John Chin is a pianist and composer as comfortable within the tradition as he is outside of its boundaries. His upcoming album with vocalist Richard Julian, Anything Mose, honors the work of Mose Allison, and will doubly engage jazz listeners and beyond.
Allison, a Mississippi native, moved to New York in the 1950s to work as a pianist with an assortment of bebop and cool jazz disciples, such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz and Phil Woods. As he formed his own trio and began recording for Prestige in 1957, his strong blues quotient earned him fans in the folk, early rock and blues communities.
He was also a singer-songwriter, and as the blues renaissance took off in the UK, strains of his dry and witty vocal delivery could be heard in Pete Townsend, The Rolling Stones and even Jimi Hendrix. But tributes and acknowledgements to Allison have been relatively scarce since his death in 2016.
As a leader, Chin is featured on four critically acclaimed solo recordings, and his contribution to vocalist Rene Marie's The Sound of Red earned him a Grammy nomination. When he sought out singer-songwriter Richard Julian for a side project, it turned out that Allison was their common denominator.
Julian has recorded and toured six albums of his own; is a member of The Little Willies with Norah Jones and Jim Campilongo; and is a serious study of the Mose Allison songbook. After Chin and Julian booked gigs at Smalls Jazz Club and Rockwood Music Hall playing Mose Allison material, they had a sold out appearance at Dizzy's Club at Lincoln Center.
"I remember asking the crowd, 'Who are the Mose people? Who among you came out because of Mose?'" Chin recalls. He was surprised at the number of hands that went up throughout the audience. The enthusiasm for Chin and Julian's project has even extended to the Allison Family, and they were invited to contribute to If You're Going To The City, a tribute with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ben Harper and others.
Chin shares his optimism for returning to touring with Julian and sharing Anything Mose, out on June 10, and the legacy of inclusion in the jazz community.
