Karrin Allyson

Karrin Allyson
Background information
Birth name Karrin Allyson Schoonover
Born (1963-07-27) July 27, 1963
Great Bend, Kansas, U.S.
Origin Kansas City
Genres Jazz, vocal jazz
Occupation(s) Singer
Instruments Singing, piano
Years active 1987–present
Labels Concord Records
Website www.karrin.com

Karrin Allyson (pronounced KAH-rin; born Karrin Allyson Schoonover on July 27, 1963 in Great Bend, Kansas) is an American jazz vocalist. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, and has received positive reviews from several prominent sources, including the New York Times, which has called her a "singer with a feline touch and impeccable intonation."[1]

Early life and education

Karrin Allyson was born in Great Bend, Kansas; her father was a Lutheran minister and her mother was a psychotherapist, teacher and classical pianist.[2] She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and spent her last year of high school in San Francisco. In her youth she studied classical piano, sang at her local church and in musical theatre, and also began songwriting.

Allyson attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha on a classical piano scholarship; she majored in classical piano and minored in French. She was lead singer for an all-female rock band called Tomboy. She also developed an avid interest in jazz, performing both in a jazz swing choir in college and in her own jazz ensemble, which had gigs at venues in Omaha.[2][3]

Career

After graduating from college in 1986, Allyson moved to Minneapolis and concentrated on her jazz career. In 1990, she moved to Kansas City, where her career took off. In 1992 she recorded her debut album, I Didn't Know About You, which was so well received it was re-released on Concord Records in 1993.[2] She subsequently recorded eight more Concord-released albums in Kansas City. In 1998, she moved to New York City with her longtime partner, classical music radio host Bill McGlaughlin, whom she met in Kansas City in the early 1990s.

Allyson sings in English, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish. The songs she performs are drawn from a variety of genres, including bossa nova, blues, bebop, samba, jazz standards, and other jazz modalities, and also ballads, pop standards, the Great American Songbook, soft rock, and folk rock. She has also recorded vocal performances of several instrumental jazz compositions, using both scat and vocalese techniques. She has recorded 12 original studio albums for the Concord Jazz label, and in 2009 she released a career-spanning "best of" collection.

Five of Allyson's albums have received Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album: Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (2001), Footprints (2006), Imagina: Songs of Brasil (2008), 'Round Midnight (2011), and Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein (2015)

Discography

References

  1. ↑ Holden, Stephen. "Peeling Back Folk Rock to Reveal Hidden Jazz." New York Times. November 5, 2005
  2. 1 2 3 McNally, Owen."Karrin Allyson Performs Feb. 20 at West Hartford Town Hall." Hartford Courant. February 16, 2010.
  3. ↑ Biography and Profile in UNO Alumni Association Magazine (Spring 2001), pp. 8-11

External links

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