About

Named one of the TOP 10 RISING STAR JAZZ Vocalists in the 2021 Downbeat Critics’ Poll

“A Gift for Sculpting Words…and agile vocalizing…” | The New Yorker

“An Anomaly in the vocal jazz world, a strong original songwriter…she sings your life back to you." | New York Music Daily

"Levy is the new pinup girl for cool." | MIDWEST RECORD

"If Allegra Levy is not yet on every jazz listener's radar, this new album should rectify the situation." | Jazzhistoryonline.com

A Connecticut native now based in New York, Allegra Levy has appeared at most of the top jazz venues in NYC, including the Jazz Standard, the Blue Note, Birdland Theatre, Zinc Bar, and the Bitter End. “Fresh … exotic… and far beyond the ordinary,” declared The New York Times of her debut album, 2014’s Lonely City. Ever since, she has continued to pen a collection of harmonically adventurous-yet-familiar originals steeped in the Great American Songbook. Her third album, Looking at the Moon, was an Editor’s Pick in both DownBeat and JazzTimes. Her fourth, Lose My Number: Allegra Levy Sings John McNeil —featuring her own lyrics set to the tunes of renowned trumpeter John McNeil – was lauded in The New Yorker as “a showcase for Levy’s…agile vocalizing and her gift for sculpting words.”

Last spring, Levy ventured into jazz for the juvenile set with an internationally acclaimed children’s album, Songs for You and Me. Her new record, Out of the Question however, is strictly PG…or maybe even R, for rousing, riveting, and downright raunchy when it comes to her bluesy take on the ‘80s punk rock classic, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash.

Allegra Levy continues to accumulate accolades. Named one of the Top Ten Rising Stars among jazz vocalists in Downbeat’s 2021 Critics’ Poll, she has been dubbed a “double-barreled talent” by JazzTimes, and called everything from “sophisticated, worldly, and swinging” to “the new pin-up girl for cool.” She was among last year’s winners of the John Lennon Songwriting Competition for Best Children’s Song. She was also a 2023 finalist in the International Songwriting Competition’s Children’s Music category for her song “It’s So Hard to Be You.” Plus, she took first place in the 2019 Great American Song Contest’s Adult Contemporary Music category for her pop tune “Waste My Time.” Yet she is equally known for her jazzy originals and rich, emotive, contralto voice. A graduate of New England Conservatory, she proudly serves on the leadership of the Women in Jazz Organization.

“Her lyrics are uncommonly smart, full of striking imagery and a pervasive angst... If there’s anybody alive to sing these songs fifty years from now, many of them will be part of the standard repertoire.” — New York Music Daily