This is Colleen Allen she has been playing in Manteca for 7 years now. She plays, and be patient here, this is going to take a while; baritone sax, soprano sax, bass clarinet, alto flute, flute, piccolo, tenor sax, alto sax, accordion and um, that’s it. After saxophonist Kelly Jefferson left the band last year (lawsuits pending – just kidding…we love Kelly and he is also fond of us…) Colleen suggested we replace him with a guitar player! A guitar player! Which we did. And she thereby doubled her load by having to either cover or replace all of Kelly’s parts too! And in a move of exceptional Machiavellian brilliance she was then assured of having every sax solo in the Manteca book! There is now a space on stage known by our crew as “Sax World” or “Saxlandia”, depending which member of the crew you are speaking to. We have been thinking about getting Colleen a “Sax Caddy” as she has so many quick changes to make between instruments. “Ma’am, I’d recommend a Bass Clarinet for this whole note.”
Colleen’s performance on this record is exceptional. Each one of her solos tell a story, a story full of heart, emotion and chops. I remember during what became the keeper take of Illusionist, we were ten feet from each other with a little glass wall separating us for sonic reasons and as she played her solo, I closed my eyes and with every twist and turn she took me on a voyage and when it was done and I knew it was recorded, and I knew it was THE solo, I felt like we had bottled magic. You can see this all unfold on Jean Francois Gratton’s beautiful video at manteca-music.com.
Colleen is the resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre, which is one of the reasons we are doing our launch at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts there on Nov. 10. at 8PM. You got your tickets right? No, oh man you better go get ‘em it’s gonna sell out it’s an intimate place.
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