CONCORD RECORDS Allyson's new album covers hits of the 1970s.

Makeover hits

With her current album "Wild for You," Karrin Allyson has taken on familiar pop hits from the '70s, many of them still closely identified with the original performers who first recorded them.

"I picked the material and said (to producer/arranger Gil Goldstein) that I would really like the tunes to go in a different direction, but I still wanted them to be recognizable, and mostly I want to feel comfortable singing them, because if I don't ... I don't think the listener is going to be comfortable hearing them. I think he achieved it really well," Allyson said by phone earlier in the week after an afternoon shopping expedition in Haleiwa.

Karrin Allyson Where: Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts When: 3 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $23 and $25 (afternoon), $28 and $30 (evening) Call: 532-8700

The jazz singer has been making regular winter visits to Hawaii for 15 years or so to spend time with her sister, but it was only in 1998 that she began performing here during her so-called vacation. For the last three years she's played at the Honolulu Academy of Arts' theater, and returns this year with two shows tomorrow.

"My sister and her friend, Lynn Kinney, have basically been producing these concerts for me ... but it's really just for pleasure. I don't even get my management involved. It's really kind of grass roots, but it's always well-attended and well-received. We've always had really great radio support from Hawaii Public Radio, which I've always appreciated. ... There's something about Hawaii and feeling that it's one of my other homes."

Allyson's other "homes" include New York, her base of operations, along with Minneapolis, the Bay Area and Omaha, Neb. Omaha is where she grew up, listening to Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Melissa Manchester and Janis Ian, before she discovered jazz. Allyson paid her dues on the club scene and then released a self-produced album, "I Didn't Know About You," that got her a deal with Concord Records.

"Wild For You" is her ninth for Concord, and the fourth with a theme or concept beyond "just trying to make good music."

"I really resisted doing thematic albums for a long time. It's a challenge to make it sound like you're just not doing it just for the sake of having a theme. Record companies like it because it gives them something to market and it's easy for writers to write about, but I have to like it, too."

WHEN ALLYSON finally gave in, it was so she could explore songs from other genres and see how they could fit her smooth blend of jazz and pop.

"They've all been my choices of concept or theme. I choose the musicians. Sometimes it's my arrangements and my band's arrangements. Sometimes it's somebody like Gil Goldstein, but I'm very hands-on in the decision-making.

"I don't have children, but I have CDs, and you sort of put 'em out there and hope for the best. You do your best with them and just let them go."

So you can expect Allyson's sets tomorrow to include several of her successful makeovers of vintage pop classics such as "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," "Wild World," "Help Me" and perhaps her sassy and saucy take on "I Got Eyes."

And audiences will get to hear special arrangements. Allyson's drummer, Todd Strait, flew in on Wednesday, and he'll join her longtime local pals, bassist Bruce Hamada and pianist Jim Howard, in revamping Goldstein's studio arrangements for a trio setting.

Allyson has been enjoying the past week spent in rural Mokuleia, a welcome lull before she flies back to New York, hooks up with her full-time group and hits the road for a February mainland tour, a trip to Portugal in March, a week at the Blue Note in New York at the end of March, and then tours of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe.

With nine critically acclaimed albums, solid support from her record label and two Grammy nominations thus far, Allyson has yet to break through as a mass-market "diva" but is already an inspiration to another generation of singers.

"I get asked a lot by singers who want to make a go of it, 'How you do it?' If there was a formula, we all would have it, but there's no formula. The music has to be paramount and there's no other motive. You have to love the music and be serious about the music, but having said that, I'm a person who loves a good time. ... It's certainly not always a cerebral experience.

"One of my goals is to make connections with people when I'm performing, and not only that, but just as a person, I like it when people feel better than when they came in."