Luther Allison, photo by Anna Yatskevich
Originally published in Jersey Jazz - Reprinted by permission of the New Jersey Jazz Society
James Black was a New Orleans-based jazz drummer, little known outside of the Crescent City. James Carroll Booker III was called the "piano prince of New Orleans." Harold Battiste was a reedist and composer who worked closely with such artists as Ellis Marsalis, Sam Cooke, and Dr. John.
Those are some of the "lesser known" musicians -- along with such household names as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton -- whose music is featured in "New Orleans Songbook", Jazz at Lincoln Center's 49-city tour that began on January 22 in Spokane, WA. The tour will come to Kean Stage in Union, NJ, on February 23 and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton on February 28. The concerts will be led by pianist Luther Allison and vocalists Quiana Lynell and Milton Suggs. They will be joined by a septet including trumpeter Brandon Woody, trombonists Gina Benalcazar Lopez and Mariel Bildsten, saxophonist Markus Howell, bassists Jonathon S. Muir-Cotton and Liany Mateo, and drummer Marcus Grant.
"We really want to highlight a lot of what New Orleans has to offer," said Allison. "In addition to Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, there's James Black, James Booker, Allen Toussaint, the Preservation Hall Band, Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Henry Butler, Harold Battiste, and Jon Batiste. There's so much incredible music that has come out of New Orleans. I'm really delighted to present the music that has come out of such a powerful city. There's a lot we have to offer that people haven't heard."
Milton Suggs, Luther Allison, and Quiana Lynell
The 29-year-old Allison is one of the emerging talents on the current jazz scene. Last month, he was scheduled to be a guest artist at JALC's 'Cool School" and "Hard Bop" concerts presented in New Jersey and New York, premiering his composition, "Milk Route". The Morristown, NJ, concert was postponed due to a snowstorm and has been reset for June 19 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center.
Growing up in Charlotte, NC, Allison began taking classical piano lessons in the fourth grade. "I had always played around with the songs my teacher would give me," he said. "I would make little adjustments. I wasn't always the best sight reader. I would find stuff that I messed up that I would like. I think that's one of the fundamental elements of jazz music -- express yourself through a preexisting composition and how that can change over time. That is something I was starting to notice a little bit when I was younger."
In addition to piano, Allison also plays drums. By the time he reached his junior year at Northwest School of the Arts, he was participating in a program called the Jazz Arts Initiative (now called Jazz Arts Charlotte). "I was one of the first people to come through there. Shortly after me was my good friend, Sean Mason." Others who have been in the program were alto saxophonist Veronica Leahy and saxophonist Gustavo Cruz, currently a student at Juilliard.
"I owe a lot to Lonnie Davis (JAC President/CEO/Founder)," Allison said. "She changed my life. I met a lot of other musicians in and around Charlotte. I was just learning from them. People would call me for gigs. I owe so much to them because they were the first people to believe in me when I made the switch (from classical) into jazz."
In 2017, Allison earned his Bachelor's Degree in Studio Music & Jazz from The University of Tennessee and, in 2019, received his Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Michigan State University. While at MSU, he was recruited by trombonist Michael Dease, a Michigan State faculty member, to play drums on Dease's Posi-Tone Records album, Father Figure. The other band members were bassist Endea Owens, saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins and Markus Howell, vibraphonist Behn Gillece, and pianist Glenn Zaleski.
"It's funny thinking back on that day in the studio," Allison said, "and thinking where everybody is now." In January, Allison and Dease played together with vocalist Kurt Elling at Birdland. Dease, Allison said, "was one of the first people to take me under his wing and take me on the road with him."
Dease remembered meeting Allison in 2014, "when he was recommended to work at my summer jazz camp, the Jazz Institute at Brevard Music Center in Brevard, NC. He was 19 and literally bursting at the seams with talent and joyful enthusiasm. He was such a dynamic example of practice and passion meeting performance that I publicly promised the entire student body that I'd bring him to New York City and put him to work gigging and recording. He started on drumset with me, then replaced Glenn Zaleski as my pianist for several years and projects. It culminated in a Master's Degree at Michigan State where he received mentorship from our entire musical family. I am immensely proud of the person and musician he has become and honored to have a supporting role in his journey."
Toward the end of his time at MSU, Allison was asked by bassist Rodney Whitaker to join a few other musicians in a performance during Whitaker's master class at Brevard. The other musicians, Allison said, were trumpeter Brandon Lee, and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., along with Whitaker and Dease. "I was playing piano," Allison recalled, "surrounded by all these guys who were 10 to 12 years older than me -- the who's who in the jazz world. At the time, I was this 21-year-old no name from North Carolina that nobody knew anything about. We had an amazing time playing together.
