Remembering John Coltrane

I am a Karrin Allyson fan. As a matter of fact, she is on my own top 10 list of female vocalists (which includes Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Tierney Sutton and our very own Jheena Lodwick, to name a few).

I get tremendous enjoyment from her CD album “Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane” which her recording studio, Concord, released in 2001. But my yearning for this album’s hard-to-find LP version wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that the CD version would do. I was about to give up when suddenly an e-mail from my reliable vinyl “pusher” popped up to say a copy had been reserved for me.

The LP cover itself doesn’t disappoint: the gatefold art is handsomely crafted with photographs of Karrin’s in various sultry and relaxed poses. The album art plus the two LPs blue color may be enough reason to buy the album.

I never expected that the LP version would have so much more to offer in terms of details and purity.

The CD version in my system seems to highlight the common belief that, in most vocal renditions of jazz classics, voice strain is the norm. In the LP version, Karrin demonstrates the smoothness and ease with which she gives life and justice to John Coltrane’s 1962 mainstream brilliance.

Karrin leaps out of Coltrane’s shadow by giving the “Ballads” her own signature. With splendid sound recreation, Karrin’s rendition of each Coltrane classic becomes something distinctive and not a cautious similitude. That her calming voice may be rightly suited to these songs partly explains her mastery of the Coltrane ballads. To the very ingenuousness of songs such as I Wish I Knew and Too Young To Go Steady, Karrin supplies the emotion to Coltrane’s improvisation. The faithful sound reproduction of Coltrane’s Ballads could also be attributed to Karrin’s excellent musical support from what may well be considered an all-star band featuring bassist John Patitucci; saxophonists Bob Berg, Steve Wilson, and James Carter; pianist/educator James Williams; and drummer Lewis Nash. These geniuses and Karrin fuse their diverse musical personas into one stirring performance to produce an opus worthy of musical acclaim.

Karrin started her career moonlighting in gigs around jazz bars in Omaha, Nebraska, while studying classical piano at the University of Nebraska. In addition to her classical studies at university, Allyson was lead singer for her own rock band Tomboy. Since releasing her first album “I Didn’t Know about You” in 1992, she slowly and tenderly draped herself around a collection of jazz standards, blues and a bit of Brazil, with her melodious voice at the forefront. Coltrane’s ballads actually endeared Karrin to a jazz community which had earlier showed a bias for instrumentalists.

Coltrane’s “ballads” incluuuude songs that have become synonymous with Coltrone’s performances, such as Say It (Over and Over Again, You Don’t Know What Love Is, Too Young to Go Steady, All or Nothing at All, I Wish I Knew, What’s New?, It’s Easy to Remember, Nancy (With the Laughing Face), Naima, Why Was I Born?, and Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye. These have never sounded so alive and vibrant as they when as interpreted by Karrin and played back on vinyl.

Karrin may not be as good as Ella Fitzgerald when it comes to scatting, but her truthful and soulful rendition of every note she sings more than makes up for it. When you’re able to listen to a musical artist who dares to take on Coltrane as a vocal endeavor, who cares about scatting? This blue vinyl is definitely an audiophile must-have.

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