By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Push
Eddie Allen is
another New York City-based musician who has been around for years, and is
admired by his peers, but remains relatively unknown by the general
public. He was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, attending the Wisconsin
Conservatory of Music and University of Wisconsin, and then earned a bachelor
of music degree from New Jersey’s William Paterson University.
He worked around the
Chicago and Milwaukee areas, in a mixture of groups and genres — R&B, rock
and Latin — before heading to New York, where he concentrated on good ol’
straight-ahead jazz. He has performed with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie,
Benny Carter and many other icons.
Allen plays trumpet
and flugelhorn, arranges, composes, writes and teaches, and is active with his
own combos and a big band. This album features a septet: trumpet,
trombone, tenor sax, piano, another keyboardist, acoustic bass and
drums. Allen composed eight of the nine tunes on the menu; the sole
exception is Anthony Newley’s “Who Can I Turn
To.” Needless to say, Allen
also did all of the arrangements.
The tunes are a
smooth mix of mid- to up-tempo swingers and ballads. It’s quite pleasant
to have this group’s variation of horns; the unison passages are nicely
orchestrated, and the solo lines are excellent. These guys may not be
“name” artists, but they really groove. Just listen to “Hillside Strut,” and you won’t be able to keep your fingers from snapping.
The
operative word for this unit is tasty.
There’s no honking or screaming, just great bop-tinged, straight-ahead
jazz. Let’s hear more from Mr. Allen!
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