Akua Allrich & Kris Funn at Virginia Arts Festival at Glass Wheel Studio

“Perhaps one of the most anticipated releases to hit the jazz scene recently, Akua Allrich’s Soul Singer is simply magical, bursting at the seams with jubilance and grace. Over the years, Allrich has become one of the region’s most captivating performers: On stage, her voice and powerful presence suck in the audience, transforming any room into a sacred space of ritual. On this, her third release, the enchantment of her live performance is captured, but she offers fresh nuances that only a studio can capture—as a result, there’s the sense of hearing something new with each listen.”...

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“Perhaps one of the most anticipated releases to hit the jazz scene recently, Akua Allrich’s Soul Singer is simply magical, bursting at the seams with jubilance and grace. Over the years, Allrich has become one of the region’s most captivating performers: On stage, her voice and powerful presence suck in the audience, transforming any room into a sacred space of ritual. On this, her third release, the enchantment of her live performance is captured, but she offers fresh nuances that only a studio can capture—as a result, there’s the sense of hearing something new with each listen.”
Kristopher Funn was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He began playing the trumpet at age four and took up the double bass at age 14 upon entering high school. Through the instruction of his father, Charles Funn, Kristopher performed his first professional bass gig the same year he began learning the instrument. Other early accomplishments included winning the “unsung hero” at the Fish Middleton jazz competition at the East Coast Jazz festival also in the first year of instruction. At age 18, Kristopher attended Howard University to study Computer Science while also performing in the Howard University Jazz Ensemble for two years.

After graduating with an honors degree in computer science, Kristopher decided to pursue a career as a professional jazz musician, performing in several venues in the Baltimore Washington metropolitan areas. At age 23, Kristopher began touring internationally with alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Since then, he has traveled to every major jazz festival in the world touching six continents performing with artists including Bruce Williams, Nicholas Payton, Pharoah Sanders, Jeff Majors, Jeff Lorber, and many others. Kristopher has appeared on several recordings including the Christian Scott albums, “Yesterday You Said Tomorrow” and Christian aTunde Adjuah on the Concord Jazz label. He continues to perform professionally in the Washington D.C. area while touring with the Christian Scott Quintet.

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