The jazz scene in Chicago has undergone somewhat of a rebirth in recent years and one of the people leading the way has been singer Jackie Allen (right).
Allen - in town next week (November 10-11) to perform at Hong Kong's latest venue to feature jazz, Club ing in Wan Chai - was raised in Milwaukee and was surrounded by music from very beginning. Her father, Gene Allen, plays Dixieland tuba and all the five Allen children were brought up playing brass instruments.
Allen's first love was the French horn and she went on to study music at the University of Wisconsin. But the jazz bug had apparently bit Allen early - she was listening to pianist/producer Bill Potts' The Jazz Soul Of Porgy and Bess at 12 and started her voice training soon after.
A move to the Windy City in the early 80s saw Allen form a jazz quartet and she was able to develop what had, by then, become a sophisticated and sultry style, singing both her own tunes and interpretations of standards. She soon became a regular fixture on the local jazz circuit. Her latest recording, Which?, brought critical acclaim in the US last year - 'It is as close to a perfect vocalist album as we're likely to hear this year,' enthused the New Times Los Angeles - and further enhanced a reputation forged both through her live performances and her debut effort, 1993's Never Let Me Go.
Allen's first visit to the SAR caps a busy year which has seen her perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival, The International Bass Bash in Brazil and, more recently, as the headline act at the Beijing Jazz Festival. Joining her on her Hong Kong sojourn will be guitarist John Moulder, Hans Sturm on bass and Dane Richeson on percussion.
Jackie Allen with Trio, Nov 10-11, 10pm-midnight. Club ing, 4/F Convention Plaza (Renaissance Harbour View Hotel entrance),
