This lineup, notably missing a chordal instrument, immediately invites comparison to the early Ornette Coleman quartet, and the music here confirms that such comparisons are appropriate.

The playing and compositions on this disc reflect the influence of Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry's groups.  All four musicians play with a free, searching feeling -- they are clearly listening intently to each other and are open to exploring any melodic and harmonic paths, all the while keeping barely within then constraints of the tunes.  This latter quality distinguishes the music from that of Coleman, for this group seeks to appropriate many of the elements of free-jazz while adhering more closely to the chords and structures of the compositions.

This approach works remarkably well on both the original compositions and the two other tracks, Monk's Evidence and My Man's Gone Now.  All four musicians play with a more laid back style than many other free-jazz ensembles, even on the more frenetic pieces, such as Allemano's BLAN.  Much of the work of implying harmony falls upon bassist Downing; his playing is rock solid and inventive. Nick Fraser is given ample opportunity to show off his skills as a rhythmic colorist, and Allemano and West work well together; tastefully harmonizing underneath each other's lines on occasion, and listening and playing off each other while soloing.

The high calibre of playing and unique musical approach makes this a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshing album.

Lina Allemano  Not many Canadians consider living in Toronto a lifestyle decision that reflects a desire for quiet and space.  But given the choice of Toronto or New York City, Lina Allemano is happy to opt for the relative calm of the former.  The 33-year-old Alberta native said: "Hopefully, it's not too limiting.  I find I can do lots here, but I also like the quiet down time."

A lyrical player whose careful sense of note placement reflects her early devotion to Miles Davis, Allemano was drawn to the trumpet by her older brother and amateur musician father.  She was working in Edmonton by 15, and ready to take on the big city at 19.  In Toronto, she has gravitated to genre-busting players like guitarist Tim Posgate, bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser, as well as capturing the trumpet chair in bands like NOJO.  Her quartet's latest recording, Pinkeye, slides fluidly between an homage to Joni Mitchell and Monk's "Evidence."

Everybody digs Lina Allemano.  The veteran trumpet player has been shuttling between the avant and mainstream ends of the jazz scene since she moved here from Edmonton in '93, when several of today's scene regulars were coming up.

Now they're getting their due, Allemano included.  This month, she was named one of the "25 Trumpeters for the Future" by Down Beat, no doubt aided by fellow trumpeter Dave Douglas' support.

She has fans across the scene, even if they don't interact with each other.

"I'll do some work in, I'll call it the Tranzac scene," she explains, "and a lot of people there don't know the people that I play with, and vice versa when I play, say, the Rex."

Bassist Andrew Downing also travels freely across scene boundaries.  He and Allemano were in the same combo at U of T together, and have played together on everything from straight post-bop to free jazz in groups such as Allemano's quartet, which also includes Drumheller's Brodie West (saxophone) and Nick Fraser (drums).  Last year's Pinkeye saw them reaching into the unknown, from the title track's coolly melodious interaction between Allemano and West to the cartoonish lines zig-zagging, Raymond Scott Quintette-style, throughout the exuberant "BLAN."  If you want to know where she's going next, look to the latter for a sign.

"The music I'm writing right now that we're going to be recording in the coming year is less structured," she says.  "I'm getting more and more away from that.  Not that I'm trying, it just seems to be what's happening."

Allemano never lapses into the garbled explanations that some players use to make themselves seem mysterious and elite.

"What we're doing is definitely not the free-est thing, but I've had tonnes of people come up to me after shows and say, 'You know, I don't even really like jazz and I'm definitely not into weird, out-there stuff, but I really loved what you guys are doing and I could connect with it; I really found it moving and genuine.'  That really makes me happy, reaching out to people who aren't necessarily already fans of that music."

She's too modest to play up the accolade from Down Beat, but one person isn't.

"My dad has collected every issue of Down Beat since he was 16.  So for him, this is pretty sweet."

On a miserable February evening, in celebration of a style that, in the words of Rodney Dangerfield, "don't get no respect," it was great to see a crowd of all ages gather at the Franco- Manitoba Cultural Centre to see the Lina Allemano Four. In a genre that is as much a social movement as an art, Allemano shows that she has the same ferocious appetite for jazz that has catapulted other jazz giants to greatness. It is no surprise that she won the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award at the 2005 National Jazz Awards.

The quartet dove headfirst into Thelonius Monk's "Let's Call This," setting the tone for the evening. Without a guitar or piano to comp, Allemano on trumpet and alto saxophonist Brodie West took on the challenge. By playing long, sustained melodies in almost whispered tones, they added colour and texture to the tight rhythm section of bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser.

