2006年VOA标准英语-Jazz Singer Karrin Allyson Leaves

By Doug Levine
Washington
25 June 2006
 
  
  
It's not often you hear someone singing songs by Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. In fact, you might wonder if it's ever been done at all.

Until now, jazz vocalists have kept to the straight-and-narrow, singing songs from the Great American Songbook or trying out new material that never strayed too far from the pop mainstream¹. Until now, jazz vocalists were more or less content singing the tried, the true, and the time-honored songs that audiences love to hear. That is, until Karrin Allyson.

Karrin Allyson came along at just the right time. In an age of sensory² overload³, Allyson figured out that the best way to cut through all the noise was to make the music less noisy. And with jazz being one of the most demanding genres⁴ in terms of its constant need for attention, well the simpler the better.

Interestingly, it was classical piano that first drew Karrin Allyson to music. Later, with an overwhelming desire to sing, she tried '70s pop, then funk-rock, and finally jazz at a nightclub in downtown Kansas City.

A string of successful albums now finds Allison living and working in New York City, where great studio musicians are readily available. It only makes senses to have the best when improvising⁵ jazz by Horace Silver, Nat Adderly, Wayne Shorter and Oscar Brown, Junior.

Listen to Karrin Allyson as she shifts into high gear on "Everybody's Boppin'" from her new album "Footprints," featuring guest vocalists Jon Hendricks and Nancy King

1 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

2 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

3 overload   

vt.使超载；n.超载

参考例句：

• Don't overload the boat or it will sink.别超载，否则船会沉。
• Large meals overload the digestive system.吃得太饱会加重消化系统的负担。

4 genres   

（文学、艺术等的）类型，体裁，风格( genre的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Novel and short story are different genres. 长篇小说和短篇小说是不同的类别。
• But confusions over the two genres have a long history. 但是类型的混淆，古已有之。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

5 improvising   

即兴创作（improvise的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• I knew he was improvising, an old habit of his. 我知道他是在即兴发挥，这是他的老习惯。
• A few lecturers have been improvising to catch up. 部分讲师被临时抽调以救急。