How Wee Became Allen's Alley

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Several years before drummer Denzil Best wrote Move, he came up with a catchy bebop line known as Wee. Where Wee was conceived by Best and how it was named is not known to me. But shortly after it made the rounds among musicians playing at clubs on New York's 52nd St., Leonard Feather held a recording session for RCA Victor. [Photo of Allen Eager above by William P. Gottlieb in 1947]

The session was held in February 1946. Feather had asked tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins to assemble top musicians who were playing those clubs along the street, and Hawkins brought along an octet featuring Charlie Shavers (tp), Pete Brown (as), Hawkins and Allen Eager (ts), Jimmy Jones (p), Mary Osborne (g), Al McKibbon (b) and Shelly Manne (d).

At the session, the musicians started by recording three sides—Say It Isn't So, a standard; Spotlite, by Hawkins and named for the 52nd St. club where he was playing; and Low Flame, a song credited to Feather. It's unclear whether the final song was planned or not. I doubt it, since the last one seemed impromptu.

As Feather wrote in his book, The Jazz Years: Earwitness to an Era: "I went ahead with two sessions [for a bebop album], the first a borderline bebop affair billed as 'Coleman Hawkins' 52nd Street All Stars,' with Allen Eager, Pete Brown, Mary Osborne, Jimmy Jones, Shelly Manne and Al McKibbon. Again, I had a nonpareil ballad in mind as a Hawkins vehicle: Say It Isn't So turned out as well as My Ideal. [Photo above of Leonard Feather with Coleman Hawkins and Budd Johnson in 1947]

"At that time there were a few songs floating around 52nd Street known to everyone by melody but not always by title. One of these was a Denzil Best line on which, imprudently, I suggested Hawkins and Eager trade fours. We tried one take, but Bean [Hawkins] was clearly uncomfortable, and the concept did not appeal to him; on the take used, he let Eager and Pete Brown divide the honors. We called the tune Allen's Alley, but later found out that Denzil called it Wee." [Photo above of Denzil Best, Billy Bauer and Chubby Jackson at the Pied Piper in New York by William P. Gottlieb in 1947]

Best's song, like Move, would become a jazz standard. Allen's Alley was credited to Best and for a time was referred to as Allen's Alley (Wee) or the other way around. As for the song's name, Allen's Alley, it was a reference to the mock Main Street on comedian Fred Allen's popular radio show.

Allen Eager (above) remains one of the unheralded giants of the tenor sax in the 1940s. His playing was razor sharp, fluid and smooth. He could swing in an eerily similar fashion to Lester Young—just before Stan Getz and others began doing the same. If you listen to Getz's recordings in 1946, he had a gruffer, biting, lower-register tone that would soften and shift higher in tone in the next year. I'll have more on Eager in the coming days. [Photo above of Pete Brown by William P. Gottlieb in 1948]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Allen's Alley on a number of Coleman Hawkins' collections, only it's Allen Eager and Pete Brown playing, not Hawk. You'll find Allen's Alley on Hawkins' Low Flame here.

JazzWax clip:
Here's Wee (Allen's Alley). By the way, dig the gear featured in this YouTube clip. Nice and retro, just the way we like it...

Used with permission by Marc Myers