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Red Allen
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{{Short description|American jazz trumpeter and vocalist (1908β1967)}} {{About|the jazz musician|the bluegrass singer and guitarist|Red Allen (bluegrass)}} {{Other people|Henry Allen}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2012}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Red Allen | image = File:Red allen loc 02.jpg | caption = Allen at the [[Onyx Club (New York City)|Onyx Club]], New York City<br />c. May 1946<br />Photo: [[William P. Gottlieb]] | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_name = Henry James Allen Jr. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|1|7|mf=yes}} | birth_place = [[Algiers, New Orleans|Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1967|4|17|1908|1|7|mf=yes}} | death_place = [[New York City]], New York, U.S. | genre = [[Jazz]] | occupation = Musician | instrument = Trumpet | years_active = 1924β1967 }} '''Henry James "Red" Allen Jr.''' (January 7, 1908 β April 17, 1967) was an American [[jazz]] trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been described by [[Joachim-Ernst Berendt]] and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of [[Louis Armstrong]].<ref name="Berendt">{{cite book |last=Berendt|first=Joachim|author-link=Joachim-Ernst Berendt | title=The Jazz Book|publisher=Paladin | year=1976|pages=187β188}}</ref><ref name="RCJE">{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Richard|year=2005|title=Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=0-141-00646-3|page=9}}</ref> ==Life and career== Allen was born in the [[Algiers, Louisiana|Algiers]] neighborhood of [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], the son of the bandleader Henry Allen Sr. He took early trumpet lessons from [[Peter Bocage]] and [[Manuel Manetta]]. Allen's career began in [[Sidney Desvigne]]'s Southern Syncopators. He was playing professionally by 1924 with the Excelsior Brass Band and the jazz dance bands of [[Sam Morgan (musician)|Sam Morgan]], [[George Lewis (clarinetist)|George Lewis]] and [[John Casimir (clarinetist)|John Casimir]]. After playing on riverboats on the [[Mississippi River]], he went to Chicago in 1927 to join [[Joe "King" Oliver|King Oliver]]'s band.<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz |editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|pages=10β11 |url=https://archive.org/details/guinnesswhoswhoo0000unse_a9k0/page/10/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}</ref> Around this time he made recordings on the side in the band of [[Clarence Williams (musician)|Clarence Williams]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> After returning briefly to New Orleans, where he worked with the bands of [[Fate Marable]] and [[Fats Pichon]], he was offered a recording contract with [[Victor Records]]<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> and went to New York City, where he joined the [[Luis Russell]] band, which was later fronted by [[Louis Armstrong]] in the late 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Collier|first=James Lincoln |author-link=James Lincoln Collier| title=Louis Armstrong | publisher=Pan Books | year=1985|isbn=0-330-28607-2|page=294}}</ref> In 1929, Allen joined Luis Russell's Orchestra, in which he was a featured soloist until 1932.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He took part in recording sessions that year organized by [[Eddie Condon]], some of which featured [[Fats Waller]] and [[Tommy Dorsey]]. He also made a series of recordings in late 1931 with [[Don Redman]]. In 1932 he recorded with the [[Rhythmakers]] in New York City. In 1933 he joined [[Fletcher Henderson]]'s Orchestra, in which he stayed until 1934. He played with [[Lucky Millinder]]'s [[Mills Blue Rhythm Band]] from 1934 to 1937, when he returned to Russell for three more years, by which time Russell's orchestra was fronted by [[Louis Armstrong]].<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> Allen seldom received any solo space on recordings with Armstrong,<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> but was prominently featured in the band's live performances, even getting billing as a featured attraction.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} As a bandleader, Allen recorded for [[Victor Records|Victor]] from 1929 through 1930. He made a series of recordings as co-leader with [[Coleman Hawkins]] in 1933 for [[American Record Corporation|ARC]] (Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, etc.) and continued as an ARC recording artist through 1935, when he was moved to ARC's [[Vocalion Records|Vocalion]] label for a popular series of [[Swing music|swing]] records from 1935 through late 1937. A number of these were popular at the time. He did a solitary session for [[Decca Records|Decca]] in 1940 and two sessions for [[OKeh Records|OKeh]] in 1941. After World War II, he recorded for [[Brunswick Records|Brunswick]] in 1944, [[Victor Records|Victor]] in 1946, and [[Apollo Records (1944)|Apollo]] in 1947.