The group definitely had a vibe going on throughout the night, most notably in the interplay between Allemano and West. As Allemano would play a melody, West would subtly decorate the line, occasionally harmonizing the melody and always lagging a little behind her, giving the band a characteristic loose intensity. The whole quartet possesses enormous chops, yet they never felt the need to show off and only did when called for by the song.

The band's forte is, without a doubt, the coupling of their dynamics with unusual song structures. Not only were they able to crescendo to a cacophonous climax, but they could also come to a screeching halt. They would recommence ever so softly, making the horns sound like the static of an old jazz recording while simultaneously reinforcing many senior citizens' distrust of greedy hearing-aid corporations. They ventured fearlessly into these unconventional song structures, at times stepping into an eerie, subdued groove mid-song.

The avant-garde stylings of Ornette Coleman and Thelonius Monk were evident in the harmonic freedom of the musicians' solos. They even paid direct homage to these giants, playing a few of their songs, most notably Coleman's "Happy House." Every tune had amazing continuity. As one musician reached the end of a solo, the next musician would begin interrupting, initially with patience, then with a confidence that said "Shut up and pass the conch shell!"

The highlight of the evening was the closer of the first set - "Gridjam" - which was inspired by a trip to the Big Apple. It opened with a chaotic bass solo that pushed the limit of both technique and dissonance, fingers jumping all over the place and contorting into positions that looked downright unhealthy. Downing brought the audience into a crowded Manhattan street. The sax and trumpet joined in as the car horns of frustrated drivers and the drums became the construction site of The Donald's latest gold fortress development.

Duke Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss" wrapped up the night, awarding the audience's musical intellect a break with a soft, short, melodic ending to a high-energy evening.

If the sound of Toronto's Lina Allemano Four brings to mind the free-jazz quartet Old and New Dreams, it's not just because Allemano's tart, agile trumpet recalls the quicksilver sound of Don Cherry. Like Old and New Dreams, Allemano's group takes an approach based on Ornette Coleman's classic quartet, except that Allemano's crew work to balance the infinite possibilities of free improvisation with the structure and discipline of playing over changes. It's a daring twist that works brilliantly, whether in rambling originals like Tumbleweed or their eloquently abstracted take on My Man's Gone Now (from Porgy and Bess).

The story of Lina Allemano's second album is the wonderful interweaving of Brodie West's sax and Allemano's trumpet. Allemano's cool reserve on her first disc has become more assertive on this effort. The leadoff title track has a wide open melody that recalls the better days of Charlie Haden's Quartet West. Things get spikier with "BLAN," the freest piece on the disc, where she reaches Bobby Bradford-like heights, thrusting and parrying with West's contributions. Often, bassist Andrew Downing acts as a harmonic referee setting the harmonic course with one note from his bass. There are very few true solos on this disc; it is structured freedom with riffs and a few changes giving shape to the proceedings. "Tumbleweed" is a great composition; it's evocative of its namesake, with a rolling rhythm that breaks into freedom at the four-minute mark but is always stitched together with melody. Gershwin's "My Man's Gone Now" is an outstanding choice for a cover, as the melancholy (boy, can Allemano do melancholy...) melody is given major gravitas by all players. A tip of the hat to drummer Nick Fraser, who's adaptable to any situation, has an ear for melody and is also pretty damn funky when required.

What can I say?  The music in FONT this week has been such a blast, everyone creating a new take on their music, trumpet music, and music in general.  It's been a thrill to see and hear.

Lina Allemano came in from Toronto especially for this event.  Lina is a great composer and trumpeter who I originally met at Banff some years ago.  She brought a few of her pieces to the stage and I found myself humming one called Concentric after the show.  Very tuneful, and she really puts the trumpet right in the sweet spot of the song.  Canadians can catch her on tour next month.  Maybe us southerners next year?

Ingrid Jensen, also originally from Canada, did something I hadn't heard her do before.  She was really powerfully able to switch between acoustic trumpet and electrified, processed tones.  Another Woody Shaw freak (like me and K-Lassik, among others), she played the fierce chromatic lines and tension filled rhythms of contemporary jazz, but the electronics flipped the music over into another dimension.  It didn't seem forced or artificial at all and added a significant new facet to her strong playing.

The most impressive thing about the gig was the way the two trumpets were integrated into the music, the two voices creating all the harmonic framework and song forms necessary.

Lina Allemano Four Pinkeye is in the top 10 Jazz CDs for 2006.

