Singer Karrin Allyson’s Bay Area mini-tour stops at Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay and The Sound Room in Oakland.One of jazz’s great polyglot vocalists — she’s honed an extensive repertoire of songs in French and Portuguese — the New York City-based singer plunges back into the Brazilian songbook on her new album “A Kiss for Brazil” .
Sprague has been Allyson’s West Coast mainstay for most of the past decade, including several Bay Area runs. As one of the Southland’s leading accompanists he’s made forays north in recent years with artists like saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf and vocalist Sara Gazarek. “I like her for her honesty and musicality, on piano and vocals. She just sings the songs as the legendary artists used to do. She’s not trying to dress it up in a non-musical way.”
As a jazz vocalist who doesn’t perform with elaborate charts, Washington likes to let the music unfold on stage, a situation many singers aren’t equipped to navigate. He’s done a few memorable gigs sharing the stage with Kim Nalley, “where it feels more like having a horn player on the stage,” he said. “Most important with another singer is that you’re encouraging and feeling each other.