Tenor Madness
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Don’t let Harry Allen’s boyish, Casper the Friendly Ghost-like looks fool you, or the fact that his tone on the tenor resembles the Lester Young-inspired “Four Brothers” of Woody Herman’s saxophone section (Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, etc). Allen is fiercely combative in his overall approach, a true heir of such widely feared butt-kickers as Don Byas and Sonny Stitt. 68 1870 175 1882
Mr. Allen has two new albums out, “The Harry Allen Quartet” (available fromHarryallenjazz.com), which costars guitarist Joe Cohn, and “Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen: Heavy Juice” (Concord CCD 2285). He also has a regular gig at Zumi’s, an unassuming restaurant with a regular jazz loving clientele, on Ninth Avenue and 43rd Street. He plays there every Monday (except next week, when he’ll be at Birdland).
Mr. Allen is not one of those musicians whom I would care to hear in a solo setting. He thrives on interplay with another front liner, or, if none are available, with his rhythm section. With other players, such time-honored traditions as the chase chorus and the exchange of fours can sound like mere formalities, but they are the meat of Mr. Allen’s music. He is never more effective than when blurring the distinction between cooperation and competition. Had he been born 40 years earlier (rather than in 1966), he would have been one of the major stars of Jazz at the Philharmonic, giving Flip Phillips and Illinois Jacquet some sleepless nights.
Working with his longtime collaborator, Mr. Cohn, he has achieved something very rare amongst contemporary musicians who specialize in swing and traditional styles: a regularly working band. Most presentations of older jazz genres are all-star concerts, which can be exciting but are often predictable. Only a group that works together frequently, however, can develop such necessities as a unique repertoire.
The Allen-Cohn quartet plays unfamiliar standards, making Henry Mancini’s “Dreamsville” sound like it was written by Billy Strayhorn and delivering their take on Cy Coleman’s jaunty 6/8 March “Hey Look Me Over.” But the highlights of its band book are the marvelous original compositions of the guitarist’s father, the late Al Cohn, especially “You ‘N” Me,” his witty variation on “Tea For Two.”
As Ira Gitler observes in his notes to the new album, Mr. Allen and Scott Hamilton are the closest thing to a contemporary Zoot Sims and Al Cohn: Their two tenor forays are more like mutual admiration society meetings rather than open warfare, even on Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons’s 12-bar “Blues Up And Down.” Mr. Allen typically indulges in more of a boxing match with Mr. Cohn’s guitar on Monday nights, flinging shards of melody back and forth. Zumi’s should offer a free meal to anyone who can last more than two choruses with either one of them.