Tex continued love for jazz despite a rocky career
Tex Allen born Andrew Arthur Allen Jr, is without a doubt one of America’s living treasures. He is a master musician, composer, arranger, and contributor to the world of jazz for over 50 years who has struggled throughout his career span.
Tex started playing the piano at 6, the trumpet at 10, and the following year he stood, baton in hand, onstage with the Houston Symphony, having won a citywide contest to conduct the orchestra. They played The Stars and Stripes Forever. “That was very inspirational to me as a kid,” Allen says. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a Tex Allen CD in a Midtown record store.
Tex has three soundtracks from his 2013 live performance, and two CDs, The Tex Allen Songbook, and No Room for Pain featuring Janice Dempsey. However, gigs are too far, few, and in between; too many lows compare to highs. At this stage of his career he hoped to sell out concerts but that’s not the case.
Despite his early success and his legacy as a member of one of America’s foremost showbiz families (his younger sisters are Phylicia Rashad of The Cosby Show, and Debbie Allen, the producer and choreographer and actress on the TV Show Fame), Allen’s name this far has appeared more often in the fine print than on the marquee. Dozens of other musicians have recorded or performed his works, but Allen himself is still pursuing the elusive goal of a wider audience
However, bad luck seems to follow him wherever he goes. Tex was cut from playing in a Broadway production because the father of one of the kids in the show didn’t approve of his affection towards his son. Tex has a strong character to overcome difficulties. His love for jazz keeps him moving forward despite the turbulent journey.
“I taught Deborah her first few steps, “he says. “I studied tap and ballroom dancing and a little bit of ballet. We all studied the same things.” Even as a child, he had a flair for the technical aspects of music: “I did arrangements, complete orchestrations off of records with my trumpet; I’d take all the parts off and write them out for all the instruments.”
Tex is perhaps Roosevelt Island’s best-known musician. He has been an important part of the New York music scene for more than 41 years, playing in jazz clubs, forming his own groups, helping write the script for what he calls America’s native or classic music. And in the past he’s been a musical ambassador, making two trips to Beirut, performing at a jazz festival in Oslo, and traveling to Paris and Hamburg. He performed and wrote the soundtrack for Broadway play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring his sister Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones.
carolcommissiong 