The subtle Toronto-based trumpeter shows in her impressive sophomore album that as a band leader she can forge compelling ideas, seriously appealing tones and extended lyrical journeys while moving between mainstream and outside modes. Her young band, with alto saxist Brodie West (currently in Amsterdam), bass Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser, revels in interactive challenges and winding up sophisticated tension in ways mindful of the quicksilver movement and huge imagination of early Ornette Coleman and Kenny Wheeler. "Tumbleweed" is a fine example of intricate four-way playing, "Blan" has bluster, and the melancholy threads of "OK Joni" illustrate the collective's consistent ability to sound adventurous and restrained simultaneously. There's a delicious quirky take on Thelonious Monk's already quirky "Evidence," one of only two standards accompanying Allemano's five originals. The album will be released Nov. 7 at the Tranzac club after an 11-stop western Canadian tour.

The ensemble is a bit unusual, as jazz quartets go, with bass, drums and two horns. With no piano or guitar, the harmonic structure of this material comes only from the bass and the two horns. This puts a lot more responsibility on all three of these players - but also affords a lot more space for purely melodic or more strongly rhythmically inspired improvisation. Allemano's playing [on trumpet] is vocally expressive. She carves her lines with the sensibility of an Ella or a Carmen, and finesses her expressive sound in a way more typical of a saxophonist than a trumpet player. She massages the pitch, but is always in tune. She possesses technique and the power associated with a trumpet, but chooses to use her instrument in a more gentle and probing manner.

Five of the seven tunes on this 2006 release are Allemano originals. The remaining two tunes are Evidence by Thelonious Monk, and My Man's Gone Now by George Gershwin. The mood and tempo of these tunes is all over the map, from helter-skelter up-tempo to mournful and contemplative. The improvisational role circulates pretty freely amongst the four players, with the two horn players often winding around one another like two people engaged in an interesting conversation. Downing [bass] and Fraser [drums] keep things rhythmically on track and grounded to the earth, allowing the horn players the freedom they obviously enjoy in this setting. There is a lot of interaction, and without knowing the group better, it is difficult to say what is written material and what is improvised. The feel of the entire CD is of an improvisational outing.

As jazz musicians mature, they're more likely to explore the unknown. Trumpeter Lina Allemano seems headed in that direction with her second and newest CD, Pinkeye. After three years together, the Edmonton-raised horn player and her quartet have loosened up the arrangements to tap their capacity for interaction. The quartet has no chording instruments like piano or guitar, which tends to open up space in a fashion akin to Ornette Coleman's classic '60s quartets. Joining Allemano are Brodie West on alto sax, bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser.

"It's a bit more free and opened up," offers Allemano, who's now based in Toronto. "With that, there's the possibility of letting things go where they want to and letting the guys stretch out."

This is not to suggest the album isn't tuneful. It is, but tracks like the spare covers of Thelonious Monk's Evidence or George Gershwin's My Man's Gone Now push you to listen for the basic musical elements in space and the interactive connections between the players.

Allemano says listening to each other has become very important. "That's what this group is all about. They're all amazing listeners and that's what you need if you're doing a more open thing, being spontaneous, and cohesive and interactive. It takes an enormous amount of concentration and energy. I don't really want to hear them playing the same thing every night. I want to hear them taking risks, and hopefully the audience comes along for the ride. We like to have fun with things."

Less is more for Toronto trumpeter Lina Allemano: after fronting bands that have been tied to the sound of the piano or the guitar, she's going chordless with her new quartet. And the results, as documented on her Pinkeye CD, suggest that she might just be onto something.

"It's really fun to have all that space," she says of her working unit, which also includes saxophonist Brodie West, bassist Andrew Downing, and drummer Nick Fraser. "And the tunes I write are pretty simple, harmonically, so the new lineup sort of lends itself to that. If the tunes were more harmonically dense, they might not work as well in this format."

What that means for the casual listener is that Allemano's compositions rely more on melody than on complex structures. The Edmonton-born musician has always been a lyrical player, but that singing quality is more apparent than ever on her new material - and that's especially true of Pinkeye's tribute to a Canadian icon [Joni Mitchell], 'OK Joni'.

Pinkeye also boasts inventive versions of Thelonious Monk's 'Evidence' and George Gershwin's 'My Man's Gone Now', so it's clear that Allemano is not only inspired by confessional songwriters with Canadian roots. In fact, her post-bop chops have served her well in the Toronto jazz scene, which can safely be characterized as a little more conservative than Vancouver's.

