Jap Allen

The talented Jasper "Jap" Allen started out on violin, switching to tuba in high school and eventually taking up string bass. He led a band that was considered one of the top territorial bands of the '30s; gave tenor saxophone great Ben Webster an early job as a sideman; and Allen himself is credited as being a tenor saxophonist in a famous anecdote about Kansas City jazz legend Charlie Parker. All told, it seems like Jap Allen has the makings of a Kansas City legend himself. Like many of that city's finest players, Allen studied under Major N. Clark Smith. Following high school, he began to play professionally in the Hod Carriers Band before joining the Paul Banks Band for a year beginning in 1927. After that he established a reputation as a bandleader, and by the early '30s the Jap Allen Band was in action. Jap Allen's Troubadours was also a name the group used. The band's reputation was savory enough for the soulful Webster to leave his job with Bennie Moten's band, but unfortunately for Allen this would become a revolving door. He also had Clyde Hart on piano, who would eventually go on to work with bebop trumpet high priest Dizzy Gillespie. Trumpeter Joe Keys, whose last name is a jazz musicians' dream and a locksmith's nightmare, was another defector from the Moten band. Allen put his band to work whenever he wanted to in his hometown, but also embarked on tours that had no set perimeters. An engagement in Tulsa at the Casa Loma Ballroom lasted for months. O.C. Wynne became the band frontman and the group began to be billed as Jap Allen & His Cotton Club Orchestra. This group backed up classic blues singer Victoria Spivey. Allen's group could not survive 1932, however. Vocalist Blanche Calloway conducted a raid, stealing a half-dozen sidemen including the choice...