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Rebecca Kilgore with the Harry Allen Quartet at the Jazz Showcase
by Hrayr Attarian
Rebecca Kigore with the Harry Allen Quartet Jazz Showcase Chicago, IL September 8, 2019 September 8th 2019 was the final night of tenor saxophonist Harry Allen and vocalist Rebecca Kilgore's four-day tenure at Chicago's historic Jazz Showcase. Despite it being a Sunday evening, the place accommodated a relatively large and attentive audience. The set started off with Allen stretching out on a few standards and on his own brand new ...
Continue ReadingLos Angeles Jazz Institute Festival - Woodchopper's Ball: Part 1-4
by Simon Pilbrow
Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival “Woodchoppers' Ball" Four Points by Sheraton at LAX Los Angeles, CA May 23-27, 2018 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The Los Angeles Jazz Institute (LAJI), under Ken Poston, has continued for some thirty years to keep alive and celebrate jazz and its rich legacy, largely, but not exclusively, focused on West Coast Jazz, curating a large archive of recorded ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen's All Star New York Saxophone Band: The Candy Men
by Jack Bowers
At times, there is something to be said for glancing backward while moving forward, for saluting the past while embracing the present. In 1973, the Carpenters recorded another in a long series of hit songs, “Yesterday Once More," which noted how the past often parallels the present. Sometimes revisiting bygone days is a good thing; at other times, not so much. On his new album The Candy Men, tenor saxophonist Harry Allen delves even further into the murkiness of time ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen's All Star New York Saxophone Band: The Candy Men
by Edward Blanco
The legendary Four Brothers reed section of Woody Herman's famous “Second Herd" big band of 1947, (Herbie Steward, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz and Serge Chaloff) is reimagined and reinvigorated by jazz icons Harry Allen, Eric Alexander, Grant Stewart and Gary Smulyan on the exciting, swinging and audacious recording of The Candy Men by Harry Allen's All Star New York Saxophone Band. Offering a sensational set of twelve bop-infused tunes containing some hard-driving, mid-tempo swing pieces to breathy and bossa-styled ballads, ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen: Something About Jobim
by Jakob Baekgaard
Back in 1964, saxophonist Stan Getz made one of those perfect albums. He teamed up with famed Brazilian songwriters and guitarists, João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, and delivered one of the best records in his career: Gezt/Gilberto (Verve, 1964). The combination of the wistfully vibrant bossa nova and the sensual saxophone sound of Getz proved to be irresistible. History has a way of repeating itself and now it is time for yet another crucial meeting between ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen And Friends: For George, Cole And Duke
by Dan Bilawsky
There is no greater paragon of tenor saxophonist taste than Harry Allen. While the fickle winds of prevailing styles continue to blow this or that way, Allen stands tall like the mighty oak, unswayed by fad fashions and firmly rooted to the music of the Great American Songbook. On this appealing date, Allen visits the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Duke Ellington. It's not a novel concept, and Allen has gone here countless times, both ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen and the Physics of the Tenor Saxophone
by Nick Catalano
In Robert Altman's most underappreciated film Kansas City there is a memorable scene for music fans. In the 1930's at the Hey Hey club (one of the town's hotter venues) some of the more notable K.C. folk (politicians, society matrons, wealthy denizens) are having a good time. Everyone in town recognizes these eminent figures but ignores the black jazz musicians playing in the background. But for the film audience the musicians--Lester Young, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Jay ...
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