Nicki Allan

Currently the music scene abounds with gifted young lady ‘jazz’ singers…and talented and indeed welcome as they are, not all are completely worthy of the title with a capital ‘J’!! In my humble opinion however, one who can rightly claim to be a ‘Jazz’ singer ( even though she can also perform most convincingly outside that particular sphere) is Leeds based vocal talent Nicki Allan.Nicki is one of that relatively rare breed of artist, who though fully respectful of song lyrics, has the control and confidence to take daring unexpected liberties with the melody, without marring—and in most cases actually enhancing the results!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this... I am a professional vocalist, musician, songwriter and session singer,part-time Senior lecturer at Leeds College of music and SLP College of Performing Arts. My speciality is Jazz, though i'm the kind of singer who is at home with pop, soul and even musical theatre! I run my own function band called 'Divine' and love to belt out the pops and soul tracks when i get the chance! When i'm not teaching or out gigging, I like to get back in the recording studio working on my original projects. Currently i'm working on publishing a collection of Gospel songs i wrote a few years ago. I was really happy with the way they turned out on the CD (you can have a listen on the music page at www.nickiallan.com). I'll also be working on my 3rd Jazz album which i'll hopefully start recording with the band sometime after christmas. I do a lot of function work with my own band, (Divine - www.divinefunctionband.co.uk) but also sing regularly with Bill Charleson's Big Band, Manhattan Sound, and the Brian Jackson Band with Frank Brooker, as well as other local Jazz outfits. My star band is the Jazz sextet, or rather ''The Nicki Allan Sextet'' as people have come to know us as. We formed about 18 months ago and have a strong nucleus within the Leeds College of Music, the place which has been our training ground and teaching platform for many years.
I graduated with a first from the then Leeds College of Music Jazz and contemporary music course and later studied at Huddersfield University for my PGCE teaching qualification.In between, i have enjoyed a varied performing career which has taken me around the world, TV, radio, and session work. I've been lucky enough to work with some great musicians and still enjoy performing immensly. I get great satisfaction working with young people and have thoroughly enjoyed my teaching career which has seen me voice coachiing many students and directing bands and choirs in schools and other colleges, I currently run the BA pop choir at Leeds and occasionally we can be seen out and about in the community as the ' Nicki Allan Singers' Thanks for reading all this! If you're ever at a gig then please come and say hello! Very best wishes, Nicki Allan X