About
Guitarist Michael Allemana has been a fixture on the Chicago scene since the early 1990s. He has shared the stage with numerous jazz luminaries, including fifteen years as a member of the late saxophonist Von Freeman’s quartet at the New Apartment Lounge. Since 2013, he has collaborated with guitarist George Freeman in a quartet that features drumming legend Bernard Purdie and Chicago organist Pete Benson. Allemana’s latest release on ears&eyes Records, Vonology, a five-movement original work for large ensemble, has received much acclaim in the jazz press, and was featured at the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival. His most recent work includes string quartet, vocal, and horn arrangements for vocalist Paul Marinaro’s acclaimed 2022 release Not Quite Yet and a new quintet with saxophonist Chico Freeman, featured recently at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and which will tour Europe in 2023.
Allemana earned a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the Department of Music at the University of Chicago in 2020 with a dissertation that explored the historical and contemporary ways that segregation in Chicago has shaped and continues to inform music making and social life on the local jazz scene. This research was produced in part while Allemana was the 2019–2020 dissertation fellow at the University’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. His current research explores the forgotten contributions of Dr. Mildred Bryant-Jones to South Side public music education from the 1920s through the 1940s. Currently, Allemana is a lecturer and the Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Chicago.