video of singer David Allyn ...

At JazzWax, newly found video of singer David Allyn performing "Get Out of Town" on a Steve Allen show in '59. https://t.co/cjpNxQx4KS pic.twitter.com/FqtSNcBiIn

— Marc Myers (@JazzWax) 2 de janeiro de 2017

a rare radio interview with #DavidAllyn

At JazzWax today, a rare radio interview with David Allyn, the hippest male jazz vocalist of the LP era. https://t.co/a7blTZ2ofK pic.twitter.com/itoMG9Jmyu

— Marc Myers (@JazzWax) 15 de dezembro de 2016

David Allyn: When Love Comes

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

I listened extensively to the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra over the weekend while writing. I'm always awed by the band and how sophisticated it was as early as 1944. Nearly all of the musicians who played in the Raeburn bands turned out to be exceptional. The list includes Johnny Mandel, Hal McKusick, Al Cohn, Don Lamond, Pinky Savitt, Earl Swope, Serge Chaloff and on and on. As for the Raeburn arrangers, they included George Handy, Johnny Mandel, George Williams, Ed Finckel, Dizzy Gillespie, Juan Tizol, Ralph Flanagan, Ralph Burns and others. [Photo above of David Allyn at Dizzy's in New York in 2010 by Marc Myers]

Raeburn also featured David Allyn, perhaps the era's best modern jazz singer and one of my favorites. David was an influence on Jackie Paris, Chet Baker and many others who embraced a cooler, more relaxed, romantic sound. The song that stopped me over the weekend was a little-known tune called When Love Comes, which David recorded in September 1949 with the Johnny Richards Orchestra. [Photo above of Boyd Raeburn by William P. Gottlieb]

Written by Phil Moore (above), When Love Comes is virtually unknown today. In fact only two jazz artists have ever recorded the song—David Allyn and Michael Abene in 1984 for his first solo album, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. David recorded the song with Richards for Albert Marx's Discovery Records. Interestingly, Moore recorded for the label earlier that year with Mary Ann McCall.

Allyn recorded four sides that day: It Never Entered My Mind, Wait Til You See Her, I Can't Be Wrong and When Love Comes. David was backed by an orchestra that included Paul Smith (p) and Harry Bluestone (vln). What makes When Love Comes so pretty are its unusual chord changes and the romantic orchestration, which marries the quirky Raeburn approach with Richards' streamlined sound and signature French horns. [Photo above of Johnny Richards by William P. Gottlieb]

David touched on the session in his autobiography, There Ain't No Such Word As Can't...

"John and I decided on the instrumentation and concept we would use, according to budget. We used four French horns, three woodwind players, all doubling on flute; clarinet, bass clarinet; oboe and bassoon; harp; one violin and the usual four-member rhythm section.... In three days the sketches for the charts were finished and a date was set at Radio Recorders through Albert Marx, in two weeks. [Photo above of David Allyn]

"I was about out of morphine and arrived back in Hollywood in time to get an advance on the session and score. Funny thing about those few weeks, as long as I had my opiate, I managed to function well, that is, I did exactly what I had to do, as long as I didn't abuse it. But the problem, as with all addicts, is to sustain the control. There is no consistency for any length of time; therefore an 'ex' like myself must offer extra effort in the forward straight ahead approach, at an even pace.

"The recording date at 3 p.m. was beautiful."

Indeed is was.

David died in 2012. For my multipart interview with him, go here.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find When Love Comes on David Allyn: Where You At 1941-63 (Hep) here and here.

JazzWax clip: Here's David Allyn singing When Love Comes in 1949 with the Johnny Richards Orchestra...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

David Allyn: Where You At?

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Singer David Allyn joined Jack Teagarden's band in early 1940—just months after Frank Sinatra began singing with Tommy Dorsey. Both singers learned a great deal about phrasing from their trombonist bosses. When Sinatra left Dorsey in '42 to record as a solo artist at Columbia, Allyn went into the Army. After Allyn returned to the States in the mid-40s and recovered from battle shock suffered in North Africa, he began singing with Boyd Raeburn's band. [Photo of David Allyn and Jack Teagarden in 1959]

While Sinatra became a heartthrob in the late '40s and brought a new romantic naturalism to pop singing, Allyn did the same as a jazz singer—recording with Johnny Richards, Tommy Talbert, Lyle Griffin and Paul Smith. And then in the early '50s Allyn wiped out. Drug addiction led to check fraud, and his arrest resulted in a prison term for a good chunk of the '50s. [Pictured above: David Allyn]

When Allyn was released in '57, he still had his vocal chops. But times had changed and so had the sound of vocalists. Romantics were out and pop swingers were in—thanks largely to Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra. Meanwhile, opportunities for jazz singers were drying up as jazz instrumentalists excelled in the LP era and pop and r&b began to dominate radio and phonographs. By 1963, recording dates for jazz singers of Allyn's ilk were scarce.

