Alyssa Allgood - Leap
(Self Released, 2025)
After five releases in the last 10 years, Chicago-based vocalist Alyssa Allgood returns to where she started—a self-produced recording, specifically, a second EP to go with her debut EP, Lady Bird (Self-Produced, 2015). That release revealed a precocious youth with impressive vocal skills. Leap reflects the same artist with a decade of lessons learned, fully mature and in command.
Allgood seizes authority over all aspects of this recording. She selected the repertoire based on love and risk as she stepped out completely on her own. Allgood arranged all six selections while also composing half of them. The singer receives support from a brass-fronted quartet made up of pianist Julius Tucker, bassist Ethan Philion, drummer Jon Deitemyer, and trumpeter (and flugelhornist) Victor Garcia. The band proves to be a match for this ballad-heavy offering but is also up to the challenge of the up-tempo closer, Bob Dorough’s cheeky “Devil May Care.”
Allgood’s delivery captures the vulnerability of the original composition “Little Bird” and Frank Loeser’s “I’ve Never Been In Love Before” while addressing the confidence of “I’m Old Fashioned” and Allgood’s spear-in-the-sand, “In My Way.” Leap is a high-wire act on several levels successfully addressing each equally. Allgood has not made a bad recording, but none have been so fully integrated as Leap.
Discography
Lady Bird (Self-Produced, 2015)
Out of the Blue (Jeru Jazz Records, 2016)
Exactly Like You (Cellar Live, 2018)
What Tomorrow Brings (Cellar Music, 2021)
From Here (Next Records, 2024)
Great catch on the trajectory from Lady Bird to this. The self-production choice after working with labels feels deliberate, like she's circling back with more control but also way more weight behind the decisions. That brass-fronted quartet setup is smart for ballad-heavy material because it gives you texture without overcrowding her phrasing, which I dunno if would've worked as cleanly with a full horn section.