Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Heywood Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the clarinet as a child and took his stage name from clarinetist Woody Herman. He has performed publicly at least since the late 1960s, notably with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the soundtrack of Sleeper. One of his earliest televised performances was on The Dick Cavett Show on October 20, 1971.

Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band have been playing each Monday evening since 2011 at Manhattan’s Carlyle Hotel, specializing in classic New Orleans jazz from the early twentieth century. He plays songs by Sidney Bechet, George Lewis, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone and Louis Armstrong.

The documentary film Wild Man Blues directed by Barbara Kopple documents a 1996 European tour by Allen and his band, as well as his relationship with Previn. The band has released two CDs: The Bunk Project in 1993 and the soundtrack of Wild Man Blues in 1997. Allen and his band played the Montreal International Jazz Festival on two consecutive nights in June 2008. At 81, clarinetist Woody Allen continues to perform with his band when not writing scripts or directing and acting in films.

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