–2007]
• Morgan Guerin - Contributing musician on We Insist 2025! (We Insist 2025! (2025))
• Matthew Stevens - Contributing musician on We Insist 2025! (We Insist 2025! (2025))
• Weedie Braimah - Contributing percussionist on We Insist 2025! (We Insist 2025! (2025))

Artists Influenced

• Afro-Blue - The Howard University vocal ensemble Christie Dashiell sang with; she helped shape its reputation as it gained national visibility on NBC's The Sing Off. [2010s]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia