Alison Shearer In Her Own Words

Bandleader Alison Shearer brought her talented Quartet to San Francisco's Black Cat for an expansive four-day residency. Her quartet consisted of keyboardist Kevin Bernstein, bassist Marty Kenny, drummer Diego Joaquin Ramirez and Shearer, saxophone and flute. The set included her compositions "Celestial," "Liberty Market" and "Cycles." After a productive week, she spent an extra day in town to provide her personal insight on touring the west coast, her early instrument choices and musical motivations.

Shearer talked effusively about her time in the San Francisco Bay Area and southern California. "Well, the Black Cat's a venue that we've wanted to play for a while. You know I get to play quite a bit as a side musician with other groups including Sonny Jane who's a great drummer, and his projects Wild East and Red Baraat, along with Jason Robert Brown. But my quartet really is just beginning to tour more extensively from Brooklyn, New York and so the Black Cat has been on my radar for years. It was really cool to get our first time playing there and first time doing a four-night residency. It was super and went really well! The show was exciting and the vibes with the band were really good. So, the whole tour was fun and I think it was a success! We started in San Jose at the Break Room, then went to Ventura (California), which is the hometown of my pianist Kevin Bernstein. Went down to an LA event called Scribble and then up here (to San Francisco) for seven shows. Regarding reed instruments, I actually started on the flute as my first instrument when I was in third grade, but my dad loved jazz.  When I got to middle school, I wanted to be in the jazz band but they didn't have flute. So, I picked up the saxophone because they both have the same fingerings. I love them equally."

The Brooklyn composer discussed some of the differences between touring on both the west and east coasts. "The weather here (California) is much nicer. We flew out of New York the day before a massive snowstorm. I was nervous that we weren't gonna get out in time, so that was lucky. There's something about just being in a different place together. It was really special getting to have the shows and the shared experience of being on the water is great. We drove down from San Jose to Ventura. We stopped off in Monterey and it is beautiful. I think those types of experiences are like the music, definitely the most important part for me always. I put groups together based on the musicians, but I'd say it's equally important to have good energy in a band and I have it. I've toured with groups where the energy is really good and I've also toured with groups where the energy isn't great. It's hard you know, so this was a particularly good week. We had to stay with my keyboard player's parents for two nights. The experience makes you closer. I think because we're flying over here and being on the West Coast is really nice. We were out here celebrating the release of our new record In The Garden (Pinch Records,2025),it is my second album. The first album which is called View From Above (Pinch Records,2022) I wrote after my father (Photojournalist John Shearer) passed away and that album had a number of guest artists. We had three vocal tracks. Had a drummer who is really a big inspiration named Nate Smith. I love his Kinfolk records where there's really an archetype within that album. With the second album, I wanted to feature the quartet. On the first one, I just played alto and on this one, I played the Altus flute-kind of going inside."

"We got hooked up with a new label out of New York called Pinch Records. It's kind of funny. They do half jazz and half comedy, but I'm pretty sure the comedy probably pays for the jazz. You know the guy Scott Lindner who owns the label, runs a bunch of comedy clubs so then he can afford his passion of jazz. He gave us five days in the studio to try to track and we did it live to tape. So yes, we were out here. We did a couple shows in New York and I got to do an interview with Allison Stewart on WNYC, then came out here for the second leg of the tour. Shearer expanded on assembling her current group. "It's a quartet so there's four of us, Kevin Bernstein is on keys and we have played together for about 10 years. He's on both records and we both went to the Manhattan School of Music. I feel so lucky to be working with him. In the 10 years that we've been together, I'd say both of us improved. You know there's lots of people who are good, but with Kevin it's noticeable how hard he works and I chose him. He's so meticulous and really special. Then on bass it's Marty Kenny. Honestly, he's an amazing upright player and he plays electric where he is equally great. It's kind of cool too. Yeah, I think he enjoys the outlet and he's wonderful. He was on like nine or 10 albums last year and he's a very beloved bassist. Diego is new to the group. He joined just in the past two months and I feel lucky to have him. He's really in demand and his own project features Michael Mayo. He is a very established musician and a family leader. Wasn't sure I would be able to get him and then I was really glad. He's unbelievable with some fresh new energy and it looks like we are gonna do more. I'm about to be gone for a while traveling for other projects, but we'll do some shows on the east coast in the spring and summer. Then it looks like we will be back out here hopefully in September and they're all down to do it again. So yeah, check them out and support their music! You know I made a point on our last night of mentioning what they're all up to. You know Kevin's about to put out his first album and Diego just released an album. Shout them out you know."

The name of Shearer's record label is interesting and she explained the story behind the name. "Pinch Records as I understand it, gets their name because the first space they had was a Long Island spot and real estate in New York is tough to come by. It was a small beautiful space with really tall ceilings. I think the name Pinch came from that. They've since moved into a bigger space and it's gorgeous. They kept the name and then the studio started their own record label. As I mentioned, my first album was dedicated to my father John Shearer and he was a photo journalist for Life Magazine and Look Magazine. You can look him up. As you know, his success came really early in his life. He took the famous picture of little John saluting at John F. Kennedy's funeral and covered Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Also covered the Attica prison riots and photographed Dr. Martin Luther King and Woodstock musician Richie Havens all in his 20s. He lived until he was in his early '70s and I wrote the "View" album after he passed away. I told the story at the show that one of the songs we played was "Celestial." It was a burst of inspiration and the first song I wrote after his passing. Also shared that during that time, I was introduced to Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison. In the forward of that book, she talks about losing her father and how the version of her that existed in his mind died with his passing. That experience gave birth to the book. I feel similarly about that record after my dad's death."

She was..."excited about the next big project that I'm working on now that we got through this record and the tour. I was commissioned by Rocco Symphony, a chamber orchestra in Houston Texas to write a 20-minute piece based on the abstract artwork my father made in the last year of his life. They called them light paintings. I'm now working on a three-movement piece for alto saxophone and orchestra, which will take all of my time between now and early summer. The premiere is in September. The quartet's gonna keep going and will still play and tour, but my creative focus is shifting to that project. It's a lot of work. My father and I never collaborated while he was alive unfortunately. Yeah, it's interesting. Now you know I wanna have my own artistic identity and I think the album I just put out, In The Garden, was very much about me, my band, and my sound. It'll be emotional and it has been, and will continue to be emotional. I need to have that conversation to know his artwork, my music. We haven't figured out the specifics of the plan, but they're gonna show the artwork hopefully on stage projected. We'll see. That's exciting but then also you wanna have your own identity. As a kid growing up with her dad that had this huge name, you know there's a pressure that comes of it.  I'm from a Caribbean background. I'm half Jamaican and there's definitely a lot of hustle in my family. There's my grandfather who was a cartoonist (Ted Shearer-Quincy), like my dad. My cousin went to Harvard Law and Yale medical school. You know people work hard and I never felt intimidated, but there is definitely this drive to be someone in the world.

I'm excited to have a new project that's slightly uses a different part of your brain. I find writing through composed classical music on that scale very hard. With writing for my quartet, I think contrapuntally and write baselines. I write counter melody for Kevin and often choose voicing, but even then it's four people, not like 42 people."

Shearer then discussed some of her early influences. "I think it's which artists impressed me. I was drawn to sounds of the saxophone first. My first album was My Favorite Things  by John Coltrane. I was so captivated by him as we all are. You know I never heard a soprano saxophone sound like that. I love Cannonball (Cannonball Adderley). I've loved Paul Desmond's version of "Skylark." We put a totally different spin on it, but I love that classic. I like the opening of that record and that it is just so light and airy. Yeah, I love Herbie (Herbie Hancock), Weather Report and Eric Dolphy! You know, all the greats. These days I love Nate Smith's music. Diego actually did a mentorship program with him. Love Aaron Park's writing and love Shannon Ansley. I listen to this really wide variety of stuff including classical music and playing with Sonny Jane. Also, a lot of Indian music and had the pleasure of actually going to Pakistan India. I played a lot of music from that part of the world and all sorts of other stuff." 

After we finished our insightful conversation at the Barista Coffee shop, I thanked Alison Shearer for sharing her story with All About Jazz in her own words. She planned to catch the day's sunset at Baker Beach and then prepare for the six—hour flight back home to New York. Safe travels.

Comments