Johnny Allen (musician)

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John V. "Johnny" Allen, Jr. (born September 20, 1917 in Uchee , Russell County , Alabama ; † January 29, 2014 in Detroit , Michigan ) was an American arranger and jazz pianist who, through his work for the label Motown and Stax Records became known.

Live and act

Allen grew up in Chicago and came to Detroit in 1936, where he played at Club Congo , a nightclub in the basement of the Norwood Hotel, and Club Plantation in the early 1940s . As the musical director of the 12-member house band that also accompanied Billie Holiday and the Mills Brothers , he began to write arrangements for current pop and jazz tracks. As a pianist he was mainly influenced by Earl Hines , stylistically somewhere between swing and bebop . During this time he played a. a. in Detroit with Wardell Gray , Teddy Edwards , Howard McGhee and Al McKibbon . Starting with the founding of the Motown label in 1959, he wrote arrangements for the R&B bands The Originals and The Temptations , was also responsible for the horn sections in Stevie Wonder's song Up Tight and wrote the instrumentation for the The Supremes album Live at the Copa ( 1965).

In the later years Allen also wrote arrangements for the artists of the Stax label such as The Staple Singers ( I'll Take You There and Respect Yourself ), The Dramatics ( What You See is What You Get ) and Isaac Hayes ( Hot Buttered Soul, Black Moses ). For his soundtrack album Shaft (1971) Allen and Hayes were awarded a Grammy in the category Best Instrumental Arrangement. Most recently, he worked with small jazz ensembles on a local level and performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival . Allen remained active as a musician in the mid-1990s; he died at the end of January 2014 at the age of 96 in the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit of complications from pneumonia .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Mark Stryker: Detroit pianist-arranger Johnny Allen, who won Grammy for 'Shaft' theme, dies at 96 in Detroit Free Press ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freep.com
personal data
SURNAME Allen, Johnny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Allen, John V. junior; Allen, Johnny junior (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American arranger and jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Uchee , Russell County , Alabama
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2014
Place of death Detroit , Michigan