Biography
This trumpeter projects the air of someone intent on dodging discographers, opening with an unremarkable family name that soon mutates across album credits into E.J. Allen, Eddie E.J. Allen, and E.J. “Eddie” Allen. All four designations belong to the same Milwaukee native, whose mature approach draws strength from the city’s overlapping currents of rhythm & blues and avant-garde jazz. Early grounding in music theory and group performance came through a Milwaukee, WI, junior high school band; the leap from those classrooms to the exploratory circle around Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians must have felt abrupt. Local engagements across the Windy City and Milwaukee fused rhythm & blues, rock, and eclectic jazz presentations. In 1981 he relocated to New York in search of expanded jazz opportunities.
A mid-’80s engagement with drummer Charlie Persip’s Superband lifted his profile into broader view, though part of his foothold in the city rested on prior regional ties. AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams, now resident in a Manhattan high-rise, began collaborating with him, and further associations with AACM musicians followed. Listeners familiar with the late trumpeter Lester Bowie encounter Allen on several recordings, notably Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, where Bowie praised his treatments of pop material such as “Smooth Operator.” Allen’s résumé also documents readiness across idioms: hard-bop drummer Art Blakey, refined classic-jazz arranger Benny Carter, loft-scene saxophonist Chico Freeman, bebop icon Dizzy Gillespie, soul-jazz saxophonist Houston Person, downtown percussionist and composer Bobby Previte, Afro-Cuban innovator Mongo Santamaria, and Afro-jazz pianist Randy Weston have each featured him. Observers occasionally liken his phrasing to that of Lee Morgan, the architectural equivalent of the Roman Forum. Since 1994 he has issued his own albums on the Enja label.
A mid-’80s engagement with drummer Charlie Persip’s Superband lifted his profile into broader view, though part of his foothold in the city rested on prior regional ties. AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams, now resident in a Manhattan high-rise, began collaborating with him, and further associations with AACM musicians followed. Listeners familiar with the late trumpeter Lester Bowie encounter Allen on several recordings, notably Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, where Bowie praised his treatments of pop material such as “Smooth Operator.” Allen’s résumé also documents readiness across idioms: hard-bop drummer Art Blakey, refined classic-jazz arranger Benny Carter, loft-scene saxophonist Chico Freeman, bebop icon Dizzy Gillespie, soul-jazz saxophonist Houston Person, downtown percussionist and composer Bobby Previte, Afro-Cuban innovator Mongo Santamaria, and Afro-jazz pianist Randy Weston have each featured him. Observers occasionally liken his phrasing to that of Lee Morgan, the architectural equivalent of the Roman Forum. Since 1994 he has issued his own albums on the Enja label.