David's evolution is documented on the new album David Allyn: Where You At?—1941-'64 (Hep), which features the singer in a range of settings, mostly before his incarceration in 1952. The album features many recordings that are out of print, including Soft as Spring (1941) with Jack Teagarden, Where You At? (1945) with Boyd Raeburn, Snowbound (1946) with Lucky Thompson and Did You Ever See a Dream Walking (1949) with the Paul Smith Trio.

Perhaps my favorite track on this set is It Can't Be Wrong (1949), with strings and orchestra arranged by Johnny Richards. Here David is at his peak in the '40s, with a thoroughly modern interpretation that's as caressing as it is beautiful. The set also includes both sides of a single recorded in 1959—Here's the Way It Is and Pleasant Dreams. [Pictured above: David Allyn]

The CD's last track—Where You At? from 1964—is a fascinating contrast to his first recording of the song in '41, the CD's first track. Backed by a big band for an album produced by Tony Curtis called This Is My Lucky Day, the song swings and punches and David is on the edge of it all the way through, with an improvised shout at the end—"where you at!" That was David—hip, brash and swinging. [Pictured above: David Allyn and Tony Curtis in the studio]

David died late last year. He was ahead of his time—but often the victim of a disconnect between his ambitions and reality. Where You At? provides a sampling of David's skills before his troubles began and offers further evidence of his uncanny ability to connect with hearts. [Pictured above: David Allyn in 2010]

JazzWax tracks: You'll find David Allyn: Where You At?—1941-'64 (Hep) here. More on the Hep label here.

JazzWax clip: Here's David singing Kim Gannon and Max Steiner's It Can't Be Wrong, the melody from the film Now, Voyager...

It Can't Be Wrong

- See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/06/david-allyn-where-you-at.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29#sthash.wueuo0xg.dpuf

Used with permission by Marc Myers

David Allyn - The Way You Look Tonight

FROM DAVID ALLYN'S VERY BEST RECORD, david allyn sings jerome kern, arranged and conducted by johnny mandel, a lovely ballad by the ultimate crooner, and the best baritone ever (with johnny hartman)

David Allyn: A Swing for Joey

Last week I came across a rather haunting and brief David Allyn vocal ballad called A Swing for Joey. It runs all of 32 measures, without a repeating chorus or a break for solos. Curious, I did a little research and found that the song was recorded only twice—both times by David. The first recording of the song was for David's 1964 album This Is My Lucky Day (Everest), with big band arrangements by Bob Florence. The second was for a duet album David recorded in 1975 with Barry Harris called Don't Look Back (Xanadu). [Pictured: David Allyn with Tony Curtis in the studio in 1964 during the recording of This Is My Lucky Day]

After a little more digging, I found that the music for A Swing for Joey was written by David himself, with lyrics by Blanca Webb. More questions came to mind: Who was Joey? What's up with the swing? And who was Blanca Webb? So I gave David a call. Here's what the legendary vocalist told me:

"I wrote the melody to that song for Johnny Richards' son, Joey, who was 10 or 11 years old at the time. I first met his son several years earlier in 1949, when Johnny [pictured] and I were rehearsing for the recording session that resulted in Wait Till You See Her and It Never Entered My Mind. Johnny's son Joey was sitting there with a salad bowl of ice cream with syrup all over it. When Johnny saw it, he snapped at his wife, 'You're going to kill that kid.' Joey was a bit heavy at the time. His wife brushed Johnny off, saying, 'Oh leave him alone, Johnny.'

"Soon after Johnny and his wife invited me to stay at their house in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., about 45 minutes north of New York City. They had a beautiful home on the water. Just past their back porch, the lawn ran down to a big oak tree. I thought to myself, 'What a great tree for a swing.' I was pretty handy, so after I returned home from their house, I went to a lumberyard and bought a 2-by-10-foot piece of wood. I trimmed it down and stained and vanished it. Then I bought 50 feet of rope and fixed it to the wood seat.

"The next time I went over to Johnny's home, I told his wife that I had something for her. She said, 'Yeah, what?' I said, 'A swing for Joey.' She said, 'Gosh, what a wonderful line, David. That should be a song.' Johnny's wife's name was Blanca. She was a lyricist whose maiden name was Webb. In the minutes that followed, I thought about what Blanca said and agreed with her. I told Blanca I'd take a shot at writing a melody. I told her I'd sing it without words on a reel-to-reel tape and send it to her so she could write the lyrics. She said, 'Great,' and we put up Joey's swing.

After I left, I recorded the melody onto a tape and sent the reel to Blanca. The result was A Swing for Joey. Then in 1964, when arranger Bob Florence and I were working on my album This Is My Lucky Day, I told him about the song, and he wrote a chart for it. "As you can hear in the song, Joey isn't there because he has outgrown the swing, and the swing is empty. When I asked her about the words, Blanca told me that Joey rode my swing only once and never sat on it again. It was a short song with a hard melody to sing, but I loved it."
http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/11/david-allyn-swing-for-joey.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29