Red Allen

Red Allen (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong.

His speech-like solos often sounded quite conversational, with unpredictable phrasing sometimes only abstractly connected to the beat.

Allen is remembered as the last of the great New Orleans trumpeters to emerge during the 1920s and the most advanced of all of them. Although he was most often heard with Dixieland or trad. jazz bands throughout his career, Allen (like the eccentric clarinetist Pee Wee Russell) tended to be much more modern than the setting he was in and the repertoire in which he was featured. 

Red Allen was born as Henry James Allen on January 7, 1908, in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, Henry Allen Sr. (1877-1952) was a celebrated trumpeter and bandleader who led one of the top brass bands in New Orleans. 

Growing up in a musical family, Allen picked up early experience playing drums, ukulele, violin, and alto horn before switching to trumpet. He took early trumpet lessons from Peter Bocage and Manuel Manetta and often marched with his father's band whenever he had the opportunity.

He co-led a kid's group with clarinetist John Casimir and in the early 1920s was advanced enough to play with most of the top musicians in New Orleans, including on riverboats with Fate Marable and with George Lewis, a lifelong friend. 

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, George Lewis, and John Casimir.

After playing on riverboats on the Mississippi River, in 1927, Allen moved to Chicago to join King Oliver's band. He then made his recording debut in the band of Clarence Williams. (Allen would not record with Oliver until 1930 when he guested on two sessions.)

Aged 19 and feeling homesick, he moved back to New Orleans after a few months and began playing with the bands of Fate Marable and Fats Pichon.

In 1929, Allen was offered a choice between New York jobs with Luis Russell or with Duke Ellington. Allen chose Russell's band, because he had more friends in the group (Cootie Williams would soon take the Ellington job), and quickly became the star of the outfit. Although Bill Coleman was the other trumpeter, Allen excelled and was the featured soloist until 1931. Some of the outstanding recordings he made with Russell are "Jersey Lightning," "Saratoga Shout," and "Louisiana Swing."

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 1933, Allen 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, where he was one of the key soloists. 

After working with Millinder for three years, he returned to Luis Russell for three more years, by which time Russell's orchestra was fronted by Louis Armstrong. Allen rarely received any solo space on recordings with Armstrong but was prominently featured in the band's live performances, even getting billing as a featured attraction. Despite all this activity, Allen did not become one of the more famous names of the swing era. He never led his own big band and spent 1937—40 back with the Luis Russell Orchestra, which was then functioning as Louis Armstrong's backup band. Although Allen was well featured in the orchestra's opening set in concerts, the main star of course was Armstrong, and there was little interaction between the two. In 1940, when Russell's band was laid off, Allen permanently went solo. 

As a bandleader, Allen recorded for Victor from 1929 through 1930. He made a series of recordings as co-leader with Coleman Hawkins in 1933 for ARC (Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, etc.) and continued as an ARC recording artist through 1935, when he was moved to ARC's Vocalion label for a popular series of swing records from 1935 through late 1937. A number of these were popular at the time. He did a solitary session for Decca in 1940 and two sessions for OKeh in 1941. After World War II, he recorded for Brunswick in 1944, Victor in 1946, and Apollo in 1947.

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 started leading his own band at the Famous Door in Manhattan. He then toured with the band around the United States into the late 1950s.

In December 1957, Allen made a memorable appearance along 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 famous Metropole Cafe from 1954 until the club ceased its jazz policy in 1965.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Allen never did decline and continued to progress even in his later years, without losing his musical personality. At the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival in California, he outshone his ensemble team (Clark Terry, Rex Stewart, and Dizzy Gillespie.)

Allen returned to working under his own name and made numerous tours of the United States and Europe. 

He defied many of the musicians' stereotypes of the time; he did not smoke or do drugs, rarely drank, was always on time, and was happily married for 37 years.

In late 1966, He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 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. He was survived by his widow, Pearly May, and a son, Henry Allen III.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Red Allen among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Red Allen's trumpet style has been described, by some critics, as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong and to develop an emphasis on phrasing. Allen's recordings received much favorable attention. His versatility is shown by his winning of Down Beat awards in both the traditional jazz and the modern jazz categories.

• Red Allen, Kid Ory & Jack Teagarden at Newport (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 Concertm with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1966)
• Jazz Standards and Warhorses, with Coleman Hawkins (Jass Records, CD version 1987)
• 1929–1933 (Chronological Classics 540, 1990)

With Langston Hughes

• Weary Blues (MGM, 1959)