Ben Allison & Think Free

Okay, lets start with some unabashed gushing: we lurv Ben Allison. His tuneful, big-eared, forward-thinking compositions lured a couple of us back into jazz in the 90s, after wed shamefully drifted away. Weve been avidly listening to his records (13 as a leader, 3 more as one of the driving forces of the Herbie Nichols Project) for over twenty years now, and theres not a weak one in the bunch. Action-Refraction was justly named one of the Best Albums of 2011 (of any genre) by NPR; his latest, Layers of the City, brings an edgy maturityand Jeremy Pelt's slinky trumpetto Allison's cinematic sound. (Rising-star cornetist Kirk Knuffke ably fills in for Pelt on this tour.) Join us for our first-ever concert at Arcata's hippest artists' space, The Sanctuary!