Jackie Allen

Growing up in Milwaukee and Madison, Chicago-area jazz vocalist Jackie Allen emerged from a highly musical household. During her early years she took up the French horn while also revealing a natural gift for singing. Her studies at the University of Wisconsin deepened her grasp of jazz, with bassist Richard Davis among the faculty who shaped her approach. By 1987 she had returned to Milwaukee, where she appeared regularly for three years at the Wyndham Hotel in the company of organist Melvin Rhyne. The move to Chicago came in 1990, and she has since maintained a steady presence there as a performer whose work bridges jazz and cabaret. In the early 1990s she cut her debut album, Never Let Me Go, for the Lake Shore Jazz label; a lengthy interval followed before the release of Which six years afterward.