Biography
Ernestine Allen launched her career under the professional name Annisteen Allen, cutting her earliest sides in 1945 as a blues singer whose phrasing carried distinct jazz inflections on numbers such as "Miss Allen's Blues" and "Love for Sale." Road work in 1951 with Lucky Millinder, Big John Greer, and Wynonie Harris prompted Federal Records to recruit the entire Lucky Millinder Orchestra as her studio accompanists. Shifting to King, Federal’s parent label, in 1953, she waxed "Baby I'm Doing It," an effort that drew a copyright-infringement suit against King from Apollo Records. After King let her go, Capitol signed her in 1954, sending her out on the road with the Orioles and Joe Morris & His Blues Cavalcade. The following year brought her hit "Fujiyama Mama," a track Eileen Barton promptly covered and that Wanda Jackson later revived. Allen died in 1992 at the age of 71.
Albums