Biography
On January 7, 1908 Henry "Red" Allen was born in New Orleans bound to be one of the premier jazz musicians of his time. Allen eventually became known for his success as a black American jazz trumpeter and singer. He gained most of his initial musical instruction from his father, Henry Allen, Sr. in whose brass band young Allen played. He continued playing in various New Orleans' bands until he became 19 years old. At this point he decided to move to St. Louis where he joined Joe "King" Oliver's Dixie Syncopators in 1927.
Playing with the band gave him the opportunity to travel to New York for the first time in his musical career where he recorded with Clarence Williams. Then, having moved back to New Orleans, he joined pianist Walter "Fats" Pichon and Fate Marable, playing on Mississippi riverboat bands. Little did Allen know, however that his career was about to make a turn for the better. Wanting to offset the success of Louis Armstrong and Okeh, his music label, representatives of the Victor company hired Allen. He travelled to New York where he immediately recorded four sides in July of 1929 with Luis Russell's orchestra (see Pictures). Jazz musicians were quite impressed with Allen's talent which boosted his popularity as he continued as lead trumpet in the band from 1929-32. Working with old friends, Allen recalled, "It was the happiest band I ever worked in... It was also the most swinging band in New York - it put the musicians in an uproar!"
In the years following, he played with Fletcher
Henderson (see Pictures), Coleman
Hawkins, and with the Mills Blue Rhythm Band (see Pictures). Allen was establishing himself
as a premier soloist of the early swing period with his
recordings with these various bands. In 1937, he rejoined the
Russell band which was now fronted by Louis Armstrong. This took
Allen out of the spotlight for a little while and he seemed to
have lost some of the direction in his career. In 1940, he left
the band to join the New Orleans Revivalist movement. He had
decided to focus on leading his own bands and work on his solo
career. 
At this point, he formed his own sextet which included Ed Hall, J.C. Higginbotham, and Ken Kersey among others. The sextet found reasonable success and they worked steadily for the next 14 years. They worked mainly in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. In the late 1940's and 1950's, Allen had refound his status as one of the best trumpeters whileleading his own groups and recording frequently and successfully with musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, Kid Ory, Pee Wee Russell, and J.C. Higginbotham. By 1954, Allen found himself working regularly at the Metropole in New York. The Metropole being a bar in which Allen, Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey and J.C. Higginbotham played most nights. Here, "Allen's approach... was refining itself into something wonderful: a collage of blues phrases, rocket-flares, subterranean rumbles, growls and flutters, often delivered ina determined whisper."
Allen played in
the metropole from approximately 1954 until 1965 while touring
occasionally in Europe. His first trip to England had was in 1959
with Kid Ory and the following tours where in '64, '66, and '67.
Shortly after his arrival from England in 1967, he died from
pancreatic cancer on April 17, 1967 in his hometown of New
Orleans.