Bates presents a sax player who's 'nothing less than perfect'

Bates College presents Harry Allen, a New York jazzman whose tenor sax work was called “nothing less than perfect” by guitarist John Pizzarelli, in concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Allen performs with a trio led by pianist Tom Snow of the Bates faculty. Sponsored by the music department, the concert is open to the public at no cost. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Allen has appeared at festivals and clubs worldwide. He has performed with Rosemary Clooney, Ray Brown, Hank Jones, Frank Wess, Scott Hamilton, Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, John Pizzarelli and Bucky Pizzarelli, and recorded with Tony Bennett, Johnny Mandel, Ray Brown, Tommy Flanagan, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Kenny Barron, Dave McKenna and George Mraz, among others.

Represented by the Swing Bros. label, Allen has more than 30 recordings to his name. Three of his CDs have won Gold Disc Awards from Japan’s Swing Journal Magazine, and his 2004 Tenors Anyone? (which features Pizzarelli) won both the Gold Disc Award and Swing Journal’s New Star Award.

Allen’s recordings have made the Top 10 list for favorite new releases in Swing Journal Magazine’s reader’s poll and Jazz Journal International’s critic’s poll for 1997, and Eu Nao Quero Dancar (I Won’t Dance), the third Gold Disc Award winner, was voted second for album of the year for 1998 in a Swing Journal readers poll.

The Harry Allen–Joe Cohn Quartet won the New York Nightlife Award for Outstanding Jazz Combo Performance of 2006 and was nominated for Best Jazz Combo by the Jazz Journalists Association for that year.

Allen was born in Washington, D.C., in 1966, and was raised in Los Angeles and in Rhode Island. He received a bachelor of arts degree in music in 1988 from Rutgers University and currently resides in New York City.

Allen is accompanied at Bates by pianist Snow, bassist Marshall Wood and drummer Les Harris Jr. Director of the Bates College Jazz Band, Snow is one of Maine’s most versatile and sought-after musicians. A graduate of the New England Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music, Snow has played with such jazz luminaries as Dave Holland, Greg Abate, Larry Coryell, John Lockwood and Herb Pomeroy. He has recorded on the Telarc and Origin labels and has two CDs as a leader: Christmas at Mast Cove (2001), and Northern Standard Time (1997).