Black Music: Let the Archives Sing

Angela Stribling is probably best known for her television career on BET as Host of Screen Scene, the network’s premier entertainment news show. She spent four years hosting Screen Scene before becoming an integral part of launching BET Jazz. During this time, she also hosted BET Jazz Discovery; A showcase of undiscovered jazz artists, and BET Jazz Scene; The only nationally broadcast jazz industry newsmagazine. Stribling began her broadcast career as a news intern at WTTG-TV (Fox affiliate in Washington, DC) and WOL-AM Radio (Washington, DC), and progressed to WHUR Radio. She has also hosted several syndicated programs for the American Urban Radio Networks. Stribling discovered her love for singing at the age of 4. Classically trained, she hones her jazz skills at various venues around the world including the world famous Blue Note in New York City. Angela has shared the stage with musical legends Stevie Wonder, and Chaka Kahn. She sang for President Bill Clinton and Robert De Niro at a fundraiser in New York City for Congressman Charles Rangel. Stribling’s love affair with Europe and Asia began in 2002 when Hennessy invited her as their jazz vocalist for one week of sold out performances in Myanmar (Burma) and later that year for their Hennessy Smooth and Mellow International Jazz Tour. In radio, television, and music, Stribling has built an impressive career as a multimedia broadcaster and communicator. Stribling, who has appeared in several films and television shows, is one of the most sought after voices in the country. Her professional credits include national radio and television campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, Prudential Life Insurance, Time Life, Colgate Simply White Toothpaste, and Folgers Coffee. Stribling earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fashion Merchandising and Buying from the Fashion Institute. 

Three-time Grammy award-winning drummer, producer, educator and activist, Terri Lyne Carrington started her professional career as a “kid wonder” while studying under a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the mid '80’s she worked as an in-demand drummer in New York before gaining national recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show. In 1989, Ms. Carrington released a Grammy-nominated debut CD on Verve Forecast, Real Life Story, and toured extensively with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among others. In 2011 she released the Grammy award-winning album, The Mosaic Project, featuring a cast of all-star women instrumentalists and vocalists, and in 2013 she released Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, which also earned a Grammy award, establishing her as the first woman ever to win in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category. To date Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has worked extensively with luminary artists such as Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets, Esperanza Spalding, and many more. Additionally, Ms. Carrington is an honorary doctorate recipient from Berklee, and currently serves as Founder and Artistic Director for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. In 2019 Ms. Carrington was granted the Doris Duke Artist Award, a prestigious acknowledgment in recognition of her past and ongoing contributions to jazz music. Her current band project, Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science (a collaboration with Aaron Parks and Matthew Stevens), released their debut album, Waiting Game, in November, 2019 on Motema Music. Waiting Game has been celebrated as one of the best jazz albums of 2019 by Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Boston Globe and Popmatters. Downbeat describes the album as, “a two-disc masterstroke on par with Kendrick Lamar's 2015 hip-hop classic, 'To Pimp a Butterfly'..." Ms. Carrington was named as JazzTimes Critics Polls’ Artist of the Year, Jazz Artist of the Year by Boston Globe, and Jazz Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Jazz pianist, composer, and performance artist Jason Moran was born in Houston, TX in 1975 and earned a degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010 and is the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center. Moran currently teaches at the New England Conservatory. Moran is deeply invested in reassessing and complicating the relationship between music and language, and his extensive efforts in composition, improvisation, and performance are all geared towards challenging the status quo while respecting the accomplishments of his predecessors. His activity stretches beyond the many recordings and performances with masters of the form including Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, and the late Sam Rivers, and his work with his trio The Bandwagon (with drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Tarus Mateen) has resulted in a profound discography for Blue Note Records. He has collaborated with such major figures as Adrian Piper, Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Stan Douglas, Adam Pendleton, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker; commissioning institutions of Moran’s work include the Walker Art Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Dia Art Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Harlem Stage, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Moran has a long-standing collaborative practice with his wife, the singer and Broadway actress Alicia Hall Moran; as named artists in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, they together constructed BLEED, a five-day series of live music. BLEED explored the power of performance to cross barriers and challenge assumptions, and it was widely hailed as groundbreaking in the music and performance realm. In 2018, Moran had his first solo museum exhibition at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.  A monographic publication accompanied the exhibition.

Nat Adderly Jr. is a pianist, composer, arranger, and producer, best known for his work with Luther Vandross.  Adderly Jr. wrote (and arranged) Luther’s first top 20 pop hit, “Stop to Love”, and some other important Luther songs, including “Wait for Love” and the Grammy-nominated “Give me the Reason”.  Adderly Jr. also produced “The Closer I Get To You”, a duet with Beyonce Knowles. That track is featured on Beyonce’s grammy-winning  Dangerously in Love (best contemporary R&B album), on Luther’s grammy-winning Dance With My Father (best R&B album), and the track won the Grammy in 2004 for best R&B performance by a duo or group.  In 2003, Adderly Jr. produced Luther’s Live 2003 at Radio City Music Hall. Adderly Jr. was Luther’s musical director from 1981 until his death. Many other artists have had major successes with help from Adderley Jr., including Kirk Whalum, Natalie Cole, Johnny Gill, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Lynne, and Doc Powell. Adderly Jr. is also a gifted pianist and conductor. He received his BA from Yale University.