Photo provided Jazz at Helen’s alum Steve Allee and his BAHA quartet will return to Helen Haddad Hall May 2 for Jazz at Helen’s.
Jazz at Helen’s alum Steve Allee and his BAHA quartet will return to Helen Haddad Hall May 2 for the final performance of the 2025 spring season. Allee, a well-established composer, arranger and musician, will be bringing some of his original works and some all-time classics from the Great American Songbook for the show.
The show will be at 7:30 p.m. at Helen Haddad Hall in downtown Columbus.
An Indianapolis native, Allee has had an extensive career in producing jazz music. Inspired by local Indianapolis jazz musicians including Wes and Buddy Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard and Slide Hampton, he joined Buddy Rich’s band at age 19 before later joining his first professional group with the Baron Von Ohlen Quartet. He has since gone on to perform in a Grammy nominated CD, at prominent jazz festivals in Chicago, Montreal, Rochester and Miami, and produce music for television, according to his biography.
“I’ve recorded now albums under my name and… I formed a trio with the drummer Steve Houghton and Jeremy Allen, and when we would record, I would write our names down on the CD and I kept doing that over and over,” Allee said. “Finally I just put ‘AHA,’ for Allee, Houghton and Allen. And then I said ‘aha,’ so we started calling our trio the AHA Trio. So we have recorded several albums together, most notably one called ‘Brother to Brother’….”
Their upcoming Jazz at Helen’s performance will see Allee on piano, Allen on bass and Houghton on the drums, in addition to the Cincinnati-based Rusty Burge on the vibraphone, making the group what they call the BAHA quartet. Allee said Burge performed with them at their last Jazz at Helen’s appearance and said many in the audience were interested in the unfamiliar “vibes” instrument and were struck by its sound.
The quartet will be playing some songs from the Great American Songbook in addition to some original works featured on Allee’s recent album “Naptown Sounds” that released in March. There will also be some solos from individual members of the quartet, he said.
“… I’m definitely going to feature Rusty on a solo vibraphone piece and because we have that beautiful Kawai 9-foot grand, I’m going to play a solo piano piece as well,” Allee said. “So I do like to feature each individual member of the group on a piece and so while we are a quartet, I like to highlight individuals as well.”
Being one of the first artists invited to perform in the Jazz at Helen’s series, Allee said himself and the community of musicians are grateful for the opportunity that the series has presented to them. He said he looks forward to that connection between themselves and the audience in the intimate setting that is Helen Haddad Hall. Audiences, whether they are a fan of jazz or not, can look forward to good vibes and high quality music, some of which they will recognize, from their Jazz at Helen’s show, he said.
“The level of expression that these musicians, that Steve and Rusty and Jeremy put out, is like magnetic,” Allee said. “When they perform, they perform with the audience in mind. So they want to embrace the audience and put forth good vibes and good energy and good rhythm out to everyone.”
Tickets are available on thecip.org/events/stevealleequartet/.
