Alyssa Allgood & Fellowship Jazz Center Orchestra discuss 'sacred art form' of jazz

We talk community, creative practice, and jazz, America's sacred art form. We're listening to SDPBs In The Moment. I'm your host, Lori Walsh. Alyssa Allgood is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, band leader, and three-time downbeat magazine Critics Poll Rising Star. She's in Sioux Falls this week for a series of performances with South Dakota's Fellowship Jazz Center Orchestra. Fellowship Jazz Center Orchestra founders Daniel Hire and Jim Spears joined All Good. here in the SDPB Studios in Sioux Falls before their first rehearsal. You'll hear Daniel Heyer here first. Fellowship Jazz Center Orchestra is now an award-winning orchestra here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We won a Sioux Falls Stage Award, but comprises of a lot of, I believe, the best musicians kind of within the region. We have some couple people from Iowa, but most are from South Dakota, from Sioux Falls in Vermilion, Brookings. And, you know, we haven't had a working big band in Sioux Falls for many, many years, I believe since the Sioux Falls Big Band. And I thought, this would be a great thing for the organization to do. And we did it. Yeah. And Jimmy, you're part of that beginning conversation and the program itself. What's the missional foundation? Like, why do this? Well, we, yeah, Dan and I talked a few years ago, and there was really a vacuum, I think, for promoting and presenting local jazz. The Sioux Falls Jazz and Blue Society did some of that over the years, and of course they're no longer around. But even beyond their work, we felt that there was a need to really hyper focus on local, you know, and. focused especially on education. And so that's something the organization really stepped into right away. And as, as Dan said, I think. The entire time we were talking about this, a big band was always part of the picture. There's a few things we felt were important for a healthy jazz ecosystem, and one is a working professional big band. I think that's missing when it's not around. That in a good jazz club. So you can have jam sessions, present talent like Alyssa, and have... a home, if you will. So it's been pretty exciting to see both of those things happen in the last couple years. Yeah, so let's bring Alyssa into the conversation because you come from a city that definitely has a great jazz ecosystem. Welcome to Sioux Falls, where we're still building ours out. You're from Chicago. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here. Tell us a little bit about how you connected with these guys. So I think we first probably met through social media, which is the connector of all things for good and for bad, mostly for good, though. And I started some conversations.

about what it might look like to come out and be a part of the concert series. Education is also very important to me, so I wanted to be sure to include some kind of educational outreach as well. So we'll be doing a master class, which we're very excited about. And the conversations have been great, planning all of the music, getting the vision for our concert, and I'm just very excited to be here. How did you get into this as a child? You're a vocalist, but you also play. I play piano. Piano. Yeah. And I always like to say I play a little piano. Everyone asks me, is that a small piano? I just mean, no, like just not that much. But I do a lot of teaching, so I accompany my students. I've done a handful of self-accompanied performances as well. But I have been singing this music since I was about 12 years old. I started singing with the jazz band when I was in sixth grade, so I can certainly agree just the importance of having a big band, you know, professionally, but all the way going down to those kind of early educational years. I just fell in love with like singing with a band and being around other musicians. And I started going to a camp around that time as well. And I went every summer and just kind of got the bug at an early age. How did that change your life as a kid growing up in school, having that be so central to it? You know, it's, I love how you asked me that because it really made music a central part of who I was without me really. I guess even knowing that, it was just something I just did all the time. And because I had a school district that had a lot of opportunities, I was fortunate to be able to try out different things and right away find this sense of belonging, a sense of community, and just a sense of something that I really enjoyed working on and just felt very passionate about. So I feel very grateful for that. I would think it would be intimidating. to enter the space of singing some of the jazz standards, some of the great composers of American music of all time. And now you are going to sing it and interpret it in a new way. And then you're going to write your own music that enters into the space. Tell us a little bit about the arc of that for you. Because as I listen to Leap, your 26 album, your EP, you're dealing with that, that idea of getting out of your own way, taking a leap into the sea and saying this is where I belong. Digging deeper in the sand. Safely building on dry land She can hear the ocean song But she's afraid to sing along Well, I mean, thank you so much. I think that's definitely been a big part of my journey. I think especially with being a singer, I think there really is an expectation of knowing that repertoire and singing that repertoire, and maybe that's what audiences are most expecting to hear still. And so to choose, I'm going to do something a little bit different. There's a little bit of that. That can be a little scarier risk with that. For me, I love singing the Great American Songbook, and I'm so inspired by the songwriting,

