Rec. Dates : March 21 & 27, April 10, 1957
Trumpet/Vocals : Red Allen
Bass : Lloyd Trotman
Clarinet : Buster Bailey
Drums : Cozy Cole
Guitar : Everett Barksdale
Piano : Marty Napoleon
Tenor Sax : Coleman Hawkins
Trombone : J.C. Higginbotham
High Fidelity
John S. Wilson : November, 1957
The unjustified neglect in current recording of the jazz stars of the Thirties is given sharp focus by Allen’s All Stars. Here is J.C. Higginbotham bursting forth once more with his exuberant and blustering trombone, Allen’s strutting trumpet, and Buster Bailey’s cleanly ripping clarinet, supported by a lithe, swinging rhythm section made up of Cozy Cole, Marty Napoleon, Everett Barksdale, and Lloyd Trotman. There is also the hinging, leathery saxophone of Coleman Hawkins, who adamantly refuses to be neglected. It is a high-spirited reunion devoted mostly to nostalgic material—Love Is Just Around the Corner and ‘S Wonderful, both torn apart in happily rough and raucous fashion, a rocking St. James Infirmary Blues, a brightly bounced Ain’t She Sweet, and a fine display of Allen’s breathy trumpet on I’ve Got the World on a String. An attempt to revive Ride, Red, Ride with a small group doesn’t come off, and Allen’s occasional vocals carry even less weight than they used to. But these are minor flaws in a generally exhilarating display of a headlong, gutty-style jazz that is a rarity today.
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Jazz Review
Larry Gushee : December, 1958
According to the notes, three sessions were required to produce this LP; I really can’t imagine why. There are no arrangements or ensembles to speak of, every tune begins with the conventional four-bar piano intro, every tune has the same show-band, grandstand ending, and most of the time is taken up with solo chorus after chorus, some o.k., some completely dull or worse, in rotation.
Hearing Red Allen play is, to me, always a frustrating experience. He amazes me with his sense of pattern, his ability to vary a simple, initial phrase (frequently by an ingenious rhythmic dislocation), and to construct a fine half-chorus from it. But then he gives up, and is prone to play any one of a number of stock figures, often senseless and quite out of context. He is wont to toss in a characteristic short descending chromatic run in such a way that it seems he just can’t bear to leave a few beats or a measure of silence. Sometimes, he ends a phrase early, and sustains the final tone over a couple of measures (first chorus of I Cover the Waterfront). Other times, a bop lick, or a Milesish figure, makes its appearance out of nowhere (third chorus of Sweet Lorraine). With less finger twitching and more staying power, Red could lead the pack; he has a rich, plump sound and good technical equipment. As it is, trumpeters like Herman Autrey and Emmett Berry outclass him.
Hawk is, of course, largely responsible for the recent and belated respect shown towards older jazzmen, and rightly so. His dense, harmonically sophisticated style can on occasion become monotonous, because it is basically unmelodic, or unthematic, if you will, and a great deal of the time employs the same wave-like rhythmic motion as a trellis for the changes. This record shows him in a vaguely bilious mood, although his spot in Love Is Just Around the Corner is representative of his best playing.
I should have liked to have avoided comment on Higgy and Buster Bailey. Whatever the reason, Higgy hasn’t played on the level that he once did for some years; and Bailey knew his heyday some thirty years ago. Now he relies on a potpourri of Goodman licks, freak noises, and a truly facile finger technique, rather than on cogent musical ideas. Higgy surprises, however, on a Bb blues, Algiers Bounce, and on St. James Infirmary. On the former, he is eloquent, in tune, and begins to swing in the fourth chorus. The succeeding chorus sees him at the end of his rope, and the riffs begin to fly. Buster does do one kind of thing better than any clarinetist I can think of; the cock-eyed, really witty phrase is his forte, and the backing he gives Allen’s vocal on Ain’t She Sweet should convulse anyone.
No accusation of sluggishness can be leveled against the rhythm. They do not always have the same end in view, apparently, judging from fairly frequent conflicts between, particularly, piano and drums. Nevertheless, their separate contributions are considerable. Cozy Cole seems gifted with startling prescience when playing behind solos, and his brushes on Ain’t She Sweet swing elegantly. Marty Napoleon plays lightly, not too politely, and his synthetic style fits in this band.
