Bill Caldwell: Saxophonist Lee Allen’s career covered jazz, rock n’ roll and rockabilly – Joplin Globe

Musicians can get typecast much like other artists. Saxophonist Lee Allen avoided that danger. While he got his start playing jazz in the 1940s and 1950s, he was able to move with the times. He performed with stars as Little Richard and Fats Domino doing rock n’ roll and jazz. Then in later years he came back to be a regular guest tenor saxophonist for the rockabilly band the Blasters in the 1980s. His strong talent for improvisation as a studio musician led many to collaborate with him throughout his career.

Lee Francis Allen was born in Pittsburg, Kansas on July 2, 1927. Before Allen was a year old his father died. His mother moved the family to Denver, Colorado where he grew up. He showed musical and athletic ability as a teen. As a teenager started playing the tenor saxophone and listening to Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, all of whom were leading tenor saxophonists. Their various styles of playing brought the tenor saxophone out of the background into its own among bands.

When Allen graduated from high school, he earned a dual scholarship for music and athletics to the historically black Catholic, Xavier College in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1943. Between the two choices, music won out.

Jump blues combos

He began taking gigs while in school, played with big bands that appeared on campus and quickly grew acquainted with musicians populating the New Orleans live music scene. By 1947 a new, smaller set of groups called “jump blues” combos began playing in clubs in the city. One of the groups led by Paul Gayten was the house band for the Club Robin Hood. In October 1947, Gayten hired Allen. Gayten’s band with singer Annie Laurie had “Since I Fell For You” hit No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart for 1947.

With the interest in that hit, Allen was recognized as a young, up and coming talent. He was hired as a studio musician for producer Dave Bartholomew for the J&M studio in New Orleans. Along with other talented musicians, the studio band developed what became known as the New Orleans style. The pianist and singer Fats Domino typified that new style.

Fats’ hit, “The Fat Man,” that sold one million copies in 1951, was produced by Bartholomew. It was the first rock n’ roll song to sell one million copies. In his following hits Allen’s role was an integral part of the compositions. The success attracted other musicians to come to New Orleans to take advantage of Bartholomew’s studio band.

Studio musician

Allen was known for his improvisation skills from his jazz background. The bands that would come to record at J&M seldom had written arrangements. Instead, Allen on tenor and Red Tyler on baritone sax would come up with “head arrangements” to meet the needs of the recording session. This saved the bands the cost of hiring an arranger. Allen had a strong sense of rhythm that came out in his playing. One man said he might as well have been the drummer. His saxophone was as vital a part in those early rock n’ roll hits as the drums, guitar or piano.

“Allen, his fellow tenor man Alvin “Red” Tyler, bassist Frank Fields, and drummer Earl Palmer were at the core of some of the best rock n’ roll and rhythm & blues to come out of New Orleans during the 1950s, including most of Fats Domino’s biggest hits of the period,” wrote biographer Bruce Elder.

He played solos on Fats’ hits such as “Jambalaya,” “I Can’t Go On,” “I’m In Love Again,” “It’s You I Love” and”Wait And See.” Those led to another profitable collaboration.

In the early 1950s, Richard Penniman struggled to find his voice in R&B and drag shows. He had almost given up show business when in 1955 he was directed to the J&M studio to record with Allen and Palmer. An initial session was lackluster. But relaxing at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub, Penniman launched into a risqué blues song he called “Tutti Fruitti.” The producer thought if the lyrics were cleaned up, it might make a hit.

With revised lyrics, the new version was recorded including a solo by Allen in three takes. Released in November 1955, it hit No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B chart, No. 21 on its Top 100 in the U.S. and No. 29 in the U.K. Little Richard had his first big hit. Soon followed by “Long Tall Sally,” which had Allen going strong in another solo. He was featured in Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” and “All Around the World.”

His work with Fats Domino and Little Richard led to his own recording contract with the Aladdin label. In an interview he said, “We were on a big show with Fats Domino, and at the close Fats was playing ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’ and Paul ‘Hucklebuck’ Williams was playing that show with us. I came up with this little riff, and these guys said I should record it. The guy from New York called up and said I had a hit. It was the time of Dick Clark’s ‘Bandstand’, and that tune had hit ‘Bandstand’.” That riff became “Walkin’ With Mr. Lee” in 1958.

Solo and early retirement

The label released an album named for his hit in 1958 and he launched a tour with his own band. The album didn’t sell though jazz aficionados praised it. Being band leader lasted for three years, but according to him, was tiring and too much responsibility. He dissolved the band and joined Fats Domino’s band in 1961.

The constant band tours since 1958 took a destructive toll on his first marriage. His work with Fats lasted until 1965 when he moved to Los Angeles. He had a tough time breaking into studio work there and eventually took a job in an aircraft plant while hustling gigs on the side.

Seven years later he made an appearance with the rock band “Wizzard” at Wembley Rock and Roll Festival in London. Suddenly his work began receiving attention from a younger generation of musicians. He started to make guest appearances with rockabilly band, the Stray Cats in 1981 and as a member of the Blasters from 1981 to 1984. He played three engagements for the Rolling Stones tour in 1981, but found touring too stressful.

Instead, he returned to Fats Domino’s band and continued to tour with him until 1992. His last studio session took place that year with former band mates, Palmer and Tyler, among others for “The Ultimate Session,” a 1994 release by Crescent City Gold.

Unfortunately, he was stricken with lung cancer after years of smoking. He died on October 18, 1994 at age 67.

Allen always gave 100 percent in his performances. He was adamant his tone depended upon himself, not the equipment. “When I was starting out I used to practice 3 hours a day. I’d spend an hour just holding one note and getting as much as I could out of it, keeping the same level on that note.” Yet despite his impressive studio performances that earned millions for stars, he did not earn more than $42 a session. He always thought that practice needed to change.

Recording engineer Cosimo Matassa remembered him as “an easy-going, soft-spoken man. He was quiet and nice. But those solos! When you turned him loose, look out!” His sound was called “one of the DNA strands of rock.” Wrote Jeff Hannusch, “Chuck Berry’s guitar, Earl Palmer’s drumming, and Lee Allen’s sax comprise the instrumental Holy Trinity of rock n’ roll.”