About the Festival
"The hope of a first-rate jazz festival for Boston took a huge step towards fulfillment… festivalgoers had the sort of hard choices people have to make at Newport and other top festivals."
—The Boston Globe
Ten years ago, Darryl Settles (entrepreneur, co-owner of the Beehive, and President of D'Ventures Limited, LLC, an investment and real estate development company) produced the South End’s first jazz festival and had a surprise turnout of nearly 10,000 people. Darryl continued to manage the event for seven years, growing the the festival attendance to 50,000 making the BeanTown Jazz Festival Boston’s most popular outdoor festival. The Berklee College of Music has supported the festival since it's start and in 2007 Berklee inherited production of the festival to make it a permanent part of Boston's cultural calendar.
The Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival has delighted tens of thousands with a host of jazz, Latin, blues, and groove acts. The city comes out in force—a record-breaking 80,000 strong in 2009—to enjoy world-class jazz on three stages, great eats, and good times stretching six-blocks in Boston's historic South End. Families are entertained with face painting, inflatables, photos, and an expanded instrument petting zoo. More than 100 vendors participate, making BeanTown the place to be.
The Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival brings together people from diverse communities throughout the city and region, and is a vital part of the Boston culture.
Terri Lyne Carrington, Artistic Director, Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival
Drummer, composer, producer and clinician Terri Lyne Carrington, was born in 1965 in Medford, Massachusetts. After an extensive touring career of more than 20 years with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, and more, she recently returned to her hometown where she was appointed professor at Berklee, her alma mater. Carrington received an honorary doctorate from Berklee in 2003.
Carrington gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for the Arsenio Hall Show, then again in the late 1990s as the drummer on the Quincy Jones late night TV show, VIBE, hosted by Sinbad. In 1989, she released a Grammy-nominated debut CD entitled Real Life Story, which featured Carlos Santana, Grover Washington Jr., Dianne Reeves, and Wayne Shorter.
She has worked as a producer in collaboration with several artists, and her production of the Dianne Reeves Grammy-nominated CD, That Day, helped the disc reach the top of the charts. Among her recent side projects is Hancock’s Grammy Award–winning CD Gershwin’s World, where she played alongside Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder.
Carrington's latest album, More to Say (Real Life Story: Next Gen) features an impressive roster of artists, including Walter Beasley, George Duke, Everette Harp, Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Patrice Rushen, Kirk Whalum, Nancy Wilson, and many others.
