LMTA sponsors Improv Workshop by Jackie Allen & Hans Sturm

General activities will be engaged in for musicians of all instruments and abilities. Non-keyboard instrumentalists may bring their instrument if they wish.

Husband and wife duo Jackie Allen and Hans Sturm are both jazz performers and educators, have toured extensively, performed as soloists and collaborated with many throughout the United States and the world.

Jackie Allen was born in Milwaukee, WI where she was surrounded by music. All three brothers played brass instruments at the encouragement of her father Louis (Gene), a Dixieland jazz tuba player, recently inducted into the Polka Hall of Fame. Jackie chose the French horn. She attended U.W. Madi­son studying Vocal Performance and Jazz with NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis. In the late 80s, Jackie moved back to Milwaukee where she met pianist/organist Melvin Rhyne (Wes Montgomery Trio) and worked with him for four years before moving to Chicago. There she began her recording career, recording for independent and major labels including Lake Shore Jazz, Naxos Jazz, A440, Red Mark, Blue Note Records and others. Jackie met “Chicago’s First Lady of Jazz” pianist/vocalist Judy Roberts and began a long musical relationship recording two CDs, Santa Baby and Autumn Leaves. Jackie and her own combo recorded 3 critically acclaimed CDs for A440 and Blue Note: The Men In My Life (2003), Love Is Blue (2004) and Tangled (2006). Her release, Starry Night (2009) recorded live with chamber or­chestra, features star-themed songs penned by arrangers who have written for Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Doc Severinsen, and Bobby McFerrin. My Favorite Color (2014) features innovative takes on standards and pop classics and made USA Today’s Top Ten List. Rose Fingered Dawn (2017) features a set of 10 tunes written for Jackie by her husband, bassist Hans Sturm. In an exceptional turn of events, Jackie released a new live recording entitled A Romantic Evening with Jackie Allen (2019) as both a BluRay and CD, featuring her Chicago band and special guest saxophonist Bob Shepard (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock). A 30-minute version of the concert video has been picked up by PBS and shown in over 20 major markets.

Jackie’s extraordinary talent has taken her on tours of Europe, Morocco, Brazil, China and Taiwan. Nationally she has toured both coasts and in-between appearing in Los Angeles (Catalina’s), San Francisco (Yoshi’s), San Diego (Hum­phrey’s), and New York (The Blue Note, The Josef Papp Public Theater). Locally, she was featured on A Prairie Home Companion where she gave Garrison Keillor a “Torch Singing” lesson. She has been a featured artist with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic in Chicago’s Millennium Park and Auditorium Theater for an Ella Fitzgerald Celebration. She has performed international music festivals in Detroit, Chicago, Paris, The Hague, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Bologna, Beijing, Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, Sao Paulo and more. Regionally, she has appeared in Denver, Kansas City, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee.

Jackie has served multiple terms on the Board of Governors and Jazz Nominating Committee for the Recording Academy (Grammy Awards). She teaches music at Doane College, in Crete and in Lincoln, instructs her adult course, Torch Singer 101. Jackie lives in Lincoln with her husband, bassist Hans Sturm and son, Wolfgang.

Hans Sturm has toured on six continents as a symphony, jazz, and chamber musician. His jazz credits include Eddie Daniels, Stanley Jordan, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Randy Brecker, Bela Fleck, and many others. He has contributed performances and compositions to over fifty recordings including releases on Blue Note (EMI), Universal, Music & Arts, Cadence, Innova, CRI, Centaur and Red Mark. Past President and currently President-Elect of the International Society of Bassists, Hans has served on the juries numerous international double bass performance, composition and jazz competitions. He is an award-winning producer for his pedagogical DVDs with international artist-teacher François Rabbath. Dr. Sturm is currently Hixson-Lied Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at the Glenn Korff School of Music in the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.