‘New Orleans Songbook’ tour brings MSU grad full circle

There’s more to New Orleans music than Carnival, Mardi Gras and letting the good times roll.

There’s gospel, soul and Jelly Roll (Morton, that is). There’s dancing in Congo Square, marching bands, second lines, Latin habaneras and flat-out funk.

All of the above ingredients and more have been lovingly spiced and blended for your listening enjoyment by Luther S. Allison, a Grammy-winning pianist, drummer, composer and proud 2019 graduate of Michigan State University jazz studies.

Allison returns to East Lansing on Tuesday (March 25) as the pianist and music director of “New Orleans Songbook,” a Jazz at Lincoln Center touring extravaganza packed with some of the nation’s top musicians.

Tasked with putting the program together and taking it on tour, Allison resolved to acknowledge “as much of the history of New Orleans music as possible,” and that’s a tall order.

He jumped at the chance to bring the startling innovations and joyful spirit of jazz pioneers like Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and Buddy Bolden to life in a fresh setting, alongside young musicians and singers.

But he also wanted to conjure the “street beat stuff” of 1960s funk pioneers The Meters, the gospel majesty of Mahalia Jackson and many more great New Orleans musicians, all the way up to Jon Batiste, the multitalented musician and composer who sang the national anthem at the 2025 Super Bowl.

All of that music and more was already in his blood. The “S.” in his name stands for Samuel Nelson, a hip uncle who worked at a radio station in Jacksonville, Florida. (The middle initial also helps distinguish Allison from bluesman Luther Allison in Google searches.)

Uncle Sam hung out with Allison and his dad at the radio studio, talking about music. Sometimes, Uncle Sam came to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Allison grew up, bringing with him an armful of hip-hop, jazz and funk CDs.

The soaring solos and ebullient vocals of Louis Armstrong sucked Allison in before he was 10 years old. He eagerly listened to tales of Armstrong’s fabled mentor, bandleader King Oliver, and heard piano rolls by jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton.

When he kept “hitting stuff” as a kid, his parents put a drum kit in front of him. From there, he branched into saxophone and piano and sung in the choir in middle school.

Still in his teens, Allison was recruited to play in an ensemble headed by a new Charlotte-based outreach organization, the Jazz Arts Initiative (now JazzArts Charlotte). The organization’s community-minded founders, flutist Lonnie Davis and drummer Ocie Davis, took him under their wings.

The ensemble also gave Allison the chance to play with musicians his own age.

“That was the experience that pushed me over, and I just fell in love with it from there,” he said.

Soon after that, Allison met MSU trombone Professor Michael Dease at a summer jazz camp in Brevard, North Carolina, where Dease is director.

Dease recruited him to MSU, where Allison got his master’s degree and taught as a graduate assistant from 2017 to 2019.

His years at MSU equipped him for just about anything.

“They did an excellent job of creating an environment in the school that really resembles what you’re going to experience when you move to a major scene anywhere,” he said.

He gave special props to MSU’s Jazz Artist in Residence program, in which nationally acclaimed jazz musicians visit for a week to teach, tour and perform with students.

“For me, at 22 or 23 years old, it was amazing to work with a very well-established New York musician and to be in a tour bus, experiencing life beyond the music,” he said.

Allison recently compared notes with another MSU jazz studies grad who’s gone on to great things, his good friend Markus Howell, a saxophonist and composer. Both musicians found prime gigs after graduating from MSU: Howell toured with the Count Basie Orchestra, and Allison toured the world as part of a quintet led by drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.

“We both would talk about how being on the road with these people felt so much like these tours that Rodney Whitaker would have us do with the guest artists,” Allison said. (Whitaker is the director of MSU jazz studies.)

“It felt effortless, natural, it didn’t feel academic,” Allison said. “It set the tone of people just getting together and playing music. It was a really special time. I loved it.”

A recent highlight of Allison’s life was playing in five-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Samara Joy’s touring band. In 2024, Joy’s single “Tight” earned her and the band, including Allison, a Grammy for best jazz performance.

“Getting to work with her was a beautiful experience,” Allison said. “I was the newest person in the band at that time, and having the chance to experience life on the road, on and off the bandstand, was amazing, one of the most important musical lessons of my life.”

As a staple in New York City’s top venues since 2019, Allison has made a lot of friends and allies in the jazz world. That made it easy for him to put together a stellar group for “New Orleans Songbook” that would not only play brilliantly in many styles but would also meld into a tight unit quickly.

“We’re on the road for two and a half months, so I wanted to have people I felt comfortable with,” he said.

There are two compelling singers in the mix. Quiana Lynell, winner of the 2017 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, throws herself into anything New Orleans history can throw at her, from gospel to funk to jazz.

Milton Suggs has a wide range as well, but his vocal skills are secondary to his warm and intelligent presence on stage.

“He’s very welcoming, inviting, a beautiful spirit,” Allison said.

Followers of erstwhile MSU star jazz students will find delight not only in Allison’s piano mastery but also in the return of bassist Liany Mateo, named one of DownBeat magazine’s “25 For the Future” in 2024.

“Liany is like a sister to me,” Allison said.

To put a cherry on top, the Wharton Center gig is among the final stops on the tour.

“Seven or eight weeks into the tour, we’ve got it locked in,” Allison said. “It’s been a wonderful experience.”