We Insist 2025! (Candid)
Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell
Raleased June 13, 2025
Jazzwise Top 10 Albums of the Year 2025
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2026
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_np_f9F9VNdg9aaG_WQ6jh4Zwtdt8DiyRQ
Spotify:
About:
Four-time GRAMMY-winning jazz icon Terri Lyne Carrington and GRAMMY-nominated vocalist Christie Dashiell release “Freedom Day (Part 1),” their vibrant reimagining of Max Roach’s timeless anthem “Freedom Day.” The single highlights Carrington’s lifelong mission to champion jazz and advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in the genre.
“Freedom Day (Part 1)” is a dynamic tribute to the 1960 Max Roach and Oscar Brown Jr. composition, from the groundbreaking album We Insists! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite. Written to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, the album stands as a defining artistic statement of the Black American civil rights movement. With a career defining performance by the incomparable Abbey Lincoln, it is one of the most powerful and enduring statements of music as protest
The new arrangement breathes new life into the track, blending Carrington’s signature drumming and electronics with Dashiell’s soulful vocals and an all-star ensemble featuring Matthew Stevens (guitar), Simon Moullier (vibes), Morgan Guerin (bass, woodwinds), and Milena Casado (trumpet, electronics). The result is a dynamic interpretation that honors the original’s revolutionary spirit, while echoing a social justice message which remains poignant as ever today.
Reflecting on Max Roach’s influence, Carrington shares, “he has always been an important person and influence in my life. Max was an innovator that brought the drums to the forefront in jazz—away from having just an accompanying role. He was a leader by nature—more than just in music—and helped me to see the importance of being a total musician because he composed, arranged, and dreamt up big ideas.”
Six decades later lyrics of “Freedom Day” still strongly resonate, with Dashiell beautifully delivering stirring lines like:
Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it’s Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n’ chains away.
Everybody that I see says it’s really true, we’re free.
Christie Dashiell, who “possesses a sumptuously rich timbre, a powerful storytelling gift and the ability to craft songs which lodge immediately in the heart,” (Jazzwise) adds smooth layers and emotional depth to the track. The single is a testament to Carrington’s visionary artistry and her commitment to using music as aplatform for social justice. As an NEA Jazz Master and founder of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, she has long been a trailblazer in reshaping the narrative of jazz and creating space for underrepresented voices. This is the second Candid Records release from Carrington since her critically acclaimed album, New STANDARDS Vol. 1, which was celebrated by NPR, Billboard, The Guardian, Stereogum, Jazziz, and the Boston Globe for its bold sound and groundbreaking ambition, and won the GRAMMY AWARD for Best Instrumental Jazz Album in 2023.
Track Listing:
1. Drivaman (Max Roach / Oscar Brown Jr.) feat. Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens 8:18
2. Freedom Day (Part 1) (Max Roach / Oscar Brown Jr.) feat. Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens 4:16
3. All Africa (Max Roach / Oscar Brown Jr.) feat. Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens 7:21
4. Boom Chick (Terri Lyne Carrington)feat. Christiana Hunte 1:36
5. Triptypch: Resolve/Resist/Reimagine (Terri Lyne Carrington / Devon Gates) feat. Ayodele Casel, Milena Casado, Devon Gates, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens 7:21
6. Tears For Johannesburg (Max Roach) feat. Julian Preister, Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin & Matthew Stevens 7:51
7. Dear Abbey (Terri Lyne Carrington)feat. Tamia Elliot & Weedie Braimah 2:51
8. Freedom Day (Part 2) (Max Roach / Oscar Brown Jr.) feat. Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Simon Moullier & Matthew Stevens 4:07
9. Freedom Is (Terri Lyne Carrington / Matthew Stevens) feat. Tamia Elliot, Milena Casado, Morgan Guerin, Ian Michael, Simon Moullier, Matthew Stevens & Devon Gates 5:00
10. Joyful Noise (Terri Lyne Carrington) feat. Weedie Braimah, Milena Casado, Devon Gates, Morgan Guerin, Zacchae’us Paul, Emmett G. Price III & Matthew Stevens 4:45
Personnel:
Terri Lyne Carrington: drums (1- 3, 5, 6, 8-10), percussion (3, 9), turntables (6)
Christie Dashiell: voice (1-6, 8, 10), percussion (3, 9)
Morgan Guerin: bass (1-3, 6, 8, 10), additional drums (3), percussion (3, 6, 9), woodwind (2, 3, 5, 6, 8-10)
Matthew Stevens: guitar (1 to 3, 5, 6, 8 to 10)
Milena Casado: trumpet, electronics (1 to 3, 5, 6, 8-10)
Simon Moullier: vibraphone, marimba (1-3, 5, 8-10)
Weedie Braimah: congas, djembe (1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10)
Devon Gates: bass (5, 9, 10)
Lizz Wright: tambourine (3, 6, 8)
Ayodele Casel: tap dance (5)
Tamia Elliot: spoken word (7, 9)
Christiana Hunte: spoken word (4)
Zacchae’us Paul: voice (10)
Emmett G Price III: voice (10)
Special Guest
Julian Priester: trombone (6)
Additional voices, claps, stompsputs (4): Terri Lyne Carrington, Christie Dashiell, Zahili Gonzalez, Ian Michael, Tamia Elliot, Dorian Inez-Carrington
Executive Producer: Terri Lyne Carrington, JoAnn Chase,
Produced by Terri Lyne Carrington
Mixed by Jeremy Loucas
Recorded by Gerson Lazo Quiroga
Mixing Assistant: Sam Lazerev
Review:
The former child prodigy of the drums will turn 60 in August, and Carrington’s profile as a bandleader and educator has long amplified her undoubted skills as percussionist. This new release, which is well-timed (to say the least), is inspired by the famous 1960 Candid album titled We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite.
It’s worth noting in passing that Carrington has form in this kind of activity, because in 2013 she released Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue (Concord) partly consisting of adaptations of the Ellington-Mingus-Roach classic as played by Gerald Clayton, Christian McBride and herself.
As with that 2013 album, the We Insist 2025! cover design is inspired by the original artwork, but here the illustration a montage of the performers, instead of the iconic press-photo of 1960s lunch-counter sit-ins by black protestors who could not get served in a white establishment. The present performers are far removed from the post-hard-bop energy of the Roach album and, while Carrington is often playing, she deliberately takes a more background role and the approach of the whole enterprise is more diffuse and collectivist. In particular, the light-voiced Dashiell is no Abbey Lincoln and, despite using Oscar Brown’s original lyrics, the effect is less upfront, and the replacement of Roach/Lincoln’s ‘Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace’ with a chorale-based ‘Tripytch: Resolve/Resist/Reimagine’ is rather anti-climactic. Other new material added (taking the playing-time to 53 minutes) includes a recitation entitled ‘Dear Abbey’, which seems to blur the line between re-imaginging the original and meditating upon its impact.
It’s clear that this project has a lot going for it musically, but the differences between it and its musical inspiration need to be taken into account. For instance, the horn soloists Casado and Guerin are very contemporary in their rather impressionist approach, which is far from the pent-up aggression of the original’s Booker Little or even Coleman Hawkins.
Julian Priester, due to turn 90 at the end of June, is the one returnee on a new version of ‘Tears For Johannesburg’, a reminder that the original album also commemorated the 1960 Sharpeville massacre – which led directly to Roach’s recording being banned in South Africa. A reminder, and perhaps a warning that it’s time to buy this new album before it becomes banned in the USA.
Brian Priestley (Jazzwise)