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} Allen continued making many recordings under his own name and also with Fats Waller and [[Jelly Roll Morton]] and accompanied such vocalists as [[Victoria Spivey]] and [[Billie Holiday]]. After a short stint with [[Benny Goodman]], Allen began to lead his own band at the [[Famous Door]] in [[Manhattan]]. He then toured with the band around the United States into the late 1950s.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In December 1957, Allen appeared with [[Pee Wee Russell]] on the television program ''[[Sound Of Jazz]]''. In 1959, he made his first tour of Europe when he joined [[Kid Ory]]'s band. He led the house band at New York's [[Metropole Cafe]] from 1954, until the club ceased its jazz policy in 1965. == Personal life and death == Allen was [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} Allen returned to working under his own name and made numerous tours of the United States and Europe. He was diagnosed with [[pancreatic cancer]] in late 1966. After undergoing surgery, he made a final tour of England, which ended six weeks before his death, on April 17, 1967, in New York City.<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> He is buried, in the newer section of [[Saint Raymond's Cemetery (Bronx)|Saint Raymond's Cemetery]] in the [[Bronx]], in grave 52 of section 15.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&dq=Resting+Places:++by+Scott+wilson+red+allen&pg=PA354 Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14000 Famous Persons], Scott Wilson, Entry No. 186, p. 15</ref> He was survived by his widow, Pearly May, and a son, Henry Allen III. ==Style and influence== Allen's trumpet style has been described by [[Joachim-Ernst Berendt]] and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of [[Louis Armstrong]], and to develop an emphasis on phrasing.<ref name="Berendt" /><ref name="RCJE" /> Allen's recordings received much favorable attention. His versatility is shown by his winning of ''[[DownBeat]]'' awards in both the traditional jazz and the modern jazz categories. In 2022, the [[New Orleans City Council]] voted to rename "Slidell Street" in Algiers to "Red Allen Way", in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_78b1e33a-6f32-11ec-85fd-d395b441608b.html |title=Allen Toussaint, New Orleans music icon, gets a boulevard renamed in his honor |last=Sledge |first=Matt |date=January 6, 2022 |website=nola.com|access-date=March 17, 2022}}</ref> ==Discography== *''Red Allen, Kid Ory & Jack Teagarden at Newport'' ([[Verve Records|Verve]], 1957) *''[[Ride, Red, Ride in Hi-Fi]]'' ([[RCA Victor]], 1957), later re released as ''World on a String'' (1991) *''Mr. Allen'' (Swingville, 1962) *''[[The College Concert]]'' with [[Pee Wee Russell]] ([[Impulse! Records|Impulse!]], 1966) *''Jazz Standards and Warhorses'', with [[Coleman Hawkins]] (Jass Records, CD version 1987) *''[[1929β1933]]'' ([[Chronological Classics]] 540, 1990) '''With [[Langston Hughes]]''' *''[[Weary Blues (album)|Weary Blues]]'' ([[MGM Distribution|MGM]], 1959) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== *''Ride, Red, Ride β The Life of Henry "Red" Allen'' by [[John Chilton]], Continuum, 1999. {{ISBN|0-304-70407-5}} ==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{Commons category|Henry "Red" Allen}} * [https://syncopatedtimes.com/henry-red-allen/ Red Hot Jazz site website] * [https://syncopatedtimes.com/profiles-in-jazz-henry-red-allen/ Syncopated Times website] * [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/103481 Henry Allen recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]]. {{Red Allen}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Red}} [[Category:1908 births]] [[Category:1967 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Roman Catholics]] [[Category:Dixieland jazz musicians]] [[Category:African-American jazz musicians]] [[Category:American jazz trumpeters]] [[Category:American male trumpeters]] [[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]] [[Category:Apollo Records artists]] [[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in New York (state)]] [[Category:20th-century American trumpeters]] [[Category:Vocalion Records artists]] [[Category:20th-century American male musicians]] [[Category:American male jazz musicians]] [[Category:Mills Blue Rhythm Band members]] [[Category:African-American Catholics]] [[Category:American Roman Catholics]] [[Category:Jazzology Records artists]] [[Category:Verve Records artists]] [[Category:Impulse! Records artists]] [[Category:20th-century African-American musicians]] [[Category:Perfect Records artists]]
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