Allen Touring

The drummer and unofficial music director of the late Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70, from 1968 until 1979, Tony Allen (born Tony Oladipo Allen) helped create the sounds of Afro-beat. With his solo recordings, however, Allen has refused to remain stagnant, incorporating dub and avant-garde hip-hop influences into his modern African dance music.

JD Allen's career ascendence suggests that he's making plenty of the right choices. The native of Detroit has been on the New York scene since 1993, when his youthful precociousness earned him a spot in “Jazz Ahead”, the singer Betty Carter's acclaimed touring program for up-and-comers.

Since the start of this millennium, Mick Foster and Tony Allen have sold more than 1.25 MILLION albums in the UK and with the release of "Celebration" - the follow-up to 2014's Top 30 album 'Gold & Silver Days' are on course to extend their run of success in the UK Artist Albums Chart, which stretches back to 1983, although preceded by their first appearance on Top of The Pops in April 1982. "Celebration" does literally celebrate Foster & Allen's 40 years as a performing/recording duo, in this 20 track album. Featured on the album are two duets with THE CHIEFTAINS and SIR JIMMY SHAND & HIS BAND. Having sold almost 20 Million albums worldwide in the last 40 years, Foster & Allen have not forgotten their legions of fans by their constant touring and prolific album releases.

A country-pop singer strongly influenced by Patsy Cline, Deborah Allen scored a few major hits in the early '80s and subsequently reinvented herself with a newly sensual image for the '90s. Born in Memphis in 1953, Allen moved to Nashville at age 17 to pursue a country-music singing career, and met Roy Orbison while working as a waitress.

JD Allen's career ascendence suggests that he's making plenty of the right choices. The native of Detroit has been on the New York scene since 1993, when his youthful precociousness earned him a spot in “Jazz Ahead”, the singer Betty Carter's acclaimed touring program for up-and-comers. TimeOut New York says he will “remind you of giants like Coltrane and Rollins but placing a special kind of premium on concision, directness and accessibility.” The Chicago Reader adds, “Allen has gravitated toward a more brooding, elliptical approach with a strong jolt of John Coltrane at his most probing.

Some musicians deserve more attention than they get. In this sentiment, the American jazz magazine Down Beat has a poll called “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition”. The American tenor saxophonist Harry Allen definitely belongs in this category. He is not widely known in Scandinavia despite his more than three dozen releases as bandleader. He is certainly not lazy when it comes to touring on both sides of the Atlantic.

Harry Allen (born October 12, 1966) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist born in Washington, D.C. Early on he was recognized in high school as an exceptional talent able to play tunes such as Body and Soul in the style of tenor players Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Flip Phillips, and Sam Donahue. He is a traditionalist in the manner of Scott Hamilton. He is best known for his work with John Colianni, Keith Ingham, John Pizzarelli, and Bucky Pizzarelli.

The Japanese liner notes call this combo – Harry Allen-Scott Hamilton New York Sextet – the first two-tenor team to be formed in the 21st century. I'm not sure about THE first in the century, but surely it is one of the most notable, and welcome, two-tenor teams in recent memory. Harry Allen and Scott Hamilton add their own contributions to the "two tenor" tradition built by such teams as Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. Allen and Hamilton's modern day team is one of relaxed, friendly competition and mutual admiration that is perhaps most reminiscent of the Cohn-Sims combo. Their shared style decidedly leans to mainstream, straight-ahead swing, and they are not into showing off their skills or outstaging the partner.