I listened to the title tune once. Fortunately, the mind has remarkable powers of recovery. Everyone, including onlookers in the studio, sounds as if he were having a jim-dandy time, but why make a record out of it?
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Miami Herald (Miami, FL)
Fred Sherman : 12/15/1957
From out of the past comes Red Allen. RCA Victor recorded the veteran trumpet player for an album called Ride Red Ride in Hi-Fi (LPM-1509). For old times sake, you have here Buster Bailey, Cozy Cole, J.C. Higginbotham and Coleman Hawkins. Octet music taken at a rocking pace for the most part. It is a happy session, remindful of the music Allen played during the war at Joe Sherman’s Garrick Stage Lounge on Randolph Street in Chicago.
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New Yorker
Whitney Balliett : 11/30/1957
The Resurgence of Red Allen
It has been nearly thirty years since Red Allen, the tireless, sad-faced trumpeter, became one of the first practitioners of the instrument to move away from the blanketing influence of Louis Armstrong. Today, at the age of forty-nine, he is still an unspoiled, non-repetitive musician who, astonishingly, is still widening his style. Allen left an identifiable mark on the early work of Roy Eldridge, a trumpeter who, in turn, influenced Dizzy Gillespie, the present champion of modern jazz trumpeters. Allen’s way of playing, erratic, restless, and highly lyrical, is alternately savage and soothing. Sustained legato phrases that undulate like a calming sea are linked by jumpy connective passages—full of seven-league intervals and slightly flatted notes—that may or may not land on their feet. His thin, coppery tone occasionally softens, but more often it pierces straight to the bone. Once in a while, too, he ascends wildly into the upper register or relies on technical tricks, such as a rapid, bird-like tremolo, achieved by fluttering two valves up and down, that sound more difficult than they are. At his best, Allen is one of the most eloquent of jazz musicians, past and present. His melodic feeling is governed almost completely by the blues; he infuses just about every tune with broadly played blue notes, those mysterious, melancholy sounds that are peculiar to jazz. In the past few years, a remarkable thing has happened to Allen’s playing. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who tend to ignore what has come after them, he appears to have been listening to modern jazz. The unsteady, staccato blare that has characterized his work now frequently gives way to a thoughtful, more generous tone and a myriad of graceful, glancing notes that resemble nothing so much as a nervous, vigorous Miles Davis.
Allen’s rejuvenation is apparent in the recent Ride, Red, Ride in Hi-Fi (Victor LPM-1509), which contains nine numbers. Also on hand, among others, are Buster Bailey, clarinet; J.C. Higginbotham, trombone; Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophone; and Cozy Cole, drums. The recording, which is exasperatingly uneven, calls to mind those Bix Beiderbecke sessions in which his cornet was surrounded by some of the most dismal sounds ever uttered. The barely skeletal arrangements are climaxed a couple of times by meaningless grandstand codas, and a desperate, semi-burlesque number, Ride, Red, Ride, is done at a flag-waving tempo full of boiling trumpet and a chorus of voices that chants the title. Both Bailey and Higginbotham are in uncertain form, and Cole, who usually combines a faultless technique with sensitive support, indulges in a door-slamming after-beat that continually joggles the melodic flow. Nonetheless, in Sweet Lorraine, I’ve Got the World on a String, and I Cover the Waterfront, all taken at slow speeds, Allen produces long and memorable solos, in which he alternates ceaselessly between judicious high notes and lush, booming, trombone-like phrases that match anything he has ever recorded. He does not, however, top Hawkins, who has also recently undergone a metamorphosis, abandoning the cool, precise museum of tenor-saxophonology that he had become ten years ago for a heated, angry style that suggests the work of a young, uninhibited Hawkins imitator.
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Portland Oregonian (Portland, OR)
John A. Armstrong : 10/27/1957
A blaring, joyful jam session that will probably give you the urge to sit in on drums. For those of you who have been lured in from the street by loud jazz blowing forth through the open doors of New York City’s Metropole bar, just off Times Square (where Allen and his crew hold forth), this will evoke happy memories. For the rest of you, I suggest turning the volume up high on the hi-fi set to get the full and most authentic effect of Red Allen’s brand of New York-refined, New Orleans jazz.
