Jackie Allen to perform with DePauw Jazz Ensemble

GREENCASTLE -- Jazz vocalist Jackie Allen. described by the Chicago Tribune as "musically sophisticated and artistically daring," will join the DePauw Jazz Ensemble for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The program is in Kresge Auditorium in the Judson and Joyce Green Center of the Performing Arts. Admission is free.

After the concert, the music will continue with an open jam session at the Fluttering Duck, located within The Inn at DePauw. Audience members will have opportunities to meet Jackie Allen and enjoy performances by members of the DePauw jazz faculty and student jazz combos.

Jackie Allen has been singing jazz in Chicago since 1992 and has nine compact disc releases to her credit. Her self-produced debut album "Never Let Me Go" (1994) was on the national charts for 13 weeks. Her 2003 CD release of "The Men in My Life" was a tribute to the many male vocalists that have influenced her, including Frank Sinatra, Sting and James Taylor.

Her 2004 release "Love is Blue" reached number eight nationally in airplay and the top 15 on the Billboard charts. In 2006, Jackie Allen was signed to Blue Note Records and released "Tangled" and followed that with Starry Night, a live recording with an orchestra featuring star-themed songs arranged expressly by such gifted arrangers as John Clayton (Count Basie Orchestra and Diana Krall) and Bill Cunliffe (2010 Grammy winning arranger).

V.R. Peterson of People magazine writes that Jackie Allen "possesses a voice that combines the expressiveness of Annie Lennox and the pitch of Rickie Lee Jones, while achieving it's own bright, dramatic sound ... sassy ... tender."

In her performance with the DePauw Jazz Ensemble, directed by part-time assistant professor of music Shawn Salmon, Allen will sing original compositions as well as arrangements of classic jazz standards. The Jazz Ensemble will also be performing arrangements of hits by the Beatles and the Yellowjackets.