Ever since he began recording as a leader in 1988, tenor-saxophonist Harry Allen has been both prolific and very consistent. His high-quality tenor playing, while often recalling Stan Getz (with a touch of Ben Webster), is personal and his allegiance to swinging music has been unchanged from the start. Suffice it to say that there are no unworthy Harry Allen recordings even though he often leads at least three or four albums per year.
While the pandemic shut down all opportunities to perform before audiences, quite typically Harry Allen has kept up his productivity. He has three relatively recent releases on his GAC label, each of which find him dealing with and overcoming the isolation of this era.
Allen had been touring with guitarist Dave Blenkhorn when the COVID travel restrictions hit in 2020 and he had to return home. Despite that very major obstacle, he and Blenkhorn (who lives in France) decided to make a duo CD remotely. Under A Blanket Of Blue is the happy result.
One would never think that Allen and Blenkhorn were on different continents when they recorded these ten selections. Comprised of nine standards (including “There’s A Small Hotel,” “Street Of Dreams,” “Solitude,” and a song that probably became very popular during the pandemic, “We’ll Be Together Again”) plus Allen’s “The Bloody Happy Song,” the music covers a variety of moods and tempo
