Ed Allen was an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter and cornet

Cornet

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

ist.

Allen's family moved to St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 when he was seven; he began playing piano at age ten and settled on cornet soon after. He worked as a truck driver

Truck driver

A truck driver , is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck, usually a semi truck, box truck, or dump truck.Truck drivers provide an essential service to...

 in his teens and played in military band

Military band

A military band originally was a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music...

s. By the mid-1910s he was playing professionally in local nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

s and bars. He moved to Seattle to take a gig with Ralph Stevenson

Ralph Stevenson

Sir Ralph Clarmont Skrine Stevenson, GCMG, MLC, CP was a British diplomat.In 1943, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a post he held until 1946. Stevenson was Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt from 1950 to...

, then returned to St. Louis to play on the Streckfus line of riverboat

Riverboat

A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...

s which ran between New Orleans and St. Louis on the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

. Early in the 1920s he played in the band of Charlie Creath

Charlie Creath

Charles Cyril "Charlie" Creath was an American jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader....

, but by 1922 he had his own ensemble, the Whispering Gold Band, aboard the S.S. Capitol.

In 1924 he made his way to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 and played with Earl Hines

Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...

 until 1925. He then played from 1925 to 1927 in a revue called Ed Daily's Black and White Show, as a member of Joe Jordan

Joe Jordan (musician)

Joe Jordan was an African American musician and composer. Jordan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew up in St...

's group, the Sharps & Flats. In the second half of the decade Allen recorded extensively with Clarence Williams in the group later known as the LeRoy Tibbs Orchestra. This ensemble also accompanied Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...

 on some recordings. Around this time Allen also recorded in several bands of King Oliver's.

Allen played in various dance bands through the 1930s and 1940s, then played with Benton Heath in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 from the middle of the 1940s up until 1963. His last appearance on record was in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with Chris Barber

Chris Barber

Donald Christopher 'Chris' Barber is best known as a jazz trombonist. As well as scoring a UK top twenty trad jazz hit he helped the careers of many musicians, notably the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and vocalist/banjoist Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with...

in the 1950s. After 1963 his failing health resulted in retirement from music.