Max Roach performed in Kansas City’s Jazz District in 1985. Abbey Lincoln appeared at the Folly Theater in 1994. We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite, the 1961 protest album featuring the drummer and vocalist, remains a towering cultural touchstone.
Terri Lyne Carrington told an audience of several hundred that she and her band intended to conduct a “flip of the script” on We Insist! before the first note was played at the Folly Theater on Saturday, April 18. (I paid $37.50 for a balcony seat.)
Powered by Carrington’s ferocious drumming, the auspicious young trumpet star Milena Casado, guitarist Matthew Stevens and multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin were supplemented by poet and vocalist Christie Dashiell.
Given the caliber of the musicians, instrumental segments featuring agitated funk improvisations worked best. At ninety minutes, the concert’s brevity was its primary blemish. The musicians behaved as if they had a plane to catch.
It seemed natural to be in the presence of Roach and Lincoln decades ago. I’m now humbled to have shared moments in time with the icons. In furthering the legacies of Roach and Lincoln, Carrington and her colleagues will one day be fully recognized as similarly auspicious figures in the jazz continuum.