Red Allen

Jazz trumpeter and singer, born in Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. As a boy, he marched alongside his father's famous New Orleans Brass Band. In Chicago in 1927, he joined King Oliver's band and travelled with it to New York, where he made his first recordings. He played the Mississippi steamboats (1928–9), then joined Fletcher Henderson's orchestra (1932–4). He recorded prolifically, but when he joined Armstrong's orchestra (1937–40) he was kept in the background. When he finally made it to Europe in 1959, he was lionized, and for the rest of his days he happily played Dixieland either in the raucous band at the Metropole in New York or on European tours.

Henry "Red" Allen (January 7, 1906 or 1908 (see talk) – April 17, 1967) was a jazz trumpeter.

Henry James Allen was born in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of the noted bandleader Henry Allen.

Allen was playing professionally by 1924, playing with the Excelsior Brass Band and the jazz dance bands of Sam Morgan, George Lewis and John Casimir. 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 and returned to New York, where he also joined the Luis Russell band, which was fronted by Louis Armstrong in the late 1930's.

Red Allen's trumpet style has been said by some critics to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong and then go beyond Armstrong.

From 1929 on Allen joined Luis Russell's Orchestra where he was a featured soloist until he joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra in 1934. He also made a series of recordings in late 1931 with Don Redman, and played with Lucky Millinder's band from 1934 to 1937, when he returned to Luis Russell for three more years at a time when this orchestra was often fronted by Louis Armstrong. After a short stint with Benny Goodman, Allen started leading his own band at The Famous Door in Manhattan. Allen's versatility is shown by his winning of Down Beat awards in both the traditional jazz and the modern jazz categories. In 1959 he joined Kid Ory's band, with whom Allen made his first tour of Europe. Henry Red Allen made a celebrated appearance on the legendary "Sound Of Jazz" television show on which he nearly stole the show;

Allen then returned to working under his own name making more tours of the USA and Europe until his death on April 17, 1967 in New York City.