Jazz Articles about Allison Au

About Allison Au

Album Review

Allison Au Quartet: Wander Wonder

Read "Wander Wonder" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 22, 2018

Toronto-based, Juno Award-winning alto saxophonist Allison Au and her quartet present their follow-up to 2017's Forest Grove (Self Produced) with Wander Wonder. The set of all Au originals--with keyboardist Todd Pentney co-writing “Force Majeur"--opens with a translucent dreamscape, “The Valley," that sounds like something that Daniel Lanois might have cooked up. The quartet follows up this wandering and brief-but-gorgeous opener with a buoyant modern jazz gem, “Future Self." Au proves herself, again, a marvelous composer of engaging, accessible ...

Album Review

Allison Au: Forest Grove

Read "Forest Grove" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 6, 2017

The best artists--writers, painters, musicians--create distinct new worlds. Canada's Allison Au has done just that with her Juno-Award-winning (2016, Jazz Album of the Year) recording, Forest Grove. The music therein is Au's personal vision transformed into a set of sounds with a continuity of purpose. A rarity for a young artist. Au says she was attracted to what she refers to as the simplicity of the jazz quartet as a vehicle for realizing the vision of her original ...

Album Review

Allison Au Quartet: Forest Grove

Read "Forest Grove" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
March 26, 2016

The sheer number of great young jazz musicians coming out of every corner of the world is simply staggering. Allison Au is an alto saxophonist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada whose debut album, The Sky Was Pale Blue, Then Grey (Self-Produced, 2014) was nominated for a Juno Award: Canada's equivalent of a Grammy nomination. Her new album, Forest Grove, featuring all-original compositions recorded with the same group, has also been nominated for a Juno in 2016. Think about that for a ...