JACKIE ALLEN & SUSIE THORNE
“This is four-hundred-dollar-a-bottle jazz – no cheap imitation.”
Rolling Stone
Jazz vocalist Jackie Allen’s extraordinary talent has taken her on extended tours of Europe, Africa, South America and Asia to many of the world's most celebrated concert stages.
Nationally, she has toured both coasts and in-between, appearing in Los Angeles (Catalina’s), San Francisco (Yoshi’s), San Diego (Humphrey’s), and New York (The Blue Note, Josef Papp Public Theater). Regionally she was featured with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in Chicago’s Millennium Park and Auditorium Theater for an Ella Fitzgerald Celebration. She has performed international music festivals in Detroit, Chicago, The Hague, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Bologna, Beijing, Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, and Sao Paulo. Locally, Jackie was a recipient of the Lincoln Mayor’s Arts Award and was featured on A Prairie Home Companion where she gave Garrison Keillor a “voice lesson.”
Born in Milwaukee, Jackie grew up surrounded by music. Her father was a Dixieland jazz tuba and all three of her brothers played the trumpet. She attended UW - Madison where she studied vocal performance and jazz. After moving to Chicago, she began her recording career for Blue Note Records and others, recording 13 critically acclaimed CDs, most notably: Santa Baby, The Men In My Life, Love Is Blue, Tangled, Starry Night with orchestra, My Favorite Color (USAToday’s Top 10 List).
More recently Jackie released Rose Fingered Dawn (2017), a collection of original songs by her bassist and husband, Hans Sturm. The 2019 concert Live at the Rococo was filmed for PBS and has been shown on over 40 PBS stations nationwide. The concert was released on CD and Blu Ray. Her most recent release, a voice/bass duo album, The Nebraska Project, recorded in Paris (2021) celebrates famous Nebraska musical artists.
Jackie has served on the NARAS Board of Governors and Jazz Nominating Committee for the Recording Academy, “Grammy Awards” and has recorded with numerous Grammy winning artists and producers. She created the adult primer course, Torch Singer 101 and teaches Vocal Improvisation and Songwriting at Doane University in Crete. Jackie lives in Lincoln with her husband Hans Sturm and son, Wolfgang.
“Allen’s greatest strength is her sheer musicality and the way in which she both frames and interprets her songs.” Los Angeles Times
“She hails from Nebraska but swings like a big city girl!”
That’s what New York says about vocalist Susie Thorne, who has captivated audiences from the heartland of Nebraska to the global stage.
Critics have described her sound as “youthful and energetic, pure and sweet in higher tones, smooth and sometimes salty in the lower register… she swings confidently and easily, “This is not a borderline, jazz influenced vocalist or balladeer, she’s the real thing,” says jazz writer, Rob Lester (Talk in Broadway, NY) – “She breathes LIFE into all the standards!” Mark Ruffin – (Chicago, IL). Her unique sound has earned her a following across continents with airplay from Argentina to Italy!
Thorne’s musical journey began in Hastings, Nebraska, where she was immersed in a rich musical heritage. With a mother who was a classically trained pianist/vocalist, and a father who sang and played trumpet as a sideman for jazz legends such as Lionel Hampton and Gerry Mulligan, music was a family affair. As a youth, Susie served as her mother’s choral accompanist and sang in her father’s jazz band, laying the groundwork for her future in jazz. Her discography includes the critically acclaimed CDs, Love For Sale (1999) and Blue Skies, Clear Day (2006) the latter earning a nomination for Best Female Jazz Artist (2007) Indie Awards U.K. Birmingham radio show host Albert Price called Blue Skies, Clear Day “one of the 5 best jazz CD’s of the year”. In addition, Thorne’s rendition of Paul McCartney’s Can’t Buy Me Love was included in the “Paul McCartney in Jazz” CD compilation (2023) in France.
Susie's contributions to jazz were recognized when she was inducted into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame in 2021, and she has been nominated for an Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award. Her formal education includes a degree in Jazz Performance from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and her vocal improvisation skills were honed under the guidance of renowned singer and educator Rhiannon (Bobby McFerrin’s “Voicestra”). Thorne previously served as a teaching artist with the Holland Performing Arts Center for WeBop, an early childhood jazz education program. She maintains a private studio in her home in Elkhorn, NE.
“I love so much about this woman; her total musicality, her tone, the way she plays with meter and melody…” Mark Ruffin, Listen Here Radio, Chicago
Jeff Jenkins, piano
Hans Sturm, bass
Joey Gulizia, drums