The NEA Jazz Master and four-time Grammy winner joins us to discuss 'Trip the Night Fantastic,' the second album from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science, which sets deportation, prison abolition, and climate collapse to music built for the dance floor.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on drummer, composer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington.
Carrington has just released Trip the Night Fantastic, the second album from her group, Social Science. It’s built for the dance floor but unflinching on the topics of deportation, prison abolition, and climate collapse.
We talk about trusting collaborators before they've earned it, playing to a rare, fully attentive crowd at Newport, and calling herself a "frustrated drummer" on a record built from words as much as rhythm.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Trip the Night Fantastic, the new album from Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science.)
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00:00 Introduction
00:59 Newport, and a crowd that actually listened
02:38 Why the record sounds like late-eighties R&B
03:34 "Trip the Light Fantastic," flipped to night
04:09 Three years for the first album, two for this one
05:01 Stopping everything for We Insist 2025
05:26 When the headlines catch up to the songs
08:19 Teaching at Berklee: a more sensitive generation
09:21 "Suffer what there is to suffer"
10:49 Becoming the band's lyricist
12:39 "Riddim Song," and judging a take in a language you don't speak
15:02 Trust, Morgan Guerin, and handing over the vision
16:58 Staying with heavy material without drowning in it
17:35 Founding the Berklee Institute before feeling qualified
19:13 Joy, celebration, and turning off the news
19:57 "Climate Song": adding a rap and news clips
21:56 "Solidarity Song": writing both sides of an argument
25:46 2020, and two steps forward, one step back
28:56 Greed, capitalism, and patriarchy
29:18 Why artists have to learn the business themselves
31:18 Giving the album away without an advance
32:10 Streaming, license terms, and the long tail
33:50 Losing to Chick Corea, then building a new category
34:42 "Blues Song," June Jordan, and a regret
36:41 Are you still a drummer?
37:21 "I love the drums" — something new to say
38:51 Look at the photos
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Visit Terri Lyne Carrington at → https://www.terrilynecarrington.com
and follow on [Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/terrilynecarrington
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@terrilynecarringtonofficial
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/TerriLyneCarrington
Bandcamp → https://terrilynecarrington.bandcamp.com
Purchase 'Trip the Night Fantastic' from Candid Records → https://candidrecords.shop.musictoday.com/product/XTCDCA062/terri-lyne-carrington-social-science-trip-the-night-fantastic-cd
Bandcamp → https://terrilynecarrington.bandcamp.com/album/trip-the-night-fantastic
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/trip-the-night-fantastic-terri-lyne-carrington-social-science/p8wxv3gy7vlkg
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://socialscience.lnk.to/tripthenightfantastic
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