What Tomorrow Brings, by Alyssa Allgood

What Tomorrow Brings

by Alyssa Allgood

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$9.99 CAD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Packaged in a cardboard gatefold sleeve

Includes unlimited streaming of What Tomorrow Brings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

$12.99 CAD or more

1.	There Are Such Things 04:01	buy track
2.	Enclosure 03:21	buy track
3.	Should Have Been 06:52	buy track
4.	Memories 04:23	buy track
5.	This Bitter Earth 04:00	buy track
6.	Mad About The Boy 04:48	buy track
7.	Time Found 04:18	buy track
8.	Bridges 05:14	buy track
9.	Try Your Wings 03:45	buy track
10.	Light Of Darkness 04:48	buy track
11.	For All We Know 03:06	buy track
12.	Passing Glance 04:55	buy track

about

On her third studio album, Chicago vocalist Alyssa Allgood wields her instrument with depth, nuance & sophistication. Through refined interpretations of classics and the debut of four stunning originals, What Tomorrow Brings invites listeners on a personal journey of despair, determination and discovery.

Style. Substance. The music that matters invariably boasts one of the two. But when style and substance share the spotlight, in admirable balance and sure conviction, you’ve got something to remember.
Substance first: What Tomorrow Brings, her third album, reflects a couple years of enormous personal growth for Alyssa Allgood. New apartment, new jobs; a dedicated commitment to long-distance running; rigorous teaching of the jazz vocal tradition; and increased visibility beyond her Chicago base, with appearances in New York and Shanghai that have bolstered her confidence.

And then the pandemic. “I’ve had a lot more time alone, getting to know myself better,” says Allgood: “Time to be outside, to read, and to deal with moments of change and loss. They’re all opportunities to grow closer to who we are.” Allgood is still in her 20s, and despite her impressive self-possession, she’s still in process.

The substance of these songs reveals her deepening connection to life’s kaleidoscopic emotions, as does her placement of each song within the overall narrative. “I hope the listener will feel the harder emotions at the beginning,” she says, “and then a shift about halfway through [right around the beguiling “Time Found” and “Bridges,” the haunting Milton Nascimento classic]. And then comes the sense that we're getting into something uplifting – that even though what tomorrow brings is unknown, there's still hope.”

As for the style that animates this substance, it ripples with newfound depth and power. Allgood has systematically mined the music of her idols, including Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, and Billie Holiday. They all funneled their considerable technique into making the words as meaningful as the melodies, and their example has steered Allgood toward greater nuance in service of storytelling. “I’m trying to make lyrical expression the focal point of what I'm doing,” she explains.

Give a listen to “This Bitter Earth,” where she bends notes and commands the rhythm to etch each twist of the dark/light lyrics. In her duo version of “For All We Know,” her rain-pure timbre and heartbreaking inflections dovetail with Mike Allemana’s genius for accompaniment. On “Passing Glance,” Allgood uses her lovely control of dynamics to bring the song into subtle bas-relief before a high-flying coda. But as her interpretative authority continues to flourish, she needn’t shout to tell every story; she can also whisper.

And on the eastern-tinged arrangement of “Mad About the Boy” (perhaps the album’s highlight), she does both. With liberal phrasing and tonal flutters, Allgood lets you see a raised eyebrow here, a rueful smile there – and finally, with daring swoops into the upper register, a level of passion that blows to hell the cool composure the lyrics strive to maintain.

Allgood works here with three of Chicago’s finest, all of them many years her senior, and she stands effortlessly with them in this compact, thrillingly interactive quartet. They too embody style and substance, either of which have propelled plenty of lesser bands. But put those two together and you’re in rare and wonderful company indeed.

-NEIL TESSER
Grammy-award winning writer and critic, author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz

credits

released April 9, 2021

Musician Listing:
Alyssa Allgood – voice
Mike Allemana – guitar
Dennis Carroll – bass
George Fludas – drums

Executive Producer: Cory Weeds
Produced by Alyssa Allgood
Recorded at JoyRide Studio, Chicago, IL on August 5th and 6th, 2020
Engineered mixed and mastered by Brian Schwab
Photography by Thomas Mohr
Design and layout by John Sellards

license

about

Alyssa Allgood Chicago, Illinois

contact / help

Contact Alyssa Allgood

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Alyssa Allgood, you may also like:

Vonology
by Mike Allemana

supported by 5 fans who also own “What Tomorrow Brings”
go to album
Samara Joy
by Samara Joy

supported by 4 fans who also own “What Tomorrow Brings”

Très forte chanteuse de jazz de la relève! Arrangements et/ou relectures du répertoire historique. daniemusique
go to album
The Light and the Dark
by Kristin Berardi

This atypical vocal jazz album allows the backing band to shine. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 14, 2022
go to album
The Assumption
by Michele Thomas

Based around the question “What is trust?” the latest from Michele Thomas is a bewitching combination of jazz and soul. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 27, 2022
go to album
Momentary Beauty
by Kate Hamann

Brisk & breezy jazz from this Florida trumpet and flugelhorn player that tells a story of love and commitment. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 26, 2022
go to album
Essential
by Eki Shola

Spiraling, jazzy songs from musician and physician Eki Shola, who began writing songs as a form of healing after the 2017 wildfires. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 4, 2020
go to album
What Eludes Us
by De Beren Gieren

The seventh full-length from De Beren Gieren walks the line between spooky library music and free improv, shapeshifting constantly. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 12, 2024
go to album