Jen Allen Quartet

Jen Allen of West Hartford Releases Jazz CD
August 21, 2011|By OWEN MCNALLY, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant
Jen Allen, a gifted, young pianist/composer, mother of two young children and wife of the noted alto saxophonist Kris Allen, is on a roll this year as she pours more time, energy and creativity into her own promising career.
In a giant step and a required ritual in any jazz artist's career, the 34-year-year old musician, wife, mom, teacher, mentor and musical partner from West Hartford has just released her debut album as a leader, "Pieces of Myself."


It's a smart, elegant showcase for her skills as a pianist and composer featuring seven expressive originals and one fine standard, which resonate with an emotional, memoir-like inspiration. Her tight, talented studio band features trumpeter Josh Evans, husband Kris Allen on alto, guitarist Andrew Renfroe, bassist Dave Baron and drummer Lee Fish.
Jen Allen, a member of the legion of distinguished grads of The Hartt School's Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, was selected last spring to be a participant in the prestigious Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
In an intensive five-day educational program for promising young women musicians, she participated in hands-on workshops, top-level coaching on how to succeed in the jazz business and meeting with such role models as Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson.
At the conclusion of the rigorous basic training in everything from the art of performance to the business of self-promotion, Allen and seven other pianists who had been tapped for the elite program, performed in concert at the festival, which was founded by Dr. Billy Taylor, the late, legendary pianist, TV and radio host, educator and advocate for equality for women in the still male-dominated world of jazz. Taylor served as artistic director of jazz at the Kennedy Center from 1994 until his death in 2010.
Besides the natural-high generated by the new disc and all the practical knowledge gained at the festival, Allen, a respected member of the bustling jazz scene in the Hartford region, is also delighted with her recent appearance at the Winnepeg Jazz Festival.
A first step into the robust world of international jazz fests, the Canadian gig gave her the opportunity to play with two groups, including one featuring the great tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene. Originally from Bloomfield, Greene was a protégé of McLean, the founder of the jazz program at The Hartt School, and one of Allen's inspiring teachers.
More than likely, none of Allen's rising success or, for that matter, any part of her life over the past 17 years, including her marriage to Kris and their two kids, ever would have happened but for the fact that at age 17 she abandoned the cello — an instrument she had studied since age 5 — and embraced jazz piano.
She made the switch , as a favor to her high school band director at her alma mater, Foxboro High School (class of 1994), in her hometown of Foxboro, Mass.
Recently, Allen, who had just finished her first summer teaching stint as a senior teaching artist at the Litchfield Jazz Camp, spoke with The Courant about her career, which has been swinging along at a brisk tempo in 2011.
Q: Your parents had just bought you a new cello and you were a really serious student. So what inspired your conversion to jazz piano?

A: When I got to high school, I was seriously thinking about going to music school to study cello, and had even taken auditions on cello. But in the middle of my junior year, my band director needed a pianist for the jazz band, and so he asked me if I would do it. Foxboro is a small town, so it's not unusual for him to ask a band member to play a different instrument.
It was a really good jazz band, so I thought it was a privilege to do it. He started giving me basic piano lessons and lessons in jazz. I just fell in love with jazz and playing the piano and with the role that the piano played in jazz.
It changed the course of my life.
Q: So what happened to cello playing?
A: It totally fell out of my life. I'm kind of sorry about that sometimes, but, honestly, I didn't have a lot of time to do both. Starting out at 17 on jazz piano, I had so much catching up to do that I couldn't keep the cello up. I was totally encompassed in the piano and jazz. My parents finally asked me if it would be okay to sell the cello that they had just bought me, which I wasn't playing.
Q: Foxboro is most famously the home for the New England Patriots, but it's a small town, with not much more than one-fourth or so of the population of West Hartford. What kind of jazz program was there in high school?
A: It's a really good, high level program, comparable, in some ways, I'd say to what you have in West Hartford. (Her husband Kris, a saxophonist/composer and a McLean protégé, is one of many successful graduates of the nationally acclaimed Hall High jazz program in West Hartford. Hall boasts many such distinguished grads, including pianist Brad Mehldau, saxophonist Joel Frahm and sax player Erica von Kleist.)
Q: Were your parents into music?
A: Mom played a little bit of piano and organ, but was a school teacher. It was just a side thing, but she really loved music. I think she secretly wanted to be a musician, but couldn't do all the stuff that she wanted to do. So she likes it that I'm a musician. My step-father was not musical at all, but has been very supportive of my choice.