"I was actually planning to move to Chicago to work in ministry, as my faith is very important to me. Ulysses took my hand and said, 'What are you doing after school?' I told him, 'I'm still kind of figuring it out.' In the back of my mind, though, I was decided. He told me, 'Man, you need to move to New York.'" Allison did move to New York, and a couple of months later when Owens was forming his Generation Y band, he texted Allison and asked him to join it. "I went ahead and accepted," Allison said, "and the rest is history."
When asked about that conversation at Brevard, Owens said, "Luther has that IT factor. He was too talented to go the conventional route of ministry, and I told him the way he plays is ministry. There are certain people, when you hear them play, you realize that there is nothing else that they are supposed to be doing but music because the impact they create when performing is so palpable. Luther Allison is the complete package, and I can't wait for the rest of the world to acknowledge this truth."
In 2022, Allison received an email from vocalist Samara Joy's manager, Matt Peterson, asking him if he was available for a whole month of gigs in November. "I had never met her," he said. "I don't think she'd ever heard me play live. I think she saw me online and heard about me from some of her friends. I did that month of gigs just off the strength of recommendations and Instagram videos she saw of me. I guess I passed the test, and I played with her for another year. That was a beautiful experience."
Last year, Allison's Posi-Tone Records album, I Owe It All To You, spent 20 weeks on the JazzWeek chart, peaking at Number 8 and finishing Number 49 for the year. In a DownBeat review, Michael J. West wrote that, "Listening to Luther Allison play piano is like watching Simone Biles do floor exercises. He turns effortless, physics-defying technical wizardry into evocative, involving art . . . I Owe It All To You is a portrait of a straightahead pianist who seems to have no weak points in his arsenal."
Looking back on his piano influences, Allison said his Number 1 person is Donald Brown, an Associate Professor at The University of Tennessee. "He taught me everything I know," he said. "Donald opened me up to the Memphis piano lineage -- Mulgrew Miller, Harold Mabern, James Williams, Phineas Newborn, Charles Thomas. So many pianists have come through Memphis." Other important piano heroes are Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, and Kenny Barron. And, "more recently," he added, "I've been dealing with a lot of the stride pianists. I'm really falling in love with Willie 'The Lion' Smith, James P. Johnson, and Earl Hines."
Quiana Lynell won the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition in 2017. On the night of the finals, before she sang her last song, she told the New Jersey Performing Arts Center audience: “I’m about to turn this [hall] into a juke joint, if you don’t mind.” Michael Barris, writing for DownBeat, recalled what happened next. "Lynell then ripped through 'Hip Shakin’ Mama', a 12-bar blues that one of her musical heroes, New Orleans soul icon Irma Thomas, had covered years ago. But Lynell didn’t simply grind out a blues; she painted a picture, shading and coloring the lyrics with strong vocal technique honed through her classical training. When the song concluded, she owned the room—and was on her way to being No. 1 on the judges’ scorecards."
Lynell has performed and/or recorded with Nicholas Payton, Patti Austin, and Herbie Hancock, among others. As an educator, she helped establish Loyola University New Orleans' popular music program and created "Made in America: Lyrically Speaking", a clinic exploring jazz and blues. Reviewing her 2019 Concord album, A Little Love, Carlo Wolff of DownBeat wrote, "The album effectively showcases a vocalist comfortable and commanding in styles including pop, jazz classics and the blues."
Milton Suggs combines the influences of Joe Williams, Donny Hathaway, and Nat King Cole. He has performed with such artists as pianist Orrin Evans and trumpeter Marquis Hill and has sung with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Jazzwise's Peter Quinn, reviewing Suggs' 2023 Imani Records album, Pure Intention (with pianist Michael King), praised Suggs’ "newly penned lyrics to music written by some of his favorite musicians and composers including Mulgrew Miller, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Buster Williams, and more . . . The music-making from Suggs and King is never less than sublime, with the former's rich baritone and compelling way with a lyric perfectly matched by the latter's soulful playing and beautiful reharmonizations."
Kean Stage is located at 1000 Morris Ave. in Union, NJ. The New Orleans Songbook concert will begin at 7:00pm on February 23 in the Enlow Recital Hall. For more information or to order tickets, log onto keanstage.com or call (908) 737-7469.
The McCarter Theatre Center is located at 91 University Place in Princeton, NJ. The New Orleans Songbook concert will begin at 7:30pm on February 28 in the Matthews Theatre. For more information or to order tickets, log onto mccarter.org or call (609) 258-2787.
The New Jersey Jazz Society is a non-profit organization of business and professional people, musicians, teachers, students and listeners working together for the purpose of advancing jazz music. Their mission is to promote and preserve America’s original art form – jazz. The Society seeks to ensure continuity of the jazz art form through its commitment to nurture and champion local talent, along with showcasing outstanding national and international artists providing for the younger generation via arts education programs.
Milton Suggs photo by Jacob Blickenstaff
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