quality of the music and the lyrics. But I'm finding that, you know, as a woman in 2026, there's a lot of things I'd like to sing about that weren't really available maybe in 1940 or 1950. And so it's also important for me to say, I want to honor that music and tell those stories. And I also want to represent what it is like to be a working, living artist right now. And so a lot of that has been trusting that the sort of evolution of jazz has always depended on people both honoring what has happened. and what is currently happening, but then also looking ahead to kind of what they can add to the music and how they might be able to push it forward. Yeah. I heard you say in another interview, don't compare yourself yourself. It's a cold Katie Porter. At least not right? When you start writing. That is really good advice for everybody, right? Yes, in any field, don't compare yourself to the best when you first start. When you first start, what's your writing practice like then? Your songwriting practice. I find that I really have to have like some idea of what the song is about, whether it is a title. a particular emotion or experience that I want to write about because my writing is so lyric driven. Then I'll find that I kind of start writing the story. And then I'm pretty much just like at the piano and working on all of the elements right away. You think about a lyric has a certain kind of shape already built in and our phrasing and kind of just the way, even the cadences of how we speak. So I kind of work on that. Being at the piano, I can kind of hear melodies and I'm kind of already putting it to chords and things like that. But yeah, I kind of start with the lyric and the idea first and then we'll sort of see where the muse takes me from there. Yeah. Jim Spears, Alyssa All Good is a remarkable... singer and American jazz musician in their own right. I don't even know how to articulate that other than to list a bunch of awards and talk about her albums, but help people understand here in South Dakota who you're bringing to town, who you're going to be on stage with. Well, yeah, I think you've got to listen. I mean, check out her music if you haven't, and you'll know pretty quickly. She's special. And then just looking at the musicians she's worked with the tour, the tours that she takes, I think it's from here you go to Croatia maybe. Yes. Yes, I think that's what Dan wasn't telling me. And so that's something I've been sharing with people. Yep, she's. In Chicago, she comes to Sioux Falls, and then she goes to Chicago and into Croatia. So, I mean, we're part of a sort of a world traveled musician here that's pretty special that she's making time for us here in Sioux Falls. Daniel, tell me a little bit about how as you guys get to know each other, the band and your guest artist, what does that first rehearsal sound like? You know, you're going to do your pre-conversations before you get together. But when you get on the stage together, how do you build that communication? Because when I watch you guys play, you've been communicating so long that even I as an audience member and a non-musician have learned how to pick up a little bit how you communicate with each other. You have to do this with a whole new person, and there's not really that I know of a standard, like, oh, she'll turn to the left and that means do this. Or, you know, like, you have to learn each other's rhythms. That's right. I think, like, within the band itself, there's a lot of trust. And because we've been, many of us have been playing together for it.

up to 20 plus years together. And so we do have that trust. We also have a musical director, C.J. Coker, and he really helps guide the rehearsal. And also, we've been, like, communicating a lot back and forth as far as what repertoire we're doing. And we were able to get a couple of her arrangements arranged for Big Band by Jeremy Haig. And so tonight's going to be the first time. Those are performed. We sit down and rehearse those, right? Yep. So two shows that I want to talk really about. One is at the, and you're doing an educational piece too, so we should probably mention that. But first, Levin the Lawn, which is right across the street from the STPB Studios, free. open, you're going to sit on a blanket next to somebody that you maybe don't even know, and then the next night, Friday night, this intimate jazz club, trio jazz club where the acoustics are out of this world and it will be a smaller, a smaller crowd. These are two very different experiences. Alyssa, do you want to start with how you approach such two different shows with the same group of... Musicians. Yeah, absolutely. I'm thrilled to kind of get to wear two different hats. You know, I certainly will bring the same energy for both of those performances. I do think that singing with a big band requires you to be just like a slightly larger version than yourself, and especially some of the arrangements that were doing, in addition to the pieces of mind that were arranged, some iconic, you know, recordings by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams and Diane Scher, who had these huge voices, right? So for me, it's really fun to just kind of physically and musically take up a little bit more space when kind of singing in that kind of setting. But then singing the next night in the smaller setting, that's kind of what I do more often on touring and things like that. So I feel, of course, equally comfortable in that setting. And for me, I then like to feel like the audience, they get to become like the last band member in a slightly different way than when we're outside in a big kind of performance like tomorrow. Although... hopefully everyone tomorrow is still cheering loud and giving us all the good vibes when we're outside. But in the jazz club, it really feels like that, that energy and that communication and banter with the audience becomes even more kind of a part of the set. Yeah. Thursday night is the levitts. Yes. We're recording this on a Wednesday, but you're going to hear it Thursday. Yes. So it's tonight. Thank you. Jim, same musicians on both shows or a smaller group at trio? A smaller group at trio, yeah. Who's at trio? It will be Dan and myself and Andrew Reinerts on bass and Mike Sertzcon piano. So the same rhythm section that will be playing on Thursday tonight. How big is the band on? At the Levitt. At the Levitt. It's 15? 16. 16, yeah. 16, 17 with Alyssa. Full-sized big band. Four trumpets, four bones, five saxes. And we would love to have that group in trio, but it's just physically impossible. So we can stand outside. Yeah, they can stand outside, exactly. So help me understand, obviously, in the smaller club with a smaller group, more improv, or do you improv in a big band as well? Daniel? Yeah, there's definitely more improvisational.

