Leaving St. Albert jazzed up career

Lina Allemano is a successful risk-taker, a cutting edge musician easily singled out in a crowd because of her skill, intelligence and beauty.

Since leaving St. Albert almost 20 years ago, the avant-garde, experimental trumpeter/composer has steered a musical course that has made her one of the most in-demand musicians with Canada’s jazz greats.

This coming Monday she returns to Edmonton after a three-year absence with a gig at the Yardbird Suite. She is the handpicked trumpeter for Septet Marianne Trudel, now on a 10-stop tour of western Canada that stretches from Victoria to Montreal.

Allemano has made her home in Toronto since 1993 and fronts her band Lina Allemano Four as well as the improv group N.

She recently formed Titanium Trio, a trinity still in the evolving stages. “As a trio you’re more exposed and I’m finding this is forcing me to play to the next level,” says Allemano. “It helps me to diversify. Musically, it’s nice to have a refreshing point of view and different points of reference.”

Although Allemano is usually the take-charge frontman, playing with Trudel afforded her the leisure of enjoying music as a sideman. In fact, Trudel just released an album this year, Hope and Other Powers, where Allemano displays her indefatigable lyricism and crisp tones.

“[Trudel is] an exciting composer with both a lot of energy as a pianist and a person. She’s always full on and she always seems to have this inspirational glow around her. And her music is lush and pretty and warm, a little more accessible than mine.”

Allemano, who follows in the footsteps of her tuba-playing father Lou, has the honour of being the youngest musician at the age of 11 to join the St. Albert Community Band.

By the time she was 15, the Paul Kane graduate was grooving with a Latin band and kicking up a storm as part of the Yardbird Suite’s innovative Little Birds.

After graduating from Grant MacEwan’s two-year music program, she was persuaded by saxophonist and guest lecturer Mike Murley to check out Toronto. “It’ll be great. You’ll make lots of connections, “ he told her.

Looking for a place to complete a bachelor’s degree, she enrolled at the University of Toronto in 1993 and soon found herself subbing for faculty members in scores of gigs across town. “It was a great way to cut your teeth. Unfortunately everything is in decline now. Clubs are closing, there’s less of an audience. There are a lot of complicated reasons.”

In her career she’s appeared on 30 recordings including four of her own records, completed extensive touring in Canada and the United States, and was nominated for the 2009 National Jazz Awards Trumpeter of the Year and SOCAN Composer of the Year.

“I don’t like to regurgitate what I did in rehearsal. I like spontaneity. I like to be on the edge.”