Steve Allen
For someone of Steve Allen's versatility and staggering capacity for work, jazz occupied a small yet significant portion of his biography. Yet despite his crowded agenda, Allen could still spin out facile, competent, bop-and-cocktail-flavored piano in fast jazz company -- nothing particularly original but always pleasurable to hear. He started to play the piano while a child -- his parents were traveling vaudeville performers -- but the keyboard soon had to take a back seat to his media career, first on radio and then on television. Best known as a comedian and the first host of the American TV institution The Tonight Show (September 1954 to January 1957), Allen frequently played piano and sang on his shows and used them as a forum to present guests from the jazz world. He also played the lead role in the film The Benny Goodman Story in 1955, produced the TV series Jazz Scene USA in 1962, and narrated a history of jazz on records, The Jazz Story (Coral). Allen recorded frequently for Coral, Dot, Roulette, EmArcy, and Decca during the peak of his TV fame, and as late as 1992 he taped an enjoyable mainstream set for Concord Jazz, Plays Jazz Tonight. In addition to some 43 books, Allen claimed to have written (as of 1994) more than 4,700 songs, of which only a bare handful -- "This Could Be the Start of Something (Big)," "Gravy Waltz," "Impossible" -- have staked claims in the repertoire. Ultimately, his most valuable contribution to jazz was as a cheerleader in the mass media. Steve Allen died in Encino, California, in October 2000 at the age of 78.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
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Poetry for the Beat Generation
Literature - Released by Poppydisc on 3 Feb 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Letter From My Heart
Dance - Released by Nocolors on 15 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Steve Allen’s Hip Fables
Silm Gaillard, Al "Jazzbo" Collins, Ray Mantilla, Steve Allen
Pop - Released by Sundazed Music - Modern Harmonic on 10 Jun 1983
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Message of Love (Original 12" Version)
Pop - Released by Nocolors on 26 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poetry For The Beat Generation (1999 Remaster)
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Parlophone UK on 1 Jun 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gravy Waltz & 11 Current Hits!
Pop - Released by Master Classics Records on 1 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Letter From My Heart
Pop - Released by New Way Music Musikverlag und Produktion on 26 Jul 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Moment (Original Mix)
Miscellaneous - Released by Critical Uprising on 31 Jul 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Time for Calm, Vol. 1
Lounge - Released by Steve Allen on 14 Jun 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Vintage Jazz No. 132 - EP: All Star Jazz Concert
Jazz - Released by Vintage Music on 8 Apr 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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