aspects in a smaller setting. And there is, you know, we are going to feature a number of soloists with the big band as well. But part of that is we kind of will probably have it fairly planned out as far as who's soloing. So we're all on the same roadmap. Yeah. So a little more structure with the bigger group. Yes. Yep. More structure. And then Alyssa, a lot of people don't understand how this works. I am counting myself among one of them other than I love to hear it happen. But it makes... somewhat of a sense to me for a musician who's holding a trombone to improvise. Vocally, it's magic to me. It's just plain old magic. I don't know how that happened. I know I love listening to it. That's it. Help explain people a little bit how you approach improvisation. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I really do feel like I approach it like an instrumentalist. I ever just think of my voice as an instrument. The biggest difference, of course, is that we don't have any buttons or slides or keys, anything like that. So that means instead of like pressing a button and knowing it's going to produce this note, I have to be able to do that with my ears and with my voice. So it's spent a lot of time developing like just ear training so that I can very comfortably say I know I'm singing this particular note in a scale or I know what note I kind of want to land. on. I also spend a lot of time transcribing horn players to really get the facility of different kind of beep pop language, you know, hearing more chromaticism, things like that, which can often be a little harder to hear as a singer. So I really just... kind of just think of myself as a horn player when I'm improvising. It's been a lot of time doing the theory and all those things. But the different aspect that I do try to bring in with being a singer is still that kind of storytelling and conversational approach. So I'm just going to be honest, probably everyone in my soul is just like a little bit of the blues in there. I just got to bring in a little bit of the blues and pretty much everything I bring in because I think that that's just kind of a natural part of what we do and also feels very, very human as well. Yeah. So if you're teaching and you are doing, Jim, you want to talk a little bit about the educational component of this? Yeah, you bet. Actually, what I was thinking about just before you asked that question was a premier performance we have tonight, Thursday night, when this airs at the Levitt of the Honors Jazz Orchestra. That is a brand new group with the Fellowship Jazz Center. And it's a full big man, right? Yeah, Dan. Yeah, and there's a... I forget, I think there's 20 kids. 20. So, yeah, full big band. We have a vocalist, and they've been working hard the last four weeks, and they come from six different schools within the region here. Really? Outside of Sioux Falls, too. I mean, so we got Mitchell? Yeah, Mitchell, Brookings. Then we have a number of schools in Sioux Falls. Trying to remember them all. Jefferson, Roosevelt, Gorman.

