Karrin Allyson at CSPS

An evening with
KARRIN ALLYSON
CSPS debut | Born 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.
And it's not just critics who love her; it's the rest of the world — from musicians and record-buyers, concertgoers and connoisseurs of quality music. The two-time Grammy Award-nominated artist has been winning over fans and critics since 1992.
That was the year Allyson assembled her Kansas City-based 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, 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."
In the years since, 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 (on the CD From Paris to Rio), the genius of John Coltrane (Ballads), and the blues (In Blue).
On Mar 25, Allyson 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.
How do you explain this degree of esteem and success? Well, first there's the singer's uniquely distinctive voice. Notable jazz critic and historian Gary Giddins affirms, "Allyson coolly stakes her claim. She brings a timbre that is part ice and part grain ... incisive, original, and emotionally convincing." The Houston Press agrees: "If there's a choir in heaven, someday the exquisite vocalist Karrin Allyson will lead it. She's such an otherworldly talent that the creator probably already has her on heavy rotation."
But it's not just the voice. When you listen to Karrin Allyson, you hear heart, intelligence, and musical sophistication. Her emotional range, from heartfelt to sassy, takes her well beyond most of her musical peers. Her sensibility, literate and engaged, honors the great traditions of blues, jazz and roots, then expands to incorporate the Great American Songbook, and then embraces French and Brazilian rhythms.
A major talent? Karrin Allyson is indeed, as the New York Times has called her, "a complete artist, one of the jazz world's finest."
Sun May 11 | 7 pm
CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids
$21 advance | $25 day of show

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