From her international breakthrough in the 90s as a featured vocalist on DJ/King Britt’s Sylk 130 project When the Funk Hit the Fan (and its smash hit “Seasons Change”) and Us3’s An Ordinary Day in an Unusual Place (and “Get Out,” an instant Top Ten single in Japan) through her jazzy and exotic, Brazilian influenced 2018 comeback EP Obrigada, Alison Crockett has forged a groundbreaking, deliriously unpredictable path as a visionary and fiercely independent artist.
A multi-talented singer, songwriter and pianist who grew up spending long nights entranced by and absorbing her father’s extensive music collection, Alison developed her formidable jazz chops out of Temple University in Philly gigging with stalwarts Orrin Evans, Matt Parish and Mike Boone – and later, after moving to NYC to pursue her master’s at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, introduced herself to the vibrant music scene there by fronting hip-hop jazz pioneer Greg Osby’s band.
“I consider myself a musician who comes out of the jazz tradition, the black music tradition where jazz people take established forms and reimagine them in new and different ways,”
she says, eschewing strict genre categorizations for herself and her responsive, ever-evolving artistry.
Alison released a string of powerful and influential soul and jazz driven solo recordings starting in 2004 with On Becoming A Woman. Buoyed by the success of the single “Like Rain” – which reached #3 on Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Winner’s 2003 chart on his legendary BBC Radio 1 program – Alison went on a unique, multi-faceted tear, expanding her fan base into the dance world by making the unusual choice to follow up with The Return of Diva Blue: On Becoming a Woman Redux, a set of deep house remixes from her debut album by top flight DJ/remixers like DJ Spinna, Yam Who?, Phil Asher, Mark De Clive-Lowe. “Diva Blue” is a nickname given to her by Britt.
Just as her fans were grooving on floors worldwide to tracks like the DJ Spinna twist on “Crossroads” – which became one of her signature tunes – true to form, she pulled a brilliant 180 with Bare, a stripped down, uber romantic acoustic set she called a love letter to her fans. Her artistry transcending to a whole ‘nother level of impact once again, Alison’s searing sociopolitical 2012 opus Mommy, What’s a Depression? found her tapping into the legacies of African American sociopolitical musical muses like Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone who laid the hard groundwork of speaking truth to power. Its title was inspired by her young daughter’s question about the economic woes she heard about in the media. Presenting a “Mixtape Jazz” of originals and re-imaginings, she called injustice and inequity like she saw it – offering her take on the Wall Street collapse, growing inequality, urban gentrification, war and immigration.
Now, in a different political era, Alison built upon the creative momentum/career renaissance she’s experienced since her EP Obrigada.
“I went there a total of three or four times, and each trip gave me an opportunity to work and tour with important Brazilian musicians like pianist Felipi Silviera,” Alison says.
“The road from there to conceiving and recording the six tracks of Obrigada was all about me discovering myself again via the discovery of another kind of music and, like I always do, taking it and re-imagining it through the lens of my experience and sensibilities. “I’m looking forward now to working with people who I love playing with, those who make my spirit feel good,” she adds. “Jazz and black music is not one thing. It’s not just nice music to put on in the background. It’s there to move your spirit. Looking back, I feel I have a body of work that speaks for itself, so when I think about the future, I want to expand upon that, doing my own thing without genre limits.”
The story of this Echoes of an Era Redux: My Father’s Record Collection Vol.1 begins with Alison Crockett’s music-loving Dad. “The house we lived in had a Bar, and next to it were huge speakers hooked up to a large state-of-the-art sound system. Every night in his home nightclub, which my mother called ‘the Florida Room’, my Dad would sit after work and play music for up to eight hours each night of my childhood. This is how I learned music.”
For her fifth recording as a leader, Alison Crockett presents a live recording captured at Washington DC’s home of jazz, Blues Alley.
This is the initial installment of a series of releases planned by Alison around the theme of “My Father’s Record Collection”, which will feature her interpretations of the music which informed, inspired and influenced Alison growing up within sound of her father’s Florida Room speakers. The series will reflect on the powerful legacy of Jazz and Black American Music through the very records that created the story of America presenting a journey to the past with more than a hint of the present.
Who says that jazz has to be laid back, inscrutable, and something to lay back and listen to. This recording takes you on a sonic journey that makes you want to dance by yourself or with a partner, as she remembers growing up with her music loving father and his record collection.