Allison Au Jazz Quartet at VIU

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Wednesday, November 5th, 2014
7:30 PM

Juno-nominated jazz artist Allison Au and her quartet will perform at Vancouver Island University (VIU) as a special guest of the Jazz Studies program. The concert is open to the public..

Au is a Toronto-based saxophonist, composer and arranger. The Allison Au Quartet was formed in 2009, and was nominated in 2013 for a Juno Award recognizing “Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year” for the quartet’s debut album, The Sky Was Pale Blue.

The quartet features Au on alto saxophone, Todd Pentney on piano, John Maharaj on bass, and Fabio Ragnelli on drums.

A review of Au’s debut album by Ottawa Citizen arts reporter Peter Hum noted her music “has a very concrete, at times cerebral feel.”

In an interview with Hum, Au said her interest in music began with the encouragement and wide ranging musical taste of her father, and under the direction of a dedicated piano teacher who taught her classical piano from age six through 18.

A love for jazz was also fostered by her father, who opened her ears to Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. She recalled first hearing Fitzgerald singing Mack the Knife: “That recording just killed me. I loved the fact that she forgot the lyrics in the middle of the song. I loved the warmth of her voice. I loved the energy of the rhythm section. I remember hearing that as early as six.”

The Allison Au Quartet has maintained a steady performance schedule at Toronto’s major jazz clubs, and was the recipient of the TD Jazz Fellowship Scholarship in 2011 and the Alfred and Phyllis Balm Scholarship in 2012 to attend the Winter Creative Music Residency at The Banff Centre.

Au was also selected in 2011 as one of eight international participants for the Metropole Orkest's Arrangers Workshop held in the Netherlands.