Review: Terri Lyne Carrington's Lincoln Center American Songbook Show Is a Patchwork of Strong Vocals Too Often Buried In Sound

Multiple Grammy-winning drummer, composer, producer, and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington (right) and her group play dense, intense jazz with elusive melody. Ornette Coleman's "Chronology" arrives like a wall of sound. An adamant and up-tempo "Body and Soul" (Edward Heyman/Robert Sour/Frank Eyton/Johnny Green) is almost tribal, at odds with familiar mood and lyric intention. Towards the end of Saturday night's show--Mosaic Project: Love and Soul--in the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center's Appel Room, Ms. Carrington executes a lengthy solo spotlighting her extraordinary musicianship, but instrumental arrangements escape me.

Guest Artist Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson fame), spontaneously decides not to sit at the piano. Instead she picks up a microphone and lets us see the music course through her. Simpson infectiously steps, stomps, whips around, bends, bounces raises and lowers her shoulders, pumps an arm . . . incredibly with none of it over the top. Her rendition of "God Bless the Child" (Billie Holiday/Arthur Herzog Jr.) is muscular and careworn. A word like "that" can be seven syllables. We feel the song's ache and gospel cry. Simpson is in gorgeous control.

Later, her "I Don't Need No Doctor" (Ashford & Simpson) emerges like an angry torch song. I Don't Need No Doctor/Cause I know what's ailing me . . . I've been too long away from my baby, yeah/I'm coming down with a misery. How does one describe wailing without sharpness or high pitch, wailing from the soul and gut? Part way through, the artist abandons her piano and commandeers the stage. A fabulous, expansive performance.

Invited from the audience, vocalist Esperanza Spaulding wordlessly sings to Geri Allen's "Unconditional Love." Eyes closed, her lithe form bending to the music, Spaulding makes the song sound ancient, perhaps ceremonial, and joyful. Lush, warm phrases have round edges. Scat, when it arrives, sounds foreign. Imagine a conversation between colorful, tropical birds. Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes' flute adds to the magic.

Guest Artist Oleta Adams offers several songs, some at the piano. For the most part, the band is way too loud to clearly hear her. During the first part of "Only the Lonely" (Sammy Cahn/ Jimmy Van Heusen), however, musicians back up and Adams' low, bluesy interpretation provides her shining parentheses. The artist's short range reminds one of Leonard Cohen with lament seemingly a natural genre. As accompaniment swells, closing in around her, the singer is engulfed.

Simpson and Adams duet, but again the band overwhelms vocals. Not until Ashford & Simpson's "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" do we hear the two voices play off one another. The audience is encouraged to sing and does. A Kumbaya moment.

Muscians: Ayodele Pinderhughes-Flute; Tia Fuller-Saxophone; Arnetta Johnson-Trumpet; Amy Bellamy-Keyboards; Negah Santos-Percussion; Matt Stevens-Guitar; Josh Hari-Bass.

Photos by Kevin Yatarola