Karrin Allyson (pronounced ''KAR-in''; born Karrin Allyson Schoonover on July 27, 1963) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

vocalist. She has been nominated for five

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

and has received positive reviews from several prominent sources, including the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', which has called her a "singer with a feline touch and impeccable intonation."

Early life and education

Karrin Allyson was born in Great Bend, Kansas; her father was a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

minister and her mother was a

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

, teacher, and classical pianist.McNally, Owe
"Karrin Allyson Performs Feb. 20 at West Hartford Town Hall."
''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...

''. February 16, 2010. She grew up in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, and spent her last year of high school in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. 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 Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was origin ...

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. In 2022 she was award an honorary

Doctor of Fine Arts Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) is a professional doctoral degree in fine arts. It may also be awarded as an honorary degree. Description Doctoral programmes leading to DFAs in the UK are of equivalent level to a PhD, with the same requirement to demon ...

degree from The University of Nebraska Omaha.

Career

After graduating from college in 1986, Allyson moved to

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

and concentrated on her jazz career. In 1990, she moved to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

, 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 Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

in 1993. She subsequently recorded eight more Concord-released albums in Kansas City. In 1998, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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 Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive List ...

s, and other jazz modalities, and also

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

pop standards Traditional pop (also known as vocal pop or pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

, the

Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant 20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is th ...

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

, and

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

. She has also recorded vocal performances of several instrumental jazz compositions, using both scat and

vocalese Vocalese is a style of jazz singing in which words are added to an instrumental soloist's improvisation. Definition Vocalese uses recognizable lyrics that are sung to pre-existing instrumental solos, as opposed to scat singing, which uses nonsen ...

techniques. She has recorded 12 original studio albums for the

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the ...

label, and in 2009 she released a career-spanning "best of" collection. Her first all-original record, ''Some of That Sunshine'', was released in August 2018 to rave reviews, with Jazz Times writing that "Allyson unleashes her equally impressive dexterity as a songwriter." Five of Allyson's albums have received

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

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

* '' I Didn't Know About You'' (

, 1993) * '' Sweet Home Cookin''' (Concord Jazz, 1994) * '' Azure-Té'' (Concord Jazz, 1995) * ''

Collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

'' (Concord Jazz, 1996) * ''

Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...

'' (Concord Jazz, 1997) * ''From Paris to Rio'' (Concord, 1999) * ''Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane'' (Concord Jazz, 2001) * ''Yuletide Hideaway'' (Kas, 2001) * ''In Blue'' (Concord Jazz, 2002) * ''Wild for You'' (Concord, 2004) * ''Footprints'' (Concord Jazz, 2006) * ''Imagina: Songs of Brasil'' (Concord Jazz, 2008) * '' 'Round Midnight'' (Concord Jazz, 2011) * '' Many a New Day: Karrin Allyson Sings Rodgers & Hammerstein'' ( Motema, 2015) * ''Some of That Sunshine'' (Kas, 2018) * ''Shoulder to Shoulder: A Centennial Tribute to Women's Suffrage'', as The Karrin Allyson Sextet (

eOne Music MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch"), formerly known as Koch Records and Entertainment One (eOne) Music/Records, is an American independent record label and music management company based in New York City. It was formed in 1987 as a music div ...

, 2019) * ''A Kiss For Brazil'' (Origin 2024)

References

External links

Official Website
* Karrin Allysonat AllMusic.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Allyson, Karrin 1963 births Living people American jazz singers American jazz pianists American women jazz singers American women jazz pianists People from Great Bend, Kansas University of Nebraska Omaha alumni Concord Records artists 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American women pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers Singers from Kansas 20th-century American singers Motéma Music artists French-language singers of the United States Portuguese-language singers of the United States Italian-language singers of the United States Spanish-language singers of the United States American bossa nova singers