And Brandon Valley as well. And they've been rehearsing. They've been coming into town three or four Sundays. I mean, this is a really cool program that's starting. So I'm super excited. I think this is the start of a really special ensemble for the region. Yeah. Alyssa, tell me a little bit about coaching young musicians or even, you know, adult musicians who are trying to get to the next level as artists. the role of expression and letting yourself go, but yet having control of your instrument and what you're doing. Yeah. How do you help people take the next step in that? I mean, that's such an important distinction because I think sometimes people think like, oh, jazz is just made up and you can do whatever you want. It's like actually there is quite a lot of structure and what we're doing, but it's about kind of knowing that structure and then knowing how to live within that and then how to push around that. And I think something I certainly work on with students really of all ages is I think first is having enough trust and confidence in yourself, both as a person and as a musician and the skills of whatever level that you're at to know that you can. stand on your own two feet, even if it's, I'm comfortable improvising with three notes. It's like, I got three notes that I know are going to sound really good. And then it's kind of building that muscle memory and, again, that kind of confidence. And then taking those kind of small risks. I really encourage people to try, like, you know, one or two new things at a time, whether that's a specific improv concept or changing the tone of their voice on a certain thing and just sort of seeing what that feels like. And again, building in that repetition. And slowly and slowly you're able to take kind of more. risks without. Yeah. Daniel, risk taking in music. You got to do it. It's always a risk. I feel like every time I perform, but I feel the best way to put it is I think the older I get, I can cover up my mistakes really well. But it's so important. I mean, this kind of ties in also with like the educational aspect. So. I've been running a local jazz jam for eight years, and we have everything from middle schoolers, high school, or college kids onwards to musicians traveling through, and all of a sudden they all come to the jam and they play together and it's fun to watch the kids learn. And that's really, they're brave enough to get up on stage and every month they keep coming back and they get better and better. Basically trial by fire and they keep doing it. Jim, you and I have been talking about this just briefly in our personal lives of in the age of technological advancements and AI. Just how. ridiculously important jazz is with real human beings getting together in a real audience and having that experience. That's on your mind. It is. Yeah. I mean, I've talked a lot about this with friends and colleagues about, you know, now it's sometimes hard to tell what's real and what's not when you're online. I mean, to the point where we're talking about, you know, governance and, you know, making sure that there's notice given if it isn't a real,

if it's not real content or created by humans. In fact, there's been some notable cases recently of jazz musicians being misrepresented, that their recordings, their AI recordings have been put out under their name and they didn't actually play the music. So I think all that leads to what's so special about what you'll hear on the lawn at the Levitt or at Trio Jazz Club as you sit there and you know that's real music and you're participating in it. I think humans are going to be more and more hungry for that over the coming years because you'll be able to sit there and know for sure this. I'm really part of something that's only happening right now. This solo, this note, this idea is only being shared with me. It will never be shared again, only in this context. So, yeah, I firmly believe that that's adding to the allure of showing up to a jazz club and participating in the making of music. Alyssa, what else is on your mind and heart as an independent artist who... making your way on social media with record releases and in live performances It's keeping you up at night or waking you up in the morning, ready to go. How much time do you have? I mean, I certainly agree with the sentiments. I think that real human connection is even more important today than it was a little while ago, and I think it'll continue to be more and more important. I often say that I think just choosing to be in a room with strangers is a pretty real act of resistance, just choosing to like... show up and be open to something new and different i think is really important so i really am focusing on creating those kind of opportunities and experiences for myself and for my audience um i'm working um on a new album so that'll be coming out in uh spring of next year so i've been working really hard on just all of the production and pitching and all those kind of things um i've been really active on social media doing uh quite a lot of like actually like educational content as well so a lot of those videos keep me up at night because i gotta like make sure everything's posted just right but i'm really just um trying to take even more ownership of kind of expanding my brand and my awareness as an independent artist because the truth is that you are the one that's going to do that. So I'm just sort of going all in on kind of those efforts. Is it fun for you to do that part of it? It is and it isn't. I would say I'm extremely type A, so I like love a list. I love checking things off. But something that is honestly pretty hard for me in this business is that there are not a lot of things that you can control. So, you know, you can do all these, send these emails or do these things, but there's not really a guarantee. The thing that we can guarantee is the way that we show up for ourselves and the effort that we put in. And so I'm also working pretty actively on kind of rethinking.

