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Allison Au

Allison Au (pronounced "ow") is JUNO award winning saxophonist, composer and arranger. Highly regarded for her distinctive and imaginative voice, Allison has been lauded as “a new jazz ambassador” for Canada.

Born to a Chinese father and Jewish mother, and raised in the multicultural metropolis of Toronto, Allison fell in love with music as a young child. Her father’s eclectic collection of vinyls and CDs exposed her to a wide array of musical styles. Struggling to find a sense of belonging in her biracial identity, the unhinged freedom of improvisation captivated Allison and quickly became her lab for self-expression and exploration.

Au’s passion for composition led to the 2009 formation of the Allison Au Quartet featuring Todd Pentney (piano), Jon Maharaj (bass) and Fabio Ragnellli (drums). The ensemble has received continued critical acclaim. Au earned her first JUNO nomination for her debut album, The Sky Was Pale Blue, then Grey in 2013, and in 2016 seized the JUNO for "Best Jazz Album of The Year: Group" for Forest Grove. In 2019, she garnered another JUNO nomination for "Best Jazz Album of the Year: Group" for Wander Wonder.

Au was the 2017 winner of TD Grand Prix de Jazz (Festival International de Jazz de Montréal), the 2017 winner of Sting Ray Rising Star Award (Halifax Jazz Festival), and 2017 finalist for Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award. In 2018 she was featured on SFJAZZ’s 2018 list of "10 Rising Instrumentalists You Should Know.” She has toured Canada and the US extensively.

Based in her hometown of Toronto, Au maintains an active role as a performer. In 2022, she joined the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of Toronto as a private instructor.

Awards

2011 was selected as one of 8 musicians internationally to attend the Metropole Orkest Arranger’s Workshop, led by Vince Mendoza in Hilversum, Holland

2013 JUNO nominee: “The Sky Was Pale Blue, then Grey”
2016 JUNO winner “Forest Grove”
2019 JUNO nominee "Wander Wonder"
2017 winner of TD Grand Prix de Jazz (festival international de jazz de montréal
2017 winner of Sting Ray Rising Star Award (Halifax Jazz Festival)
2017 finalist for Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award
2018 featured on SFJAZZ’s 2018 list of "10 Rising Instrumentalists You Should Know”

Allison Au's Migration Project: Transition, Trauma, and Transcendence

by Dave Kaufman
November 1, 2023

"Human beings are both fixed and wandering, settlers and nomads. Our history is the story of the nomad giving way to the settler but when people are unsettled, they have to migrate." (Ruth Padel, On Migration, 2013) Human migration has exerted a profound and far-reaching influence on the evolution of our civilization and the shaping of our cultural landscape. Much has been written about the Great Migration of the first decades of the 20th century, in which millions ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases by Estrella Acosta, Eddie Henderson, Vanessa Perea, Antoine Drye, Caroline Davis, Allison Au, Birthday Shoutouts & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
October 30, 2023

This broadcast includes new releases by Estrella Acosta, Eddie Henderson, Vanessa Perea, Antoine Drye, Caroline Davis and Allison Au}, with birthday shoutouts to {{m: Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Troup, Jane Bunnett, Anita O'Day, Barbara Fasano, Lakecia Benjamin, Laura Nyro, Esperanza Spalding, Brenda Earle Stokes and Jodi Proznick, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can continue to distract, comfort, provoke and inspire. Playlist ...

Album Review

Allison Au: Migrations

Read "Migrations" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 24, 2023

Canadian saxophonist Allison Au says she was drawn to the simplicity of a jazz quartet “as a vehicle for realizing the visions of my original compositions." Charlie Parker must have felt the same way; Art Pepper, too. And John Coltrane. Au stuck to this format for her Wander Wonder (Self Produced, 2018) and 2017's self-produced Forest Grove (review here). Both were terrific outings that spoke to the young artist's potential. But as with the noted giants mentioned above, Au must ...

Album Review

Noam Lemish: Twelve

by Jack Bowers
December 7, 2022

The number Twelve has several explicit meanings on Israeli-born composer/pianist Noam Lemish's eighth album as leader of his own ensemble, which is twelve members strong (well, thirteen on the first two numbers, on which Laura Swankey adds wordless vocals, and twenty-five if one counts the thirteen-member chorus on Track 3). Returning to the basic premise, Lemish composed his first piece of music at age twelve, and it has been twelve years since he relocated from San Francisco to Toronto, Canada. ...

Album Review

Karl Silveira: A Porta Aperta

Read "A Porta Aperta" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 30, 2022

Toronto-based trombonist Karl Silveira opens his debut recording, A Porta Aperta, with no ego at all. The disc spins into life with “Nymark Plaza," featuring an arrangement which allows the rhythm section—pianist Chris Pruden, bassist Dan Fortin, with Nico Dann on drums—a good deal of room to stretch out after a brief beginning of understated harmony from the leader, and alto saxophonist Allison Au. The piano, bass and drums ease into an off-center, Andrew Hill-like rumination before the leader re-enters ...

Album Review

Amanda Tosoff: Earth Voices

Read "Earth Voices" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
February 10, 2021

Building off the lure of language planted in Amanda Tosoff's Juno-nominated Words (Empress Music Group, 2016), this sixth album from the Toronto-based composer and pianist waves poetic in wondrous fashion. Pairing different guest vocalists and collections of musicians with personalized takes on Parnassian beauty of varied sorts, Tosoff cements the bonds between earthly voices and heavenly sounds with a questioning spirit. The list of subjects and styles, both in words and music, varies widely on this playlist. ...

Album Review

Mark Godfrey: Square Peg

Read "Square Peg" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 24, 2020

Mark Godfrey has done his fair share of commuting in furtherance of his jazz career. Toronto--his home base--to New York has been a regular journey. The near five hundred mile trip would certainly be shorter (timewise) via airplane. But the decision was made to roll in a 2006 Dodge Caravan, due to the fact (we can guess) that an acoustic bass is a bulky yet fragile beast, susceptible to in transit damages. In your own vehicle, you can treat the ...

...engaging, carefully crafted jazz."

- Glen Hall, Exclaim! Magazine

"Allison has a distinctive and conversational tone that sets her apart from the crowd..."

- Hobart Taylor, KUCI Radio

"...an exceptionally cohesive band that has internalized all of the music's intricacies. Au's playing is spirited and confident throughtout."

- Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen

"Imaginatively written and performed modern jazz."

- Mike Gates, UK Vibe