Schuur and Allyson to Deliver Stunning Jazz Vocals

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

October 4 , 2006

Jazz vocalists are a special breed.  Perhaps more than singers of any other musical style, they approach their voice as an instrument, standing toe-to-toe with their non-vocal colleagues whether improvising melodic lines or simply infusing lyrics with layers of style and meaning.   Two of the genre’s top interpreters will share the bill on one evening when Diane Schuur and Karrin Allyson perform an evening of stunning jazz vocals at The Paramount Theater on Sunday, October 15 at 7 pm.  

Born in Tacoma, Washington, vocalist Diane Schuur has earned respect and garnered praise from such legendary musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, and B.B. King.  Known for her three-and-a-half octave vocal range, Schuur’s remarkable career began at age nine.  While still a student at the Washington State School for the Blind, a 16-year-old Schuur was performing original material and wowing audiences with her playful and distinctive voice.  When she made her Monterey Jazz Festival debut in 1975, the legendary Stan Getz became one of her biggest fans and an important mentor after hearing her perform.  The rest is history. 

Schuur has received two Grammy Awards and five Grammy nominations, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues (including Carnegie Hall),  and performed with such greats as Maynard Ferguson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, and Quincy Jones.

A serious classical piano student, Karrin Allyson made it her major in college, where she first performed professionally to pay tuition.   Catching the jazz bug from fellow students, she began to listen to Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk.   Three years later she answered a call for help from her uncle, the owner of Kansas City’s Phoenix jazz club, who suddenly found himself without a singer. 

Now a popular and critically-acclaimed fixture on the jazz landscape, Allyson has established her mastery of lyric interpretation on ten recordings including the Grammy-nominated Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane, In Blue, and Wild for You.  Communicating emotion with minimal artifice, Allyson draws from a vast well of styles and genres including the blues, contemporary pop, bossa nova, chanson, and bebop repertoire.

Seats for the October 15 concert with Diane Schuur and Karrin Allyson are $49, $44, $41, and $38.   Tickets and further details are available online, or through The Paramount's Box Office at 434.979.1333.

For more information about Schuur and Allyson, please visit www.dianeschuur.com and www.karrin.com.