There was a time when being a jazz singer and a pop vocalist were one and the same. Try to pull that stunt now, however, and most misguided purists will paint a giant target on your back and proceed to relentlessly pelt you with their own archaic reasoning as to why the two titles are mutually exclusive. Thankfully, former Kansas City resident Karrin Allyson has not only a wealth of sultry talent and a penchant for progressivism but also the sort of thick skin needed to bear both burdens. Able to render her repertoire of jazz standards with supreme conviction and flat-out sass while quietly probing the catalogs of more contemporary contributors (such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King), Allyson has proved herself to be unabashedly independent of the constrictions of convention. Yet her voice and approach maintain a quality that echoes yesterday's legends and places her on par with today's crop of proudly defiant young divas.
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