Laurie Allyn
{{short description|American jazz singer and former model|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{For|people with similar names|Laurie Allen (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Laurie Allyn
| image = Laurie_Allyn_publicity_photo.jpg
| caption = Publicity photo of Laurie Allyn, c. 1957
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| origin = United States
| genre = Vocal jazz
| occupation = Singer, model
| years_active = 1953–1957, 2004–2022
| label = Mode, VSOP
| associated_acts = Marty Paich, Ralph Sharon, Al Viola, Red Mitchell, Mel Lewis, Tommy Wolf, Fran Landesman
}}
Laurie Allyn was an American jazz singer and former model. She is best known for her sole album Paradise, which was recorded in 1957 and amassed critical acclaim after a belated release in 2004.
Early life and career
Allyn was born into a musical family and raised in Waco, Texas. Upon coming of age in the mid-1950s, Allyn began to pursue a career as a singer, initially performing with local groups in the Waco area.{{Cite AV media notes|title=Paradise|others=Laurie Allyn|year=2004|last=Jacobson|first=Peter|type=booklet|publisher=VSOP Records|id=VSOP 111 CD|location=San Diego}}
She soon relocated to the St. Louis, Missouri area. While performing at events near Scott Air Force Base, Allyn auditioned for songwriter Tommy Wolf and began performing as house singer at the nightclub The Crystal Palace, owned by Fran Landesman, with Wolf accompanying Allyn on piano.{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Jennifer|title='Paradise" found: Release of long-lost recordings provides key to jazz singer's past|url=http://archive.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20040929/NEWS/409290303|website=Peninsula Daily News (online)|publisher=Sound Publishing Inc.|accessdate=7 July 2017|location=Port Angeles, Washington|date=28 September 2004}} Allyn was the first singer to perform Landesman and Wolf's song "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" in public; the song would later become a standard recorded by many artists.{{cite web|last1=Hoover|first1=Carl|title=A second taste of her earlier, jazzier life|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=print|website=Waco Tribune-Herald|accessdate=7 July 2017|date=12 August 2005|url-access=subscription }}
In 1954, Allyn was hired and brought to Chicago to work as house singer at the nightclub The Cloister Inn. While working at the Cloister Inn, she met singer Tony Bennett for a breakfast date, and discussed her then-accompanist, Ralph Sharon, with him. The conversation led Bennett to hire the pianist away from her.{{cite book|last1=Kooper|first1=Koop|title=Koop Kooper's Cocktail Nation: The Interviews 2|date=2014|publisher=Bear Manor Media|location=Albany, Georgia|isbn=978-1-59393-579-5|pages=63–68|edition=First}} Ralph Sharon would go on to perform with Bennett for over forty years.{{cite news|last1=Woo|first1=Elaine|title=Put Bennett, 'San Francisco' together|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/203667230/|accessdate=5 July 2017|volume=134|issue=30|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B6|date=12 April 2015|url-access=subscription }}
By 1956, Allyn had retired from performing, and had married Bill Doherty, part owner of the nightclub The Black Orchid.{{cite news|last1=Lyon|first1=Herb|title=Tower Ticker|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/213306148/|accessdate=4 July 2017|volume=115|issue=275|work=Chicago Tribune|at=Part 2, p. 12|date=16 November 1956|url-access=subscription }} In 1957, Allyn was performing again at the nightclub The Nocturne, where the Chicago Tribune reported on the popularity of her "throaty, seated-on-a-piano, moody Julie London-ish" live performances.{{cite news|last1=Lyon|first1=Herb|title=Tower Ticker|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/202023273/|accessdate=4 July 2017|volume=116|issue=172|work=Chicago Tribune|at=Part 2, p. 2|date=19 July 1957|url-access=subscription }}
Mode Records album
=Recording=
Red Clyde, founder of Mode Records, heard Allyn sing at The Nocturne in 1957 and invited her to Los Angeles to record an album with the label.{{cite magazine |last=Pierce |first=Carrie |date=December 2016 |title=Paradise Found: Tasting the Joys of a Dream Almost 50 Years in the Making|magazine=Kalon Women|location=Houston|publisher=GRM Solutions | pages=11–17 }}{{cite news|last1=Lyon|first1=Herb|title=Tower Ticker|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/202031376/|accessdate=4 July 2017 |volume=116 |issue=188 |work=Chicago Tribune|at=Part 2, p. 2|date=7 August 1957|url-access=subscription }} She visited Los Angeles to record the album at Radio Recorders in early October 1957. The recording engineer was Bones Howe, and the players included conductor Marty Paich, guitarist Al Viola, bassist Red Mitchell, drummer Mel Lewis, trumpeter Don Fagerquist, and the members of the Hollywood String Quartet.{{cite web|title=Laurie Allyn Discography|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/laurie-allyn/discography/|website=Jazzdisco.org|publisher=Jazz Discography Project|accessdate=5 July 2017}} Mode planned to bring Allyn back to Los Angeles after the album's release, when she was scheduled to perform on The Steve Allen Show and audition for a television show at NBC.
