Jazz Articles about Harry Allen

Scott Hamilton & Harry Allen: Heavy Juice

by John Kelman
July 12, 2004

Strangely enough, recordings pairing tenor players are not unusual. Sonny Rollins did it with John Coltrane on Tenor Madness ; more recently Joe Lovano with Joshua Redman on Tenor Legacy ; even Chris Potter did it with Joe Lovano on a few tracks on Vertigo. Why this particular variation of saxophone is more conducive to teaming up is a mystery, but it always seems to work. Now Scott Hamilton has come together with next generationer Harry Allen for Heavy Juice ...

Harry Allen: Christmas in Swingtime

by Jack Bowers
December 1, 2001

Although it was recorded in New York City, the liner notes for this splendid holiday release by tenor saxophonist Harry Allen are in Japanese, an indication that it was not necessarily aimed at a domestic audience but one that is somewhat farther east. What’s more, the copy I have is on the BMG label while the accompanying press release is from Koch Jazz, which, presumably, obtained the distribution rights from BMG (and has provided an English translation of Dan Polletta’s ...

Harry Allen: Love Songs Live!

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 2001

Two words are about all that are needed to sum up the singular talents of swing–based tenor saxophonist Harry Allen — smooth and consistent, each of which aspect of his charismatic persona is abundantly present on this compilation of love songs recorded in concert between 1993 and ’96. I’m not fully conversant with Allen’s influences but Stan Getz had to be one of them (listen, for example, to Jobim’s “Once I Loved”). Others, he says, include Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins ...

Harry Allen: Love Songs Live!

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

Nagel Heyer has put together an album of romantic love songs performed by the Coleman Hawkins influenced, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims like tenor horn of Harry Allen. All of the tracks were compiled from previously released recordings of live concerts, mostly in Hamburg where Allen was on the stage with a variety of first rate jazz musicians. Given that virtually every song is played in that slow, ballad tempo, this album could just as well have been titled Music for ...

Oliver Jackson: The Last Great Concert

by Dave Nathan
November 1, 2000

The late Oliver Jackson had one foot in each of the major jazz camps, bop and swing. Out of Detroit, he performed with some of the first rate boppers from that city like Tommy Flanagan and Paul Chambers as well as working with Eddie Locke and Yusef Lateef. But he also played with some of the great swingsters and traditional jazzers like Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Charlie Shavers and Buck Clayton.

This 1993 live concert was Jackson's last before his ...

Harry Allen Quartet / Dave Murray Octet: The King / Octet Plays Trane

by C. Michael Bailey
September 1, 2000

A Tale of Two Tenors. I have been trying to determine what these two releases have in common. Damn little I finally decided... with the exception that they are both tenor-led dates. I have been listening to them together and decided to write about them together. I figured that the juxtaposition of the two would elicit some interesting thoughts, kind of like Charles Ives pitting two brass bands against one another playing different songs.

Harry Allen and David Murray are ...

Harry Allen/Bill Charlap Trio: Plays Ellington Songs

by Mark Corroto
June 1, 2000

Duke Ellington fans are an odd lot, and it took last years celebration of the centennial of his birth to bring out the crankiest of Ellington cranks. What follows is not my review of tenor saxophonist Harry Allen's tribute to Ellington, but real and mostly imagined reactions. You see, as a jazz fan, I haven't immersed myself into the minutia of Ellingtonia like others have (and you know who you are). The Ellington-phile, like the Coltrane, Miles, or Satchmo devotee, ...