Backing Allen’s versatile trumpet is Coleman Hawkins’ tenor, J.C. Higginbotham’s trombone and Buster Bailey’s clarinet. The four are long-time jazz playmates, all having worked for Fletcher Henderson. Album kicks off with a free-wheeling number, Ride, Red, Ride, featuring a couple of fast rides around the block on Allen’s trumpet and Buster Bailey’s clarinet.
Then on to a slow, quiet I’ve Got the World on a String, Allen leading off with a husky, throaty trumpet solo, answered in the bridge by The Hawk’s tenor. Red shows his tone versatility by moving easily into some very high register passages towards the end of the piece.
Listen particularly for Bailey’s clarinet soloing about midpoint in Love Is Just Around the Corner. It’s a unique style for a clarinet, in that he kicks or belts the beat along.
J.C. Higginbotham’s great trombone gets a chance to let out in ‘S Wonderful, Ain’t She Sweet.
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San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, CA)
Jim Angelo : 11/09/1957
Album of the Week
A robust, explosive set of mainstream jazz blown by men who have been creative musicians for a long time. Allen, Bailey, Hawkins, and Higginbotham have worked together in bands and small combos for more than twenty years. All were members of the great Fletcher Henderson organization in the early thirties, and their high caliber background is much in evidence here. Sweet Lorraine, Ain’t She Sweet, ‘S Wonderful, I Cover the Waterfront, and the title song are some of the more interesting compositions developed by the group. Ensemble work is cohesive and all of the principals get off some effective solos. Indicative of the musical spirit is Buster Bailey’s remark following the final recording session: “Man, it’s been a wonderful time!” Wonderful album, too.
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San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, CA)
Ralph J. Gleason : 10/13/1957
One of the great tragedies of New Orleans jazz was trumpeter Red Allen’s decline into musical hysteria, stridency and acrobatics to keep from sounding like Armstrong. It was bad enough ten years ago; now it is offered us loud and clear in hi-fi. It has not improved.
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San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA)
C.H. Garrigues : 11/17/1957
Some very fine Dixieland, played as though Dixieland were new instead of being old and tired, but with tunes far from the traditional track. The personnel includes Allen on trumpet, Buster Bailey on clarinet, Coleman Hawkins on tenor (he is especially welcome) and a fine rhythm section.
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Stillwater Gazette (Stillwater, OK)
Lewis Pearce : 11/08/1957
This week let’s visit a while about some of the greats in the music world, somewhat aside from the pops, whom we may hear much more of in the future.
One of the most underrated and neglected musicians of the old school is Red Allen.
Red plays trumpet and sings with a gutty voice and is therefore obscured by the enormous shadow of Louis Armstrong.
However, Red has two important assets—the aging Satchmo no longer has the feeling and vitality he once had.
While Louis is content to feature his singing and horsing around, Red is wailing away to better effect.
Unlike Satchmo, Red prefers to stay at home in New York and work a steady job at the Metropole Cafe on Broadway instead of traipsing around the country on tour. Consequently, most people outside New York don’t get to hear him.
But a new Victor record called Ride, Red, Ride in Hi-Fi contains some excellent samples that should help re-establish Red’s musical reputation.
Red wisely surrounded himself with some other top-rung musicians on the date. Overshadowing them all is Coleman Hawkins—a comparative stranger to records for some time. The Hawk probably inspired more swing tenor sax players than all the rest put together. He has already made an indelible mark on musical history.
Others in the band include trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, Buster Bailey on clarinet, Cozy Cole on drums, and pianist Marty Napoleon.
Red grew up in the tradition of New Orleans. He played in brass bands, on the river boats, and with such leaders as the legendary King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson and Fats Waller. Red even spent four years with Louis Armstrong’s band in the late 1930’s.
Unfortunately, Red’s new album contains a horrible example—an ear-buster called Ride, Red, Ride. The blurb writer calls it “thrilling,” but Red should never have permitted it to get by.
However, a relaxed version of I’ve Got the World on a String, a more swinging Sweet Lorraine, and I Cover the Waterfront would make fine additions to any instrumental program.
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Toronto Star (Toronto, ON)
Roger Feather : 01/11/1958
Four stars
The return of Allen, who has a jazz history dating back to the early ‘twenties, to records is a welcome one. His full-toned searing trumpet work has been witnessed, in the last few years, only at the Metropole in New York.