Things might be changing, however. As Allemano tells it, her adopted home town is beginning to generate a community of underground musicians with a fresh take on the art of improvisation - and she's in the middle of that, too. "There's this whole other scene that doesn't get much attention, but it's pretty happening," she reports. "People are playing really incredible, creative, bizarre music. I'm getting more and more involved in that, which is kind of weird; I feel like I'm living in these two parallel worlds. But it's great. I totally thrive on it."

(excerpt) The album features seven tracks, five of which are originals. The work is free-spirited, with an inventive approach. A large part of what makes this record work is the intimate conversation between alto sax and trumpet. That dialogue is at times lyrical but can also take you to unexpected places.

"I met Brodie [West, alto saxophone] about 10 years ago", says Allemano, "and I knew right away that I wanted to work with him. he is such a free player, the chemistry we have is unique and we love playing off each other." That kind of chemistry translated to the studio where the entire disc was recorded in one day. "I decided to move on it quite quickly because Brodie was going to move to Amsterdam. I didn't want any complications, no overdubs or fixing things up later... we basically took material that we had been performing live and hit the studio. This is really a collaborative effort though. My compositions are fairly open and simple. We rehearse them, think about them, change them, and then commit to them. I love working with these guys, they bring their own energy, ideas, and voice to everything we do."

Her voice on trumpet is delightfully simple. She rarely dazzles, and to the extent that her sound is influenced, it is Chet Baker or early Miles Davis that make their mark. Lina Allemano plays gracefully, sticking almost exclusively to the middle and lower ranges of the horn, her tone fat as the dew on an early Spring morning. Her backing is minimal, highlighting her sound, though the rhythm section is clearly first-rate. Led by coproducer/ guitarist David Occhipinti, and joined by Andrew Downing on bass and Anthony Mitchell on drums, the trio swings gently, and prods Allemano when necessary. Occhipinti solos regularly, his horn-like phrasing relaxed and co-oo-ol. Allemano wrote most of the tunes, and for the most part they are not only lyrical but they stick in the craw: simple yet catchy, and the kind you find yourself humming subconsciously. On trumpet, she favors simple phrasing, usually performed softly, her attack often pleasantly unfocused. She is not afraid to try to extend her reach, either through runs of sixteenth notes or an occasional high note, both of which she pursues on "Rundle," but it is the quaint primitive results that impress the most. Imbued with style, she shows no need to prove anything. The arrangements are tight, too, as she eschews a simple head-solos-head structure on every piece. For example, the slow and mournful "Ok Joni" opens with guitar which is quickly joined by electric bass before the trumpet joins in, after which the electric guitar weaves in and out and the drums add color. After Allemano completes a solo, Occhipinti picks up her final phrase and adds a few bars before the trumpeter comes back, this time with the full backing of the band. It is all very European, and even quaint, a throwback to the 1950s except that the sound quality is so clear and the harmonies are more complex. Here is an album and an artist each of which might easily be overlooked; they sneak up on you and it is only at the end that you realize how delicate and special it all is.

Home to Maynard Ferguson, Kenny Wheeler, Herbie Spanier and Ingrid Jensen, Canada has produced more than its share of distinctive trumpeters. Alberta native Lina Allemano fits comfortably into that lineage, and both she and her bandmates are testimony to the pervasive influence Wheeler has among young players in his native land.

Like Wheeler, Allemano has a very intimate yet somewhat guarded sound, but while Wheeler is a wounded romantic, Allemano comes across more as a slightly shy eccentric. She always seems to be holding something back, and the many twists in her solos keep her just out of reach. It's an alluring persona, and one that invites you to explore the mystery in her sound. Her tone itself is tart and slightly grainy, with both qualities accentuated by the unadorned sound of the recording. Her compositions, too, are inviting and intimate, which makes sense when you see the allusion to Joni Mitchell. Allemano is clearly influenced by the songwriter's fusion of sweet melodies and thorny harmony, and guitarist David Occhipinti, who contributes two compositions of his own, is an excellent match for delving into the compositional possibilities. The rhythm team of Andrew Downing and Anthony Michelli do fine work in sustaining tension.

While introspection abounds on "Rundle", the title track and the Mitchell-inspired "OK Joni", there's a distinct lack of passion and fire on the opposite side of the fulcrum. The scratchy percussion and almost-rocking rhythm of "Vesper" and the banter between trumpet and guitar on "And", the only piece that comes close to swinging, introduce some variety; otherwise head definitely overwhelms heart.

