Allegra Levy’s Fourth SteepleChase Record

courtesy of Dr. Jazz Operations

Copenhagen-based SteepleChase Records has been releasing albums of jazz vocalist Allegra Levy since she made her recording debut six years ago. Levy had studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she was mentored by trumpeter and arranger John McNeil. Since that time Levy has recorded four SteepleChase releases, all in partnership with McNeil. The title of her latest album is Lose My Number, which is also the title of the last (ninth) track, all of which are McNeil compositions. McNeil also plays trumpet on three of the tracks: “Strictly Ballroom,” “C. J.,” and “Zephyr.” On all of those tracks Levy sings with an all-woman trio, consisting of Carmen Staaf on piano, Carmen Rothwell on bass, and Colleen Clark on drums.

McNeil’s tunes are often impressively convoluted. His capacity for spinning our elegant arabesques around some basic melodic line recalls some of the more opaque bebop tunes that emerged out of familiar songs through the improvisations of Charlie Parker. Levy rises to the challenge of McNeil’s inventions with a secure sense of pitch. Furthermore, her rhetoric of delivery tends to be understated, almost as if she is more interested in how one listens to McNeil’s embellishments than in what the words of the song are conveying. (After listening to this album a couple of times, I have come to hypothesize that Levy is best at delivering those McNeil texts that are richest in irony.)

This is one of those albums from which attentive listening is more rewarding than the casual approach. Indeed, as is often the case with an instrumental trio, invention is shared across the entire ensemble; and I am willing to confess some personal bias towards Rothwell’s bass work. It is also worth noting that the album itself is a bit of a special occasion, since it mark’s SteepleChase’s 900th release. The earliest of its recordings presented performances by the likes of Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Johnny Griffin during their respective expatriate periods. McNeil clearly has an appreciation of those days, and Levy knows how to deliver convincing accounts of his inventions.