A bassist and composer of wide-ranging curiosity, Ben Allison has thrived within jazz circles while steering his own recordings toward broader fusions of rock and funk. Born on the East Coast, he took up music at the age of nine and earned a B.A. in jazz performance from New York University in 1989, the same year he turned twenty-two. Four years later he established the Jazz Composers Collective, a nonprofit run by musicians that promoted bold experimentation and regularly programmed avant-garde concerts throughout New York. In 1994 the organization introduced the Herbie Nichols Project, which Allison co-directed alongside pianist Frank Kimbrough. Throughout the nineties he appeared on recordings by Lee Konitz, Ted Nash, and Eddie Gale, and performed live with Gary Bartz, Kenny Werner, Dave Liebman, Judi Silvano, Michael Blake, and Clifford Jordan. His debut as a leader arrived in 1996 with the Palmetto release Seven Arrows; subsequent Palmetto sessions featured his ensemble Medicine Wheel. Those albums include Third Eye from 1999, Riding the Nuclear Tiger from 2001, Peace Pipe from 2002, Buzz from 2004, and Cowboy Justice from 2006. Allison frequently works with the ensemble Man Size Safe, whose members are trumpeter and flügelhornist Ron Horton, electric guitarist Steve Cardenas, and drummer Michael Sarin. On 22 January 2008 he issued Little Things Run the World under the name Ben Allison & Man Size Safe. The 2009 follow-up Think Free spotlighted violinist Jenny Scheinman and trumpeter Shane Endsley. In 2011 he returned with the covers collection Action-Refraction.