His exuberant playing is heard to good advantage on this record over some often not too sympathetic backing. Allen also shows some soulful lyricism on the ballads and his singing, particularly on St. James Infirmary, is infectious.
Hawkins, although his tone is a little thinner than usual, shares the honors with Allen masterfully. The rhythm section is good but heavy and Cole at times is a little over-zealous. Neither Bailey nor Higginbotham do much to enhance their reputations.
Allen is excellent on I’ve Got the World on a String and along with Hawk on Love Is Just Around the Corner. A slow I Cover the Waterfront has good work by all. Allen and Hawkins really deserve a better rating but the group as a whole is often indecisive.
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Down Beat : 12/12/1957
Jack Tracy : 3 stars
I am most happy to see one of the grand veterans get a chance to record under good surroundings before the chops are entirely gone. Allen’s companions here make up a congenial bunch, and that’s the type of jazz that results.
There’s no earth-shaking music to be heard here, but there is the constant reminder of the fire that was once Red’s before the years of working set after set at the many Cafe Metropoles he has played took their toll. Especially on the ballads like World on a String and Sweet Lorraine does he sound at ease and unstrained. Hawkins fits in well, playing sympathetically and with the firm control and knowledge that is his hallmark. Higginbotham, THE man on trombone for years when he was winning polls, has slipped badly and now sounds almost like a caricature of himself. The rhythm section and the rest of the soloists come through well, with Marty Napoleon’s Hines-like piano gleaming in spots.
From these quarters, at least, hearty thanks to Fred Reynolds for offering Red the chance to wax this one.
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Liner Notes by Unknown
It was Buster Bailey who, sitting back in his chair at the end of the third session and helping himself quite liberally to the at-hand bottled delight, summed up the whole affair most admirably by saying: “Man, it’s been a wonderful time!”
That’s the way Ride, Red, Ride in Hi-Fi started out, and that’s the way it went all through the three recording dates. You can hear it in the playing.
This was bound to be an album that was both robust and explosive, yet filled with an inner sense of deep feeling, for Red Allen has been that kind of person ever since he started pushing the valves down in his father’s brass band in Algiers, Louisiana, a small town near New Orleans.
Red’s career began with Sidney Desvigne’s Southern Syncopators but soon shifted to riverboats and Fate Marable’s band. He played with King Oliver in Chicago, Luis Russell in New York (1929–31), Fats Waller (1932), Fletcher Henderson (1933–34), and the Blue Rhythm Band (1934–36). Louis Armstrong took over Russell’s band in 1934 and Red returned to it from 1936 to 1940. Since that time he has led his own group at numerous spots around the country. For many years he has been a regular at New York’s Metropole Cafe. Red’s playing is steeped in the New Orleans and swing traditions, and he is a born leader who drives others to their best work.
Allen, Buster Bailey, Coleman Hawkins and J.C. Higginbotham have been blowing as well as drinking companions for at least the past twenty years. As a matter of fact, all of them worked at one time or another for Fletcher Henderson, when that great arranger was adapting the New Orleans style to the language of the big band. The trio of Allen, Higginbotham and Bailey was together in the great Mills Blue Rhythm Band of 1934, and often recorded together under the leadership of any of the three. Cozy Cole, stalwart of the All Stars’ rhythm section, has played and recorded with such bands as Teddy Wilson’s, Lionel Hampton’s, Cab Calloway’s, Coleman Hawkins’ and Louis Armstrong’s. With such diversified yet overlapping jazz backgrounds, it is no wonder that Red Allen’s All Stars play such high-caliber, free-wheeling jazz.
Actually, Allen has been associated at one time or another with all the songs performed for this album, yet the closest association, of course, is with the thrilling Ride, Red, Ride. The Allen sessions drew a record number of enthusiastic onlookers to RCA Victor’s Studio 3, and when it came time to record Ride, Red, Ride these spectators were shoved quite willingly into the studio to enhance the chorus “voices” of the All Stars. Among those who helped to set close harmony singing back at least twenty years were the Saturday Review’s Whitney Balliett and Down Beat’s Dom Cerulli…
Take your trumpet from your side and Ride, Red, Ride!
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First newspaper ad from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 03/14/1958 – Retailer is Famous-Barr department store
Second newspaper ad from the 11/20/1958 Oregon Journal – retailer is Meier & Frank department store in Portland, OR
