Interview with Karrin Allyson

If sell-out crowds, rave reviews, and Grammy nominations are any indication, Karrin Allyson is one of today’s top jazz vocalists. Born in Kansas and raised in Nebraska, where she began her college studies as a classical piano major, she developed her craft in Minneapolis before moving to Kansas City. There, singing took precedence over piano playing and she recorded her first album, I Didn’t Know About You, in 1993. In 2000 Allyson relocated to New York City where her Midwestern charm continues to shine through.

Allyson’s rapport with fellow band mates on stage is palpable. She is a knowledgeable musician with all the qualities of a great jazz singer-perfect pitch, fine articulation, great rhythmic and improvisational skills, and an appealing alto voice with a husky edge to it. Less tangible qualities-a spirit of adventure and sense of humor--enrich her artistry, and lack of artifice endears her to audiences and critics.
She keeps personal appearances exciting by constantly offering new material. Her wide ranging repertoire includes ballads from the great American songbook as well as bop classics, both of which are featured in her 1995 album Azure-Té and in 1996’s Collage. In 1999’s From Paris to Rio Allyson focused on the music of France and Brazil, singing some of the tunes in either impeccable French or Portuguese. On Wild for You she turned her attention to pop songs with which she’d grown up, and In Blue is dedicated to blues-based songs from a surprising variety of sources.
She received Grammy nominations for Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane in 2001 and Footprints in 2006. Footprints is of particular interest to JazzStandards.com because Allyson introduced several jazz instrumentals with new lyrics. She wrote the lyric for Duke Jordan’s upbeat “Jordu” and calls the song “Life Is a Groove.” She sings it with guest artist Nancy King whom she refers to as “the greatest jazz singer on the planet.” (King was also a Grammy nominee in 2006.) The lyrical message is that jazz offers a medium through which one can lose the cares of ordinary life. As the lyric says, “As long as we can play in harmony, life is a groove.” That’s a message the whole world needs to hear.

Of the thirteen cuts, three other songs appear in our website listings: Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma,” John Coltrane’s “Equinox,” and Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints,” all with lyrics by Chris Caswell. The musician and former music director for Paul Williams and Melissa Manchester shows himself to be a sensitive lyricist whose words mirror the various moods of the compositions.

Gillespie’s tune is retitled “Something Worth Waiting For,” and its lyric reflects the vicissitudes of falling in love at last: “Sometimes the old routine can shadow a world unseen ‘til love calls.” Coltrane’s moody ballad becomes “A Long Way to Go.” The lyric describes the seemingly endless time required to survive the pain of lost love: “Tomorrow comes too slow, When love is a no-show, Long way to go, To get over losing you.” Perhaps the most ambitious lyric is “Follow the Footprints,” the new title for Shorter’s composition. As Caswell says in the liner notes, “It’s this tumbling, kind of existential melody and very strange. But then I thought, ‘People always think of following footsteps forward, but you could follow them backward, to memories, reconnecting.’ It became this whole thing about losing somebody and how you get back with the person spiritually.” Even though the lyric can raise goose bumps on anyone who has lost a loved one, it is essentially soothing: “Our love’s a story that documents our journey, Memories are landmarks that comfort and assure me you’ll be with me always, Follow the footprints we left, and I’ll find you there.”

Another guest vocalist on the album is vocalese master Jon Hendricks, who contributed a new lyric to Horace Silver’s jaunty “Strollin’” on which he duets with Allyson and whistles a solo as well. As a finale, all three singers join in madcap, uptempo fun, singing and scatting his tune “Everybody’s Boppin’,” which was a staple of the unsurpassed vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Allyson maintains a busy touring schedule. The fall and winter months of 2007 and 2008 are typical-from the Catalina Bar and Grill in LA, Jazz Alley in Seattle, and a performance with the Yakima Symphony to the University of Vermont and Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York. In between coasts there are many stops in cities like Denver, St. Louis, and Fayetteville, and then it’s on to the Tel Aviv Opera House with Nancy King.
Allyson recorded a new CD in July, 2007, her eleventh for California’s Concord label. It will be released in February, 2008. In a telephone interview in September Karrin spoke about the new project.

KA: It’s a Brazilian themed album-brand spanking new. We just came up with a title yesterday. We think it’s going to be called Imagina: Songs of Brasil. “Imagina” is the title of a song that we’re doing by [Antonio Carlos] Jobim.

SB: Who are the musicians on the album?
KA: We have wonderful players on it. Steve Nelson, the vibraphonist--we just started to work together over the last six months and we’ve done five or so gigs together, maybe more. Rod Fleeman is on guitar and Todd Strait on drums. I met both Rod and Todd during my “tenure” in Kansas City, and they have been my band mates and dear friends for over 17 years, doing performances all over the country and the world, as well as recordings. They are both so very versatile-which is one reason I can do such versatile material-just like Danny Embrey, Bob Bowman, and Paul Smith, also long-time KC band mates who are staying closer to home these days. Gil Goldstein plays piano and accordion, and I play some piano on it too. This is the third CD Gil has recorded with me, and he played accordion on all of them. I’ve always loved accordion and especially when it’s in such good hands. And David Finck on bass is a wonderful player based in New York.

SB: Who are some of the other composers and lyricists represented on the album?
KA: Rosa Passos is a beautiful singer from Brazil who wrote a wonderful song that we’re doing. Paul Williams wrote the English lyric for it. And Edu Lobo-he’s another great Brazilian composer. Vinicius de Moraes is the poet who collaborated extensively with Jobim. We have a song that is completely his. Two Jobim tunes, “A Felicidade” and “Vivo Sonhando,” have English lyrics by [jazz vocalist] Susannah McCorkle. She died before Jobim’s wife granted her permission to record them. We got permission, and we’re proud to have a couple of her songs on the CD. Chris Caswell, who worked with me on the Footprints album, wrote English lyrics for two Jobim tunes, and we have an English lyric by Gene Lees as well.

SB: Where did you learn Portuguese so well?
KA: (Laughs) Well, I’m still learning. I’ve had coaches, and I’ve learned through the music. I hope that it sounds semi-acceptable to Brazilians! I’ve been to Brazil several times, and I had an amazing coach for this album, a dear friend of mine, Lucia Guimarães, a journalist from Rio. She’s my Portuguese coach, but more than that, all things Brazilian. She helped me find interesting repertoire, helped me with the whole vibe of it all.

SB: How do you find living in New York?
KA: I love it. We do as many gigs here as you can as a leader. We play the Blue Note annually and we just finished a week at Birdland. Nancy [King] will be joining us for part of the week at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in Lincoln Center, and in October Nancy and I will be performing together following my master class at the Old Church in Portland, Oregon.

SB: That’s a great jazz venue-an historic building with lots of charm and great acoustics. We look forward to seeing you there.
To find out if Allyson is coming to a city near you, go to her website,
www.karrinallyson.com.