However, a short time after the recording of the album, Mode Records went into receivership because the company was overextended financially{{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=Bill|title=A Fine Romance: My Lifelong Affair with Jazz Singing and Singers|date=2009|publisher=Cellar Door Books|location=Los Angeles |page=173 }} and was unable to meet financial obligations to the recording studio and musicians.{{cite web|title=Vintage Links: Vintage Music and Lifestyle Directory |url=http://polanegri0.tripod.com/1thisisvintagenow/vintage_links.htm|website=This is Vintage Now |publisher=Swing City Productions |accessdate=5 July 2017}} The album was not released.{{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=Bill|title=The Last Musical Hurrah: Jazz and Pop Singing and the Onslaught of Rock |date=2016|publisher=Cellar Door Books |location=Los Angeles |isbn=978-1-53761-317-8 |page=16}} After the recording of the album, Allyn returned to Texas to care for her ailing mother and then went back to Chicago to work as a model. But she did not pursue singing further.
=Release by VSOP=
In 2004, Allyn began researching the whereabouts of the masters of her album, which by then were owned by the archive label VSOP Records and were being considered for release. Half of the masters survived, but the remaining tracks were salvaged from a dub of the masters. Bones Howe, the engineer of Allyn's session, mastered the album for release. The album was released as Paradise by VSOP Records that year.
At AllMusic, Scott Yanow gave the album four and a half out of five stars, stating, "her choice of notes is excellent and she draws listeners into the music."{{cite web |last1=Yanow |first1=Scott |title=Paradise - Laurie Allyn |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/paradise-mw0000636693 |website=AllMusic |accessdate=15 September 2019 }}
Paul Clatworthy described the album as "captivating" in the Robert Farnon Society's Journal Into Melody, adding, "Laurie's bell-like diction fits the songs so well they could have all been written just for her."{{cite web|last1=Clatworthy|first1=Paul|title=Reviews from Issues of Journal Into Melody from 2005|url=http://robertfarnonsociety.org.uk/index.php/jim/jim-new-articles/2015/itemlist/category/90-reviews-from-issues-of-journal-into-melody-during-2005|website=The Robert Farnon Society|accessdate=7 July 2017}} The album was submitted for consideration for a Grammy Award.
Paradise was reissued in 2007 for Japan by the record label Muzak and received favorable reviews in the magazines Swing Journal and Jazz Life.{{cite magazine |date=April 2007 |title=Laurie Allyn 'Paradise' |language=Japanese|magazine=Swing Journal|page=148}}{{cite magazine|date=April 2007|title=Disc Review |language=Japanese |magazine=Jazz Life|page=100}} The Muzak edition of the album was utilized by author Wojciech Pacuła to test high fidelity equipment in the Polish magazine High Fidelity{{cite web|last1=Pacuła|first1=Wojciech|title=McIntosh MA7000|url=http://highfidelity.pl/@main-47&lang=en|website=High Fidelity|accessdate=7 July 2017}} and in the hi-fi website 6moons.com.{{cite web|last1=Pacuła|first1=Wojciech|title=T+A Elektroakustik E-Series CD Player + Power Plant MkII (Part 1) |url=http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/t+a/1.html|website=6moons.com|accessdate=7 July 2017}}{{cite web|last1=Pacuła|first1=Wojciech|title=German Physics HRS 120 (Part 3) |url=http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/germanphysiks/3.html|website=6moons.com|accessdate=7 July 2017}}
Personal life
According to her daughter Carrie Pierce, Laurie Allyn died on February 11, 2022.{{cite web |last1=Pierce |first1=Carrie |title=Untitled (Social Media Post) |url=https://www.facebook.com/carrie.pierce/posts/10228551743122401 |website=Facebook.com |publisher=Meta, Inc. |access-date=13 February 2022 |date=11 February 2022}}
Discography
- Paradise (VSOP, 2004)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{AllMusic | id= laurie-allyn-mn0000957818 | label= Laurie Allyn}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allyn, Laurie}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American women jazz singers
Category:American jazz singers
Category:American torch singers