JD Allen / JD Allen Trio
Cincinnati, OH
Grant amount: $13,730
Performances
Constellation. Chicago, IL. 10/23/2021
NOMA. Omaha, NE. 10/25/2021
Cliff Bell's. Detroit, MI. 10/28/2021
About the Artist
Detroit-born saxophonist, JD Allen’s sound invokes the spirit of John Coltrane while his leadership dynamic inspires comparisons to Sonny Rollins. Allen is a member of the third wave of Young Lion mainstream jazz players. As a young man, he was influenced by the great musicians in Detroit, but his apprenticeship truly began once he arrived in New York City. A student of Betty Carter, George Cables, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, and Butch Morris, and contemporaries like Orrin Evans, Gerald Cleaver, Eric Revis, Marcus Gilmore, Meshell Ndegéocello, and Duane Eubanks, Allen is widely recognized as one of today’s most dynamic tenor saxophonists in terms of his performance, compositional voice, and band leadership. Allen’s no-frills approach to writing and recording have earned him international acclaim.
Following the release of his debut album In Search Of... in 1999, Allen won the won Best New Artist award in Italy. Allen is a firm fixture in critic polls and best-of lists and his work has been praised by the likes of The New York Times, Time Out NY, All About Jazz, Jazzman, Jazz Wise, Jazziz, and Downbeat. Following the release of Allen’s Toys / Die Dreaming in August 2020, Larry Blumenthal described Allen as, “an essential voice on jazz’s landscape for both his force and his restraint as well as for the beauty of his tenor saxophone’s sound.” Allen is also heavily active in We Insist! and We Up Re Up, two arts-based collectives devoted to improving the quality of community life through the arts.
This tour will feature JD with drummer, Nasheet Waits and bassist, Eric Revis, as follows:
Drummer Nasheet Waits is the son of esteemed hard bop drummer Freddie Waits. Credited alongside such illustrious names as Andrew Hill, Jason Moran, Christian McBride, Fred Hersch, and Antonio Hart, Jackie McLean, Stanley Cowell, Miroslav Vitous, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Eddie Gomez, Geri Allen, Wallace Roney, and the Mingus Big Band, among others, Waits is also a respected educator who has led masterclasses, lectures, and workshops around the world. Most recently, Waits took up a position as a professor of jazz at the esteemed New England Conservatory.
Eric Revis has performed and recorded with Betty Carter, Peter Brötzmann, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jason Moran, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Coleman, Ralph Peterson, Lionel Hampton, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Cyrille, and Tarbaby, the experimental trio he tri-leads with Orrin Evans and Nasheet Waits. He has been a mentor to the next generation as part of the Kennedy Center’s “Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead”. Currently based in his native California, Revis is a frequent figure on the burgeoning creative music scene in Los Angeles. A recipient of a 2018 grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Revis also received the 2017 inaugural Jazz Gallery Fellowship which included a residency at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In 2017 Revis was named “Rising Star” bassist by the Downbeat Critics Poll.
The trio has toured and performed together under various banners, most often as the JD Allen Trio or RAW Trio. The group has also performed together as sidemen in numerous capacities over the last two decades.