sort of different career achievements and goals like that because it really goes back to, you know, what am I working towards? Am I getting better as a musician? Am I consistently showing up for myself and what's important? So defining success for yourself? Yeah. And that, you know, because we make those checklists and, you know, did I accomplish this? Did I get that? I would think that would be also a challenge for someone who's won. big awards. Like, what's the next big award, right? Well, that's the challenge. Is that when you get the thing, then you go, okay, let's go for the next one. Yeah. So I'm also trying to, I was talking with a friend recently, he told me to do an exercise of trying to take inventory of the last couple years of just things I've been doing and, you know, not just musically, but other parts of my personal life. So that'll be what I'm working on as well. Yeah. Daniel, taking inventory of fellowship jazz orchestra and in the arts. And Jim, you can obviously jump in too from a You know, how do you measure success? You have to write a grant or you have to talk to a board or you have to, you know, talk to parents. What are those metrics for you when so much of it's intangible? You know, I'm pretty new to running the orchestra. It's only been around for a little over two years now. And yes, we have written, we got our first grant this last year through to South Dakota Arts Council. And it's just, it's easy to get overwhelmed. And I think, like, the thing that I try to do is just one day at a time, make a list, and try to be better today than I was yesterday in regards to that. And in the orchestra. I mean, how do you measure success? I mean, the community has really seemed to embrace it and want to come out. And part of that is just, I think there was the need for it. But then also we do so much with education that there's also like this next generational. excitement with it as well. And so just trying to build the community just one day at a time, one jazz jam at a time, you know, and just sharing that something that we love and just sharing it with other people. Yeah. And we really have, I think, a special jazz community here. Yeah. You know, I've never lived anywhere else, so I can't talk from experience, but having talked to some other folks that come from other communities, I think we have a really tight-knit supportive community where we all turn out for each other, we all support each other, lots of talent, lots of collaboration. I think that's really special, and I think that also adds to just the context of the jazz orchestra and why people enjoy coming to hear us because they know we enjoy playing together. Somebody's always working on something. Yeah. That's what I've learned about this community. If I may trouble you here at the end of our time together to talk a little bit about Carl Gerke and how jazz journalism really, he probably wouldn't have called himself a jazz journalist. Programming jazz and the interviews that he did and the impact that he would have had on that jazz ecosystem.

Yeah, it's, I mean, this is a whole other conversation, I think, but briefly, it's just he's greatly missed by us. He was a friend and an important colleague in this work, you know, for South Dakota to have a statewide live jazz program five nights a week is saying something. And Carl brought so much passion to sharing this art form with everyone in the state. And especially in celebrating, presenting local jazz musicians. You know, Dan and I both and a lot of our colleagues have played multiple times on the air with Carl. And a few times he sang with us. So he was also, you know, a jazz musician as well. And so he really brought the state together, if you will. the east and west you know we always talk about east river west river you know that really didn't exist with jazz nightly it was just one big jazz community across the entire state so and he was so knowledgeable i mean you i think i know something about a certain album and then you start talking to car you realize oh no he i don't i just maybe know the musicians on the album he knows who recorded it when it was recorded where it was recorded i mean he was he was uh he studied the music. So he was really special and we miss him greatly. Yeah, when he was sick in the hospital, he told me all about Shalak and Shillac shortages in World War II. Yes. And I was like, wow, this is, that was our hospital room conversation. Daniel, anything you want to add about our friend, Carl? You know, I love him and miss him. We shared so many great moments in this space together, and whether it was, you know, the album release or just getting together and play music for a holiday or an international Jazz Day celebration. Like that one really stands out where we had 15 musicians in that room together and we somehow cord in it all. And just his spirit, you know, he's such a, yeah. He was so supportive. Alyssa, again in Chicago, you must be thick with jazz, you know, arts journalists and jazz clubs and jazz publications. And, you know, I guess what I'm trying to also get at is the importance of, you know, Carl, yes, was a musician and yes was really a scholar. But arts journalism matters in the ecosystem as well. Yeah, absolutely. And we were talking off air that I actually met Carl a number of years ago. He was a big fan of years. Yeah, and so I'm just so appreciative of his support and, of course, very, very sorry for the loss. But I absolutely, I think, you know, journalists and radio hosts, they do so much to, you know, uplift artists, but also I think to preserve and honor this. tradition, this American art form that I think is so important to our culture and those kind of outlets and those people who are so dedicated to that, they do a really important job of maintaining that sort of sacred art form, to be honest here in the U.S. Yeah. Thank you so much for spending so much time for me today. I know you have lots of rehearsing and preparation to do, so I'll let you go, but it's been a delight to talk to you. Thank you. Thanks, Lime.

I Alyssa Allgood's most recent release is called Leap. She performs with the Fellowship Jazz Center Orchestra this week at the Levitt at the Falls and at Trio Jazz Club in downtown Sioux Falls. You can find her music streaming online. That's our conversation for today. I hope that it served you from all of us here at SDPB. I'm Lori Walsh. Thanks for listening.