Q: Were you exposed to a lot jazz as a kid, like many musicians nurtured from childhood on their parents' jazz LP collections?
A: No, not at all. I only heard what my three older sisters — they're six, nine and 12 years older than me —played, which was a lot of R&B and pop music. I grew up watching MTV, basically. That was my musical upbringing.
Q: How did you and Kris meet? Was it through jazz?
A: Yes. We met at The Hartt School, the very first day I was there. We played in an ensemble together. We were just friends for awhile, and didn't even start dating until later on.
Q: You and Kris have two kids?
A: Yes, Avery who's 6, and Rory who's 4.
Q: How do you manage parenting and a career, which with you includes performing, composing and teaching?
A: Now that the kids are getting a little older, it's getting a little bit easier.
I pretty much took off about five years of playing just because I was having children and they were young, and I just couldn't do the stuff I wanted to do. Kris was doing most of the gigging and the teaching. As the kids have gotten a little older … I've been really trying to pursue my career more.
Q: Does Kris pitch in on the domestic duties?
A: Yes, he's definitely a hands-on kind of Dad. He's all in there. He's great. I couldn't pursue my stuff, and he couldn't pursue his stuff without each of us pitching in together. There's a lot of give and take. We let each other have each other's time.
A few years ago, Kris was going to grad school and doing his thing. And now I'm doing my thing. And then he'll have his time when he does his thing again. He has an album that's coming out later this year, so there's a balance.
Q: Do you see a future in music for Avery and Rory, maybe even careers?
A: I don't know. I just want them to be happy and do what they want to do. Avery likes to play piano. I began giving him lessons in January and he likes it, although he doesn't like to practice. Rory sings a lot and does her thing. I see that they like music and enjoy it, and that's all I care about.
Honestly, you can't have a career if you don't love what you're doing.
Q: Is that the kind of love that motivates you in pursuing jazz as a career, a profession never noted for providing rich financial gains for its practitioners?
A: Yes. It's the only reason I do what I continue to do, because it's a lot of work, a lot of ups and downs. More ups than downs. I want to keep creating music because I feel like it's an honor to be able to do that.

Q: With two kids and hectic schedules, how do you and Kris manage even a basic thing like being able to practice every day?
A: Kris takes the kids and I practice. And then I'll take the kids and he practices. And then we get together and do family things. It involves trying to schedule our time, which is hard for jazz musicians because we don't like schedules. But we always get the most done when we have to make things happen.
Q: What do you tell your students about how much of a commitment they have to make to the music?
A: Jazz is like any art form. The more you know about it, the better you are at it. It's a language. You have to learn to speak it and make sense out of what you know. Despite what some students come in thinking, there is no easy way to do it, no single method for finding the way.
Q: What are your thoughts on your new CD?
A: I think that the guys that I have on it really brought the music to life, really did more than I could have expected. They added what I wanted them to add.
Q: When is the CD release party and what are you working on right now?
A: I'm hoping to have the CD party in late September or early October, and I'm already writing new music. I have two new recording projects worked out in my head. But it's very expensive, you know, to make a CD. Sometimes Kris and I will just look at each other and laugh and say, 'I wish you were a doctor, or had a big income coming in.'
"Pieces of Myself" is available on CD Baby, ITunes and at Integrity 'n' Music, 506 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield. Information: http://www.jenallenmusic.com.


- The Hartford Courant