Carrington spoke on her experiences as a woman in a predominantly male genre.
Following introductory pieces by the Academy Jazz Band, music from All-School Meeting (ASM) speaker Terri Lyne Carrington and her band Social Science filled the Cochran Chapel during the concert on September 29.
Grammy Award-Winning jazz drummer, composer, and founder of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, Carrington spoke to the Andover community about her career as a woman in the male-dominated field of jazz during Friday’s ASM and held a concert that evening. Carrington has spent the past week on campus working with Andover jazz students.
Carrington began by noting the title of the talk, which highlighted her career as a female drummer, and detailed her feelings regarding the word “female” that often preceded her title as a musician.
“In the past I would have wanted to remove the female identifying part. I started playing in the ’70s, so we grew up not wanting to be called ‘female’ drummer, ‘female’ musician, ‘female’ anything. So our whole lives, when I say us, I mean any woman that is successful in the jazz world, I believe really rejected that and then one day I realized that I shouldn’t have to reject that. I am female, and it’s okay,” said Carrington.
Yasmine Tazi ’24 acknowledged a slightly different angle of the discussion, speaking on the discrimination that females can often face in male-dominated fields. Tazi offered her own perspective, and how it helped her understand Carrington’s thoughts.
“I haven’t really felt [discrimination] here because Andover is a bubble. But, back where I live [in Morocco] we are a couple decades behind…so there I am in the same place that she was. I can understand how female-identifying people wouldn’t want to be called ‘female’ drummer or ‘female’ jazz musicia. They don’t want to have to call attention to [that] fact and have to identify with an oppressed group, they just want to be a drummer, a jazz musician. I understand because I would probably do the same thing,” said Tazi.
Carrington also provided some key takeaways for Andover students when speaking about the mentors she had as she rose through the music world, mentioning in particular the advice she was given by saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. Although the advice was music-focused, Emma Capaldi ’25 felt that it could be applied to all areas of life.
“Her general philosophy of ‘you have to improve all aspects of your life to get good at the things you really want to get good at’ is important. I think what she was trying to say is that you have to improve your relationships in life and you have to improve in all aspects of your life to lead a good life. You can’t simply focus on one thing, like music, and really laser in on that, you have to try and do better in all aspects,” said Capaldi.
In the evening, following Friday’s ASM, students had the opportunity to attend a concert featuring student performances and Carrington’s band Social Science. The band played an hour-long set from their new album “Waiting Game.” Hunter Peabody ’27 described the audience’s enthrallment with the music during the performance.
“I definitely felt a sense of awe from the audience. Everybody was so engaged with the music and you could feel that all around. It was almost [as] if the music wasn’t playing, you could hear a pin drop because everybody was so locked in on what was being played and almost speechless. I was definitely getting that feel from the environment, I was just so enamored and almost shocked with how amazing it was,” said Peabody.
Caitlin Ly ’27, another audience member who attended the concert, described how listening to Carrington’s live music was so much more powerful in-person. Ly shared how attending the concert inspired her to want to pick up an instrument.
“I liked seeing all the instruments come together and I especially liked watching the people play their instruments in-person. It was a totally different experience from just listening to it, it makes me want to play an instrument now after hearing and seeing [the performance] because it sounded so good,” said Ly.
During the concert, Zadie Robinson ’26 noticed how being in the same space and experiencing the same music seemed to connect members of the audience. Robinson spoke about her newfound understanding of how music could be used as a vehicle to bring people together.
“I was looking around the entire time and it was nice to know that everyone was experiencing the same thing I was and that we were all just so inspired. I think everyone else being there and also getting the messages and hearing the music at the same time, it created a sense of community,” said Robinson.
