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Karrin Allyson sings down-home jazz at New York’s Le Jazz Au Bar

Kansas chanteuse with magnetic voice is earthy country sophisticate

By Lucy Komisar

Jazz singer Karrin Allyson has an earthy, down-home sound that conjures up dark, smoky clubs where listeners hear the sorrows of their lives put to music. Except that this is not a grubby dive, but the elegant Le Jazz Au Bar on West 58th Street off Park Avenue in New York.

Originally from Kansas and now a New Yorker, Allyson mixes the unpretentious feel of a country singer with the throaty sophistication of a sultry city chanteuse. Blues and standards get the same soulful treatment. She also sings a few songs in perfectly-accented French and Portuguese.

Pert and pixiesh, Allyson banishes pretension, choosing a plain-draped black top and white pants instead of evening dress. If her clothes are understated, her presentation commands attention.

Allyson’s magnetic middle-register voice produces a genuinely stunning sound around such classics as “I Ain’t got Nothin’ but the Blues,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” and pieces by Joni Mitchell (“All I Want”) and Elton John (“Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word.”)  I was also glad to hear the less well known “I Got Eyes” by Melissa Manchester.

Allyson takes over the piano for a song or two. You get a sense of “improv,” as if you were hanging around a piano bar, instead of relaxing in the English country-house ambience of this very charming jazz club.

Karrin Allyson in cabaret. Bruce Barth, piano; Danny Embrey, guitar; Bob Bowman, bass; and Todd Strait, drums.

Le Jazz Au Bar, 41 East 58th Street. New York Tue-Sun 8, Fri & Sat, also 10. Running Time: 1:30. Cover Charge $35 weekdays, $50 Fri & Sat. Food & drink. No minimum. 212-308-9455. Through September 5, 2004.

Coming up: Ute Lemper, Sept. 14-19; Madeleine Peyroux Sept. 20-25; Karen Akers, Oct. 19-31.

Image by Randee St. Nicolas

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