Saturday, July 01, 2006


Karrin and Nancy's rainy day

My wife and I went to a jazz festival in Toledo on June 18, mainly so that I could see my favorite jazz singer, Karrin Allyson. Unfortunately, it was a stormy day, and Karrin Allyson's performance had to be cut short after just six songs. The performance was supposed to also feature Nancy King, a jazz singer who performs with Allyson on Allyson's great new album, "Footprints," but the storm began before King could participate.

That was kind of a bummer, but there was a nice incident later. While the headliner, Al Jarreau, was performing, I noticed Karrin Allyson standing off to the side of the stage with another woman. I walked over to try to get a picture. I didn't know who Nancy King was until "Footprints" came out, but when I got my copy I looked King up on the Internet, and I noticed the woman next to Karrin looked like the picture I'd seen. She was closest to the fence I was behind, so I asked her, "Are you Nancy King?" She was, and when I explained how I'd figured out who she was, she asked, "Did you look at my web site?" I explained I'd just found out who she was but that I planned to track down her music, too. She suggested I pick up her new album with Fred Hersch, "Live at Jazz Standard."

I asked if I could take her picture, and she asked if I wanted Karrin Allyson in the picture, too, and I said sure, so she grabbed her friend and they posed for me. That's Nancy on the left and Karrin on the right. I got to talk to Karrin Allyson, too, and asked her to come back to Ohio, and she asked my name and shook hands.

It turned out my favorite music downloading site, eMusic, had "Live at the Jazz Standard," so I bought it. The same site also has the entire Karrin Allyson catalog.