Allen Eager Part One - Renaissance (1981)

Allen Eager was a jazz saxophonist born in 1927. He started playing professionally at the age of 15, and by age 21 in 1948 was playing clubs in New York City with Fats Navarro, Wardell Gray, and Kenny Clarke. By the mid-1950s he quit music and moved to Europe where he became a ski instructor, raced cars, and made frozen custard. He periodically returned to the United States. In 1960 he took part in Charles Mingus’ anti-Newport Jazz Festival, and later in the 60s by some accounts he participated in LSD experiments with Timothy Leary. In the 1970s he was jamming with Frank Zappa.Renaissance was recorded in 1982 and marked the return of Eager to the studio after a long absence. He doesn’t sound entirely comfortable, you can hear him searching for notes. He finds his footing; pianist on this session, Hod O’Brien, recalls that, “slowly and surely, his lines got clearer and longer. It was as though he learned to play again in the space of half an hour.” He toured with Dizzy Gillespie and Chet Baker, but never recorded another album. He died in 2003 of liver cancer.I’m sure my father was aware of Allen Eager at a young age through Eager’s early recordings with people like Max Roach and Todd Dameron. I’m sure those records made it to the turntable of Charlie’s older brother in Springfield, MO. I don’t know if Charlie and Allen ever met, although they both appeared at Mingus’ Rebel festival.Allen Eager’s Renaissance is part of my father’s record collection and I hope you enjoy listening to it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshhaden.substack.com/subscribe