Next Level: February 21st, 2020: Jen Allen - Sifting Grace
“Pianist Jen Allen’s “Sifting Grace” explores contemplative and universally resonant themes of life, loss and discovery through bold new works for jazz quartet.”
For Immediate Release
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - Pianist and composer Jen Allen releases Sifting Grace, a stirring and thoughtful musical representation of the grace that exists amongst challenge and change (NL 2007). Sifting Grace shines with Jen’s mindful and melodically driven compositions, which radiate with her own authentic style and voice.
Jen Allen is a musician who never shies away from honest self-revelation. Her compositional output reads like an intimate diary of life experiences and relationships, offered with subtle and surprising narrative power. Jen's patient and searching writing style has elicited numerous commissions, residencies, and accolades. In addition to performing and writing, Jen is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity College in Hartford and Visiting Faculty at Bennington College.
True to her deeply intimate and authentic compositional style, Sifting Grace was born out of Jen’s own life experiences and process. While profoundly personal, the album speaks to the universal narrative of sifting through the myriad of pressures, desires, griefs and distractions in life, in order to return to one’s most deeply rooted core values. Recalling the catalyzing inspiration for the album, Jen recalls, “After my mom's passing, it really put me in the emotional space to rethink some of the life choices I had made up to that time. I started to focus on things that were true and real and letting go of preconceived ideas I had held onto without questioning. I felt like I was sifting for grace in each situation of my life.”
Each composition reflects points in one’s experiences when they are provoked to explore their truth. “Begin Again” inspired after her mother’s passing, speaks to the feeling of starting life over after losing a mother’s unconditional love and learning to cultivate one’s own inner love for yourself. “Kurinji” is inspired by the natural miracle of a particular flower that blooms only once every 12 years, transforming the hills of South India into a stunning purple masterpiece; a living poem of patience and a picture of wisdom only obtained over time. Two additional tunes on the record, Climbing Ivy and Prickly Pear, are pieces that are derived from the pure joy and unique beauty of nature. As plants are nurtured by soil and all require their own individual care to grow, so are humans, all one of a kind yet dependent on one another to thrive. All of these pieces drive home the universal truth of the interconnectedness we all share in our experience on earth. As Jen explains, “Music is the perfect way to deal with life experiences that are hard to put into words. It's like meditation, it's able to reach the often inaccessible places of the mind and soul.”
The personnel consists of Jen Allen’s husband, Kris Allen on saxophones; Marty Jaffe on Bass; and Kush Abadey on Drums. Speaking to the album’s essence, Jen says, “This is me. This is where I am at now. It isn't trying to be something other than that. I was aiming for beauty, the unknown, and just trying to be a part of the mystery that connects us all.” Sifting Grace leaves us with a riveting musical testimonial of our interconnectedness as humans, as we all live through the struggles and triumphs of returning to our truest selves.
Sifting Grace releases on NextLevel on February 21, 2020.
About Jen Allen:
Jen Allen is a pianist, composer, author and educator. She frequently performs in New York, the Northeast US and in venues throughout the world, as the leader of her own groups or as a member of other creative music ensembles. Notable appearances include Dizzy’s Club, Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Cambridge Festival of the Arts, Greater Hartford Monday Night Jazz Series and Wexford Performing Arts Centre (Ireland).
Jen has performed with many notable artists, including Don Braden, Jimmy Greene, Kendrick Oliver, Sarah Caswell, Camille Thurman, Freddie Hendrix, Nat Reeves, Kris Allen, Ike Sturm and Antoinette Montague. In 2011, Jen was chosen as one of only eight pianists from around the world to participate in the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Workshop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, presenting a trio concert and working with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Lynne Arriale and Sherrie Maricle. An active recording artist, Jen is featured on many albums including her debut, Pieces of Myself, and Raise Up by the collaboratively led Trio 149 as well as many albums as a sideman.
Jen composes music for big bands, studio orchestras, string quartet and other smaller ensembles. She has been commissioned to compose music for several universities and grade schools. She was a member of the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City, a colloquium of the foremost up-and-coming writers of large ensemble jazz music today.
In November of 2018 Jen was a composer-in-residence for St. Peter’s Church (NYC) Jazz Lauds and received a commission from Spark and Echo for her piece “Kurinji”. Starting in 2018 Jen has curated and produced a concert series in West Hartford, CT called “Bring It Home” that features musicians from all over the world, including Brazil, Romania and Italy in the company of local Connecticut musicians and visual artists. Jen has received degrees in performance and composition from The Hartt School and UMASS Amherst. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity College in Hartford and Visiting Faculty at Bennington College.Her first jazz piano method book was published through Alfred's Publishing entitled Sitting In: Jazz Piano (co-authored with Noah Baerman). The book was the recipient of Music Inc.Magazine's Editor's Choice Award 2015.
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