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Charlie Allen was born in Jackson, Mississippi on September 25, 1908 and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. He began playing in the early 1920s just out of high school and through the decade worked as a member of the bands of Hugh Swift, Dave Peyton, Doc Cook, Clifford King, and Johnny Long.

Allen worked with Earl Hines from 1931 to 1934, then did a short stint in Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1935, though he never recorded any solos with Ellington. He played with Fletcher Butler in 1936 and then returned to play with Hines again in 1937.

He played in various groups in Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Later in his life he became a music educator, worked in the Chicago Musicians’ Union, and designed custom trumpet mouthpieces, used by Cat Anderson, among others.

Trumpeter Charlie Allen passed away on November 19, 1972 in Chicago.

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