Red Allen with Kid Ory

[Larry Kart]

Check out these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNHPw6qVTtY

Allen is on fire, and the whole band cooks. I especially like that chugging, driving rhythm section -- pianist Cedric Heywood, bassist Squire Girsbeck, and drummer Alton Redd. And don't miss Redd's fierce vocal on "Shine." Ory is in pretty good shape for a 73-year-old; Allen was only 51! 14 years younger than I am now -- damn.

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks!

[AllenLowe]

I think I have an LP of that band - and Red Allen's even younger than me - scary thought - it's one thing for you old guys to feel old, but we youngsters...

[Christiern]

Apropos Ory, I am currently writing notes for an album containing some of his recordings. I needed to hear the Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper sides and I instinctively looked for them on That Devilin' Tune. Guess what? They were there. Thank you for being so thorough.

Trivia question: I saw a lot of Henry Red Allen in the Sixties. He had two words with which he consistently greeted people. What were they?

[montg]

I read a reference in the most recent Mosaic/True Blue e-mail/promo to this 2 CD set: Kid Ory & Red Allen: Jazz Concert in Berlin 1959. Apparently the tapes are newly discovered...I'll likely pick this up for the presence of Red Allen. Newly discovered RA music is a good thing ( Incidentally, those Allen/Ory Verve tracks are my favorites on the Ory set.)

(from Jazz Crusade website) Jazz Crusade

The 1959 European tour by Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band was planned well in advance. On the 13 July, Red Allen flew out to Los Angeles to record fourteen tracks for Norman Granz's Verve label; the photo on the first set box was taken at that session. The personnel chosen for these recordings, with the omission of guitarist Frank Haggerty and the replacement of Morty Corb on bass, was the line-up chosen for the tour.

They arrived in Germany on the 17 September, and performed this concert a few days later at the Sportspalast, which was recorded by BFM Berlin. Ory's aughter Babette eventually became custodian of the original tapes, and recently sold the rights to the enterprising Bill Bissonnette, owner of the Jazz Crusade record label. The results of this deal can be heard on these two discs. giving punctuation to the ensemble, providing musical full stops and commas where needed, and these, along with his arrangements (mostly little turnarounds, fillers and codas), help to give the band that singular 'Ory sound'. He gets that famous mute of his out to add some tonal colour to Tin Roof Blues and Careless Love. Henry Alien was an inspired choice for this band. He was capable of wildness, but he keeps it mostly under wraps for this concert, while still showing the exciting qualities that his biographer John Chilton called 'adventurous dexterity'. Most importantly, he could still provide that essential New Orleans trumpet lead.

[BruceH]

Thanks Larry; that was great! (73!!)