This is the debut release by Lina Allemano, one of Toronto's foremost trumpeters. The band under her leadership has been together for three years, and the cohesiveness shows in interpreting Allemano's complex and interesting tunes. Each member adds little personal touches. Guitarist David Occhipinti has an understated tone throughout, though he finds many ways to introduce texture and tension into his parts. Drummer Anthony Michelli plays with variety, from the metallic clatter-funk of the title track to the barely-brushed intro to "OK Joni." On bass, Andrew Downing is both timekeeper and a lower counterpoint to Occhipinti. If anything, it's Allemano who doesn't take liberties with her own compositions. She has a great tone throughout, her playing is very lyrical and precise but not overly dynamic or texturally varied - it's more straight ahead than her work with Jazzstory or the Rob Clutton band. The best pieces are those in which she cuts loose the most: "Dreams"' slow pace shows her exploring dynamics and tone and "Prairie," with its cool autopanned guitar, showcases wide open soloing appropriate to its title. The best tune to showcase the kind of vibe Allemano has lent to other projects is the closer "West Side BBQ," which dabbles in free time between melodic statements and shows what she can do with a burnished tone and floating lyrical passages on top of Concentric's fiercest rhythms. The tunes are the highlight of this disc, and are bound to take on even more personality live.

If the trumpet is the musical instrument that's most intimately connected to the human breath, then Lina Allemano's voice on that instrument is a breath of fresh air. Deceptively simple, her style - as displayed on Lina Allemano Four's new CD, Concentric, - is more concerned with melodic eloquence than tricky techniques. Yet even though her music won't scare off devotees of mainstream jazz, it's also forward-thinking. In fact, along with such other Canadian luminaries as the Great Uncles of the Revolution and Michael Occhipinti, Allemano is at the forefront of a jazz movement away from scales and back to song.

"What's going on now seems almost a backlash or an answer to what was happening in the '90s," she says, on the line from downtown T.O. "There was this huge tendency towards really dense, harmonically complex jazz tunes, and I think people are really getting away from that. They're trying to pare down the harmony a bit and be more open."

The 29-year-old Allemano has been playing trumpet since she was 10, and like almost everyone else under the age of 60 cites Miles Davis as her primary influence. "My dad was a big jazz fan, so his [Davis's] music was always in the house, " she notes. More recently though, she's been immersed in the music of Bjšrk, Rufus Wainwright, Ron Sexsmith, and Joni Mitchell, the inspiration for Concentric's "Ok Joni". Another Concentric tune, "Rundle", hints that this very urban musician has a keen eye for the natural world.

The beautifully openhearted composition was named for the vertiginous mountain that overlooks the town of Banff, where it was written. "I was doing a composition residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts last year," Allemano notes. "So yeah, I really love Banff, and I really love being outdoors; definitely, it's a huge inspiration."

"I guess that's why I live in downtown Toronto," she adds with a wry laugh. "But if you're going to live in Toronto, you might as well live downtown. You might as well breathe in as much smog as possible at all times."

Allemano appears to be absorbing other urban inspirations: on her next CD, she'd like to toy with some electronic settings. "I'm going to see what happens there, " she says. "And my writing seems to be getting simpler and simpler harmonically, which suits that approach. I don't even write chord changes anymore. I just write out the melodies and force the band to learn the songs, and then we improvise around the written material."

Given her interests, it might seem natural for Allemano to pursue some singing herself - a course of action that has proved profitable for her compatriot Diana Krall. That, though, is just not going to happen. "My voice is horrible," says the otherwise well spoken musician. "I think I'll just stick to the horn."

Flash forward 40 years, in trumpet time, and you're in Confederation Park, in the light rain, listening to Lina Allemano, a young trumpet player from Toronto. The tune is Vesper, an original to close her 6:30 set. Over a background of scratchy, buzz tones from her guitarist, David Occhipinti, Allemano plays some buzzes of her own, jumping from low overtones, not an easy thing, into rapid trills at the top end of her instrument. At other times, her tone sounds almost classical. The rhythm section, Andrew Downing on bass and Anthony Michelli on drums, lays down a strong groove as the trumpet and guitar improvise together on a basic harmonic pattern.

It is a different kind of jazz from what (Guido) Basso and (Chase) Sanborn played, but jazz nonethe less, creative and well-played. Its harmonies tend to be less clearly defined, the chords more hinted at than run in solos.

An interesting point of comparison is the Bill Evans composition, Very Early, a minefield of a chord progression. Allemano, who clearly is used to more open and less structured harmonies, tackled the chords head on and by her third chorus, was clearly enjoying them. Occhipinti's solo, like an earlier one on the standard, Where or When, showed ease with the chords.

The group set itself some different and difficult challenges - Prairie, an Occhipinti original, was in 11/4 time - and met them easily.