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Les Allen |
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Saxophonist
and vocalist Born: London, Died: Signature tunes:
Singer and tenor saxophone player Les Allen was born in England in about
1903 and emigrated to Canada with his family as a child (3 years old).
Following in his father's footsteps, he learnt the clarinet and later the
saxophone, being one of the first musicians to play the latter in Canada.
He played for well-known Canadian bandleaders Burton Till and Luigi
Romanelli. By 1922, though, he was struggling to make a living and nearly
gave up the business. In 1924, Hal Swain recruited a band, including
Allen, to travel to England. They had hoped to play at Rector's club in
London, but found it closed. Luckily, they landed a job at the "New
Princes" restaurant, and a Columbia recording contract. Swain
preferred to sing the vocal choruses himself, but he obviously recognised
a budding vocalist in Allen, and they sang duets together. The only solo
vocal recorded by Les Allen was on "I Love My Baby" -
Columbia 3929 on the band's last recording session in February 1926. This
is likely to have been because Swain had left the band by this time. There
was some disagreement between Swain and others at this time which resulted
in the forthcoming European tour by the band being under the leadership of
banjoist Dave Caplan. On returning to England, Les Allen joined Alfredo's
band, playing tenor sax and singing. This was sometime in 1927.
Ironically, Hal Swain often joined in on the recordings to start with,
maybe as a returned favour to Alfredo (Both bands had been at the New
Prince's restaurant). During his time with Alfredo, he developed his vocal
skills considerably and in Early 1929 formed a vocal trio rather
ambitiously called "The Original Whoopee Boys" with Americans
Phil Arnold and Eddie Brandt. When Arnold left to return to the States in
July 1929, he was replaced by Eric Linden until the act broke up in late
1929. Judging by his recordings, a suggested timeline would be: |