Karrin Allyson

Williams Passport: Visiting Artist

program

Listen to Karrin

Described as "...utter musical fearlessness...a complete artist—one of the jazz world's finest..." by The New York Times, the three-time GRAMMY® nominated artist shares a concert of sensational vocal jazz. She will also engage the audience in a pre-concert chat in Brooks-Rogers at 7:15 p.m.

Born on July 27th, in Great Bend, Kansas, Karrin Allyson (pronounced ‘CAR-in’) has spent the last fifteen years carving out an impressive career as a singer, songwriter, pianist, composer and bandleader.

It’s not just critics who love her, it’s the rest of the world, too—musicians, concertgoers and connoisseurs of quality music.

One thing’s for certain, though: The three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated artist has been winning over fans and critics alike. And she’s been doing so just about everywhere jazz can be heard or seen since 1992.

That was the year Allyson assembled her Kansas Citybased rhythm section, borrowed funds from her family and headed into the studio. The result? I Didn’t Know About You. The reaction was immediate. “Stunning debut! Irresistible twists of melody and inflection,” wrote veteran jazz critic Neil Tesser in Playboy Magazine, placing the young singer in the company of legends Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Horn. Critics and jazz lovers from coast to coast echoed the news. Allyson is a major talent that will drive you wild.

Over the years, Karrin Allyson has recorded a series of eleven CDs for Concord Records, each of which have showcased her astonishing breadth of repertoire, from standards by Gershwin and Porter to Brazilian bossa nova to samba and Thelonious Monk. She has also taken on French and Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio), the genius of John Coltrane Ballads: (Remembering John Coltrane) and the blues (In Blue).

Most recently, the vocalist has released Imagina: Songs of Brasil, a beautiful collection of 14 tracks that features songs sung fully in Portuguese, as well as Brazilian songs with English translations by Susannah McCorkle, Chris Caswell, Gene Lees, Paul Williams and Jon Hendricks. But, ”Whatever your native language,” she says, “I hope that these songs speak directly to your heart, as they have to mine.”

Her many eclectic and steadfast recordings, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. Karrin Allyson spends two days out of three on the road, playing the major jazz festivals and clubs of the U.S. and making repeated tours overseas. In February 2004, she toured Australia for the first time. This summer, she embarks on yet another tour of Europe, South America and the Far East.

For more